Online Assessment Best Practices: Lessons From Three Years of Remote Testing
Moving assessments online revealed problems I never had in person. After three years and thousands of test sessions, these are the practices that produce reliable results. I moved my assessments online three years ago, and the first year was a disaster. Cheating was rampant, technical failures invalidated results, and students reported anxiety levels higher than in-person testing. I spent the next two years iterating on every aspect of the online assessment process, and I eventually reached a point where online assessments are as reliable and fair as in-person ones. Here are the best practices I developed, hard-won from years of trial and error. Design for the Medium, Not Against It The biggest mistake I made was trying to replicate in-person assessments online. I took my paper-based exam, put it in a web form, and expected it to work. It did not. The online medium has different constraints and different affordances, and fighting those produces a worse experience for everyone. Once I started designing assessments specifically for the online medium, everything improved. Online assessments can include interactive elements that paper cannot. I added drag-and-drop questions, interactive diagrams, and questions where users manipulate variables and observe outcomes. More guides are on the Quiz Hub Blog.