Christ’s College is an independent boys school from grades 9 to 13 in Christchurch, New Zealand. The school’s assessment is provided by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) which comprises both internal assessment components as well as external examinations.
The school had previously trialled different online assessment platforms, and Exam.net had been an easy choice, particularly for its ease of use and useful features. As teaching returned to the classroom, though, the question remained as to whether teaching and learning would benefit from the continued use of Exam.net.
Nicole Billante is Assistant Principal leading the Heads of Department in the pedagogical development of the curriculum. Navigating through the developments in technology and their impact on teaching has become a central feature on the agenda for meetings.
Nicole remembers the first Department meeting of the year and the exasperation of teachers over the arrival of ChatGPT – in particular the impact this would certainly have on the teachers’ ability to guarantee the authenticity of students’ work.
How could the teachers ensure that assessed writing assignments were genuinely produced from the students’ own creativity?
From next year, all externally assessed examinations will be conducted digitally in New Zealand using an online assessment platform provided by the NZQA. These are mandatory for all students and will also be conducted digitally.
How could the teachers enable the students to practise for these examinations in a similar digital environment to that provided by the NZQA?
Students with reading and writing difficulties often need individualised computer support during assessed examinations – both internal and external.
How could the students be provided with the supportive tools they needed whilst ensuring the authenticity of their work in a secure manner?
Nicola Billante, Assistant Principal
Christ's College
Nicola Billante, Assistant Principal
Christ's College
In addition, the students with special assessment conditions can be supported individually with the relevant tools within the Exam.net test window, such as spellcheck, text to speech and dyslexic font, to name but a few.
Given that it is the school’s responsibility to ensure authenticity in students’ work, Nicole feels confident that Exam.net can be trusted to enable this. The exams – once completed – are stored in a secure place, complete with an electronic record of all students’ work (no more locking stacks of papers in filing cabinets!). This record also includes details of how each text developed over the course of the exam – this transparency is very useful if questions are asked afterwards.
As a manager, she is also very mindful of the need for teachers to have time to embrace new technologies and to be able to appreciate their potential. As an extra bonus, Exam.net has needed very little organised time on the schedule to educate teachers since it is so intuitive – staff have picked it up very easily and today the vast majority of teachers are using Exam.net frequently in their classrooms.
Given the increased usage, and the challenges it solves, Nicole feels confident that Exam.net will give the value for money that is expected for the administration to continue to fund it.
Nicola Billante, Assistant Principal
Christ's College
The use of Exam.net continues to broaden across subjects, as teachers discover its versatility. In particular, teachers appreciate being able to:
Run a secure online assessment over several sessions, with the confidence that the students can’t access their work in between.
Mark anonymously, ensuring fair and unbiased grading
Oversee the development of students’ work in real time during an exam and so being able to prompt a student struggling to make progress.
As with most young people, learning to use Exam.net confidently has taken no time at all for the students. In particular, using Exam.net for assessed writing tasks under timed conditions has also enabled the students to:
Improve their synthesis skills during the preparatory work.
Increase their focus and reduce the tendency to overthink during the timed writing session.
Improve their time-management skills throughout the process
Nicole recalls one teacher saying that “using Exam.net has elevated the boys’ performance in assessments.”
Since Exam.net is already being used by so many teachers, and usage is increasing, Nicole has no trouble convincing those that hold the purse strings to continue using Exam.net for the foreseeable future.
She also sees the teachers continuing to explore the potential of Exam.net and sharing ideas. In particular, she anticipates further pedagogical development through using the auto-marked questions, as teachers see an increased need for regular retrieval practice.
Nicola Billante, Assistant Principal
Christ's College
