A Case Study Analysis of the Use of Online vs. Proctored Final Exams in Online Classes

Literature Review

This study focused on one of the key administrative and educational issues affecting e-learning, the scalability of the final exam process. Wellman and Marcinkiewicz (2004) state that “as educators adopt online instructional techniques, one of the challenges they face is assessing learner mastery of course content.” James, McInnis and Devlin (2002) stress that if lower-order learning becomes the result of online assessment, then the gains made in efficiency, staffing and cost savings may be offset by a drop in the quality of the outcomes achieved.

The final exam process design assured that final exams were administered consistently and included comprehensive coverage of the entire course. All final exams included a wide range of questions, covering both lower level and higher-level cognitive skills as defined in Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom et al, 1964).

Traditional assessment techniques are costly and time consuming efforts, which an online course management system should be able to alleviate, if the results of the online process can be trusted (Rowe, 2004). The issue of trust has been a significant factor in slowing the implementation of online testing. While plagiarism has been the a focus of many online programs there has been much less attention paid to other problems related to the issue of dishonesty in online assessment (Rowe, 2004).