Challenges of administering university examinations remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic

The article presents the results of a research questionnaire conducted among students and lecturers after the first, and repeated after the second, exam session during the pandemic crisis as this was the first time the examinations were conducted by distance education at The Maria Grzegorzewska University (Warsaw, Poland). Lecturers see the advantages of remote examination in the technological possibilities of conducting examinations (automation in checking and assessing the tests and archiving the results), time savings (immediate availability of results, flexibility of examination dates), and organizational improvements. Students indicate the comfort of writing the exam in a friendly environment, which reduces stress, and appreciate the possibility of obtaining results quickly and the need to spend less time on the exam itself. In the case of disadvantages of remote exams, lecturers indicate a lack of control over the independence and integrity of students, and students complain about the stringent time constraints, distractors and stress, as well as the level of the exam (both higher and lower compared to the level of traditional exams) and the adequacy of the grades obtained. Both groups consider technical problems that arise during the exam to be severe. Twenty percent of students admit to using unauthorized assistance during tests and exams. Academic teachers try to reduce the dependence of students by choosing an appropriate form of the exam (problem tasks, oral exams, open-ended questions, test variants), using special strategies (comparing students’ work, control questions, looking for parts of final papers on the Internet), and using technical solutions (requirement of turning on the camera, checking the metadata of files, the need to document work). The search for an effective and appropriate method of verification of learning outcomes is ongoing.