Abstract
Higher education institutions are in the early stages of replacing traditional pen-and-paper assessments by adopting bring-your-own-device (BYOD) digital assessments for high-stakes examinations. This is happening at the same time as learner analytics (LA), which are gaining increasing popularity within the higher education sector. This chapter considers how digital examinations can open up the black box of student work by enabling data analysis not just at the end of an assessment but also during the process of producing it. Information is available as to how the work developed character-by-character, line-by-line. The question raised is how can this data be analyzed, and how can it be useful in the improvement of education? This chapter is in two parts. The first outlines the adoption of BYOD digital examinations as an enabling technology, learning lessons from the successful adoption of a BYOD exam platform at Brunel University London, UK. The second describes early work analyzing the data available from the typical digital examination platform. Finally, this chapter concludes by outlining some future directions for continued research in this area.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Respondus Lockdown Browser
- 2.
DigiExam (https://www.digiexam.com), Inspera (https://www.inspera.com), Wiseflow (https://uniwise.dk)
- 3.
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is a UK not-for-profit company that supports higher education institutions with advice and research on digital services to support education.
References
Al-Amri, S., & Ali, Z. (2016). Systematic review of computer based assessments in medical education. Saudi Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences, 4(2), 79. https://doi.org/10.4103/1658-631x.178288
Ali, L., Hatala, M., Gašević, D., & Jovanović, J. (2012). A qualitative evaluation of evolution of a learning analytics tool. Computers and Education, 58(1), 470–489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.030
Atherton, M., Shah, M., Vazquez, J., Griffiths, Z., Jackson, B., & Burgess, C. (2017). Using learning analytics to assess student engagement and academic outcomes in open access enabling programmes. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 32(2), 119–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2017.1309646
Avella, J. T., Kebritchi, M., Nunn, S. G., & Kanai, T. (2016). Learning analytics methods, benefits, and challenges in higher education: A systematic literature review. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Network, 20(2). https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v20i2.790
Boud, D., & Soler, R. (2016). Sustainable assessment revisited. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 41(3), 400–413. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1018133
Burr, S. A., Chatterjee, A., Gibson, S., Coombes, L., & Wilkinson, S. (2016). Key points to facilitate the adoption of computer-based assessments. Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development, 3, JMECD, S20379. https://doi.org/10.4137/JMECD.S20379
Cohen, Y., Ben-Simon, A., & Hovav, M. (2003). The effect of specific language features on the complexity of systems for automated essay scoring.https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED482933
Condon, W. (2013). Large-scale assessment, locally-developed measures, and automated scoring of essays: Fishing for red herrings? Assessing Writing, 18(1), 100–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2012.11.001
Connelly, V., Dockrell, J. E., & Barnett, J. (2005). The slow handwriting of undergraduate students constrains overall performance in exam essays. Educational Psychology, 25(1), 99–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144341042000294912
Dermo, J. (2009). e-Assessment and the student learning experience: A survey of student perceptions of e-assessment. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(2), 203–214. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2008.00915.x
Farrell, T., & Rushby, N. (2016). Assessment and learning technologies: An overview. British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(1), 106–120. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12348
Fluck, A., & Hillier, M. (2017). eExams: Strength in diversity. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 515, 409–417. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74310-3_42
Gilbert, L. Gale, V., Wills, G. & Warburton, B. (2009). JISC report on E-Assessment Quality (REAQ) in UK higher education. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/39997977_JISC_Report_on_E-Assessment_Quality_REAQ_in_UK_Higher_Education
Hillier, M. (2015). To type or handwrite: Student’s experience across six e-Exam trials. ASCILITE 2015 – Australasian society for computers in learning and tertiary education, Conference Proceedings, 143–154. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:386257/UQ386257_OA.pdf?dsi_version=258a1ab5077c30c77cb52682735391c9#page=143
Linden, A., & Fenn, J. (2003). Understanding Gartner’s hype cycles. Strategic Analysis Report NoR-20-1971. Gartner Research, May, 12. http://www.ask-force.org/web/Discourse/Linden-HypeCycle-2003.pdf
Mogey, N., Paterson, J., Burk, J., & Purcell, M. (2010). Typing compared with handwriting for essay examinations at university: Letting the students choose. ALT-J, 18(1), 29–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687761003657580
Perez-Messina, I., Gutierrez, C., & Graells-Garrido, E. (2018). Organic visualization of document evolution. International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, Proceedings IUI, 497–501. https://doi.org/10.1145/3172944.3173004
Riedel, E., Dexter, S. L., Scharber, C., & Doering, A. (2006). Experimental evidence on the effectiveness of automated essay scoring in teacher education cases. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 35(3), 267–287. https://doi.org/10.2190/U552-M54Q-5771-M677
Scheuer, O., & Zinn, C. (2007). How did the e-learning session go? The student inspector. Proceeding of the Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED’07), 487–494. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1563601.1563678
Shermis, M. D., & Burstein, J. (2013). Handbook of automated essay evaluation: Current applications and new directions. In Handbook of automated essay evaluation: Current applications and new directions. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203122761
Siddiqui, S. (2018). Let exam students use internet, says Harvard professor Eric Mazur. The Times. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/let-exam-students-use-internet-says-harvard-professor-eric-mazur-hht90rgq6
Slade, S., & Prinsloo, P. (2013). Learning analytics: Ethical issues and dilemmas. American Behavioral Scientist, 57, 1510. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764213479366
Tomas, C., Borg, M., & McNeil, J. (2015). E-assessment: Institutional development strategies and the assessment life cycle. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(3), 588–596. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12153
Traxler, J. (2016). Inclusion in an age of mobility. Research in Learning Technology, 24, 31372. https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v24.31372
Labeke, N. Van, Whitelock, D., Field, D., & Pulman, S. (2013). OpenEssayist: Extractive summarisation and formative assessment of free-text essays. http://oro.open.ac.uk/37548/
Wolff, A., Zdrahal, Z., Nikolov, A., & Pantucek, M. (2013). Improving retention: Predicting at-risk students by analysing clicking behaviour in a virtual learning environment. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, Third Conf, 145–149. https://doi.org/10.1145/2460296.2460324
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the Higher Education Funding Council for England for funding through the small-scale “experimental” innovation in learning and teaching program (project code K05) for the early adoption of BYOD examinations. They would also like to acknowledge UNIwise ApS for their support with data collection for this work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fitzharris, R., Kent, S. (2020). Adoption of Bring-Your-Own-Device Examinations and Data Analytics. In: Ifenthaler, D., Gibson, D. (eds) Adoption of Data Analytics in Higher Education Learning and Teaching. Advances in Analytics for Learning and Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47392-1_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47392-1_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-47391-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-47392-1
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)