We know that every student learns differently, so providing the right support during exams is essential for helping students showcase their knowledge.
We talked to Mikael Eurenius, a Swedish teacher at Mörby School in Sweden, with over 10 years of experience. Mikael has witnessed firsthand the digital transformation in schools from paper-and-pen exams, to digital tests and emphasizes the importance of finding a balance between digital tools and traditional methods. Today, Mikael uses Exam.net as part of his teaching toolkit for tests, and in-classroom activities, helping students that learn differently.
“A feature my students use a lot is Text to Speech,” Mikael shares. “As a Swedish teacher, a lot of my exams contain essay writing. I have several students with dyslexia, and having their own exam text read aloud back to them makes all the difference. They might not always catch their mistakes when reading, but they can hear them clearly when listening. Once we started using Text to Speech, it was like a lightbulb went off —they directly understood their own mistakes without being tripped up by the wording.”
Mikael also offers spell check for students who need help with writing, and access to a dictionary for students who might need help finding synonyms during the tests. Because many of Mikael’s exams entail writing longer texts, he sometimes splits the exam session in two, giving the students a resume-key to re-enter the exam the following day. “With Exam.net, I can have my students work on their essays over multiple sessions and know for sure that what they write is their own. The platform is super secure, doesn’t allow copy-pasting, and keeps tools like ChatGPT out of the picture, so I can trust the work is authentic.” Mikael shares. The resume-key can also be used for individual students that are allowed longer exam sessions, giving them more time during their online test.
Mikael also mentions “I use the anonymity feature a lot when grading my students, this makes me 100% sure I’m giving each student a fair assessment and saves me time – not having to swap exams with fellow teachers.”
Mikael explains that he aims to use Exam.net even more – for formative tests, homework and quizzes in the classroom, to reduce some of the stress associated with “exams”. He believes in incorporating the platform into everyday classroom activities, creating a supportive and distraction free environment for all students. While he hasn’t yet tried the Dyslexia Font or Audio Function, Mikael sees great potential in these features to assist students with learning differences, ensuring a more inclusive and accessible learning experience.
With online teaching tools, you can become more efficient and quickly create new exams or reuse old ones. Read more about Exam.net as your online teaching tool for digital assessments.
