Title: A versatile and flexible e-assessment framework towards more authentic summative examinations in higher-education

Authors: Laurent Moccozet; Omar Benkacem; Elma Berisha; Rita Trigo Trindade; Pierre-Yves Bürgi

Addresses: Centre Universitaire d'Informatique, Université de Genève, Uni Battelle, Route de Drize, 7, 1207, Carouge, Switzerland ' Division du Système et des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication Université de Genève, Uni Dufour, Rue du Général-Dufour, 24, 1211 Genève 4, Switzerland ' Département de Droit Commercial, Université de Genève, Uni Mail, Bd du Pont d'Arve 40, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland ' Département de Droit Commercial, Université de Genève, Uni Mail, Bd du Pont d'Arve 40, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland ' Division du Système et des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication Université de Genève, Uni Dufour, Rue du Général-Dufour, 24, 1211 Genève 4, Switzerland

Abstract: This article describes an infrastructure that is currently being deployed across a university to enable teachers to conduct online exams for their courses. We also investigate in this study how such a framework can open the way to more authentic assessments. Four related examination experiences using this assessment framework are described. The two first ones correspond to open book examinations on the university's computers, the third one corresponds to an examination involving the use of software on students' computers and the last one corresponds to an open book examination on students' computers. The performance of the students from one of the open book examinations on university's computers experiments is analysed to evaluate the impact of the online format compared to the paper format. The feedbacks of the students of the two bring your own device (BYOD) experiments are collected to assess their feelings regarding this specific technical configuration. The results provide significant and interesting indications for the development of summative e-assessment both for initial and continuing education in higher education. In particular, we discuss the directions to take to extend this environment to continuing education.

Keywords: authentic assessment; e-assessment; LMS; open book assessment; bring your own device; BYOD; virtual machine; VDI.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCEELL.2019.101032

International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning, 2019 Vol.29 No.3, pp.211 - 229

Received: 23 Aug 2018
Accepted: 17 Dec 2018
Published online: 22 Jul 2019 *

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