Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR courses

Guidance and resources to support EPICUR course development, cc-by-sa

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Remote Exam

Why remote exams?

Remote examinations offer many advantages, both for students and applicants as well as for examiners. In addition to the didactic possibilities offered by digital examinations with their strong integration into constructive alignment, the organisational advantages of digital remote examinations outweigh the disadvantages. For international degree programmes in particular, students do not have to travel to take the exam. This saves travel costs, especially in application procedures, and reduces the bureaucratic and organisational effort that applicants would otherwise have to make.

Proctoring software can be used to supervise participants during the exam, although this is not permitted in every country and at every university. However, simple proctoring via a video conferencing tool (ZOOM, BigBlueButton, etc.) can also significantly reduce the risk of cheating.

5 key points about remote exams

Remote examinations are largely independent of the location of the candidates (and in many cases also of the time zone, as there is no need to book premises in examination centres.)
They enable digital examinations with large numbers of participants.
Digital examination methods can be used to test students' situational ability to act under conditions that are as close to reality as possible.
Digital examination methods expand the scope of examination design to include practical examinations.
Digital or remote examinations can strengthen competence orientation in teaching by providing teachers with tools that can be used to better test the content taught.

Remote exams in practice

At the University of Freiburg, there are various scenarios in which remote examinations can be used. While we refrain from conducting remote examinations for regular degree programmes wherever possible, there is often no other option, especially for international degree programmes. Even in application phases where applicants are examined in advance, it is advisable to conduct these examinations remotely in order to reduce the logistical effort for both sides.

At the University of Freiburg, remote examinations are therefore primarily used for application examinations. One example of this is the application test for the “Neuroscience” degree programme, in which around 150 applicants from all over the world are tested each semester. The applicants, divided into several cohorts, take part in a short written test (60 minutes), sitting at a PC in their place of residence and being supervised by video. Conducting the exam as a remote exam reduces the organisational effort for applicants and organisers to a minimum and thus ensures a consistently high number of applicants.

Links to resources for using remote exams

https://www.e-teaching.org/lehrszenarien/pruefung (in German)

References

Kleinn, K., Slotosch, S., Bandtel, M., Bumann, E. (Hrsg.) (2023): Digitale Prüfungen – flexibel, kompetenzorientiert und gerecht. Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse aus dem Projekt PePP: Partnerschaft für innovative E-Prüfungen. Projektverbund der baden-württem-bergischen Universitäten. Freiburg im Breisgau, Heidelberg, Hohenheim, Karlsruhe, Konstanz, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Tübingen, Ulm. https://doi.org/10.6094/UNIFR/237889
Bandtel, M., Baume, M., Brinkmann, E., Bedenlier, S., Budde, J., Eugster, B., Ghoneim, A., Halbherr, T., Persike, M., Rampelt, F., Reinmann, G., Sari, Z., Schulz, A. (Hrsg.) (2021). Digitale Prüfungen in der Hochschule. Whitepaper einer Community Working Group aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Version 1.1. Berlin: Hochschulforum Digitalisierung. https://hochschulforumdigitalisierung.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/HFD_Whitepaper_Digitale_Pruefungen_Hochschule.pdf
Bedenlier, Svenja; Gerl, Stefanie; Küppers, Bastian & Bandtel, Matthias (Hg.) (2024). Digitale Prüfungsszenarien in der Hochschule: Didaktik - Technik - Vernetzung (1. Aufl.). Bielefeld: wbv Publikation. https://www.wbv.de/shop/Digitale-Pruefungsszenarien-in-der-Hochschule-I77055

Innovative Assessment

Author(s)

This resource sheet has been co-written or written by

Sven Slotosch (UFR)

Related Resource Sheets

Next steps

If you need further support with developing your course, please contact your local teaching support unit.
If you need further information on offering your course for EPICUR, please contact your EPICUR institutional coordinator.

Contact Details

Local teaching support units

EPICUR Institutional Coordinators

Adam Mickiewicz University
Karolina Choczaj
karmench@amu.edu.pl

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nikos Kouloussis
nikoul@agro.auth.gr

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Michael Zacherle
zacherle@kit.edu

University of Amsterdam
Tiffany Boersma
t.a.boersma@uva.nl

Universität Freiburg
Charlotte Langowski
charlotte.langowski@zv.uni-freiburg.de

Université de Haute-Alsace
Léa Ziri
lea.ziri@uha.fr

Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
Nicolas Fries
nicolas.fries@boku.ac.at

University of Southern Denmark
Ida Thøstesen
ilt@sdu.dk

University of Strasbourg
Pascale Nachez
pnachez@unistra.fr

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This Resource Sheet within the Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses was created by Sven Slotosch, University of Freiburg.
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