General Strategies for Online Exam Design

Here are some general strategies for online exam design:

• Restrict testing window. If students are in different timezones, consider offering three sets of tests, at three different start times. Be sure to create individual, extended timing settings for students who are approved for testing accommodations.
• Create a large pool (or bank) of questions.
• Randomize the subset and order of multiple choice and short answer questions for the exam for each student.
• Plan for technical issues. Offer a practice exam with a few questions, not pertaining to the actual test, to provide students with the chance to become familiar with the online testing features. This also gives faculty an opportunity to become more familiar with using the tools for online exams and where the ungraded test goes.
• Be available for questions. As for an in-person exam, be present online (via video conference, email, or chat) to answer questions about the format or address technical glitches (e.g. wifi interruptions).
• Revise publishers’ test banks. While convenient, these questions--and their answers--are often available online.
• Protect test question answers. If students request to review their exam, only show them the questions they answered incorrectly.
• Mix Objective and Subjective Questions. An objective test can measure a student’s ability to recall or organize information, other methods can be used to assess higher order/critical thinking skills including understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Create questions that require higher order thinking (Subjective test). Instead of having students respond to questions that can be answered by a simple web search or even by finding the answers in their textbooks, create questions that are on the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation levels.