Digital assessment is already part of school life. Any teacher will tell you they are already using platforms such as AQA’s AlphaPlus and Stride and a host of other on-screen offerings.
Ofqual’s consultation on digital exams, which closes later this week, takes an important first step on the path to bring the exam system into the 21st century by setting out how we might introduce some digitally-delivered exams.
But, in order truly to reap the potential benefits of on-screen assessment, we need to be bolder.
Digital exams will not only better prepare young people for a workforce which increasingly demands digital literacy and communication, they are also a much greener solution and, overall, will bring value and efficiency to the process.
That doesn’t mean we should be gung ho. Of course we should proceed with rational and proportionate caution.
But being overly tentative is equally risky, creating unnecessary concerns among teachers, and more widely. If we take baby steps into a territory like this, it suggests to the public that they are right to feel alarmed and anxious.
Instead, we should be focusing on building public confidence by doing, not delaying. One of the most important things we can do as an exam board is to build the evidence of what works, so that we can move forward with confidence.
We would like Ofqual to reconsider the limit
That is why Ofqual’s proposal to limit digital exams to only two subjects per exam board is unduly restrictive.
It could, indeed, prove counterproductive. It means that exam boards like AQA, that have been developing and trialling digital exams for a number of years, will be inhibited in building that all-important base of evidence and experience.
We would like the regulator to reconsider this two-subject limit, so that we can pilot a broader range of exams and subjects in a wider mix of schools – some in wealthier areas, some in poorer areas.
That’s how we’ll build our understanding of subject design and delivery, and thereby maximise the benefits of examining on-screen.
And we want to do this responsibly, so we are actually asking Ofqual to lower the maximum student entry numbers from 100,000 to 50,000.
This will allow schools, colleges, exam centres and students to become familiar and improve their confidence in digital exams.
A lever to close the disadvantage gap
While concerns about the digital disadvantage gap are understandable, we’ve come a long way since the Covid-19 pandemic exposed divides between young people who were able to continue to learn remotely and those who were not.
If anything, digital exams should be viewed as a lever to help close any disadvantage gap, not accentuate it.
We’re not advocating that digital exams should rely on students’ own equipment. And we understand that not every young person will be confident in using laptops and keyboards.
That is precisely why we need to introduce and embed digital literacy across the curriculum, as recommended by the curriculum and assessment review, so that we level disadvantaged young people up, rather than stifle opportunity.
Others appear anxious about digital exams contributing in some way to teenage social media misery. To us, it seems quite bizarre to conflate these issues.
I am as concerned about social media in schools as anyone. But banishing the use of computers for learning and assessment does nothing to help tackle that.
On the contrary: we have a responsibility to prepare young people for their post-school lives, whether at work or in further education.
That’s why we must move to delivering some – not all – exams on-screen. And do so at a sensibly steady, but not unduly slow pace.
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