Principles and considerations for quiz-based exams

• A quiz-based exam without invigilation is referred to as a Timed LMS exam. A quiz-based exam with invigilation is referred to as an AI-Invigilated exam. 
• Released and submitted on Canvas, run by Subject Coordinator​. Students log on to Canvas to access and complete the exam. 
• All exams must be scheduled during the normal exam period and timetabled by SAU Exams team to avoid clashes​. 
• The duration of the exam cannot be longer than two hours – a maximum of 90 minutes is recommended. 
• The availability window for the exam must be longer than the exam duration, to allow for any technical issues that may arise on the day or to accommodate students taking the exam in different time zones.
  • For a 60 minute exam, a minimum of a two-hour window of availability is recommended
  • For a 90 minute exam, a minimum of a three-hour window of availability is recommended.
• Cannot be used in conjunction with Turnitin. 

Timed LMS exam

• Identity verification is provided through student login into Canvas only.
• Open-book exam only. Not suitable for closed or restricted open-book exams.
• It is recommended that a practice exam be provided to students (within the subject site) so they have opportunities to become familiar with the setup.  

AI-Invigilated exam

• An AI-invigilated exam must be approved and scheduled by the SAU Exams team.  
• Identity verification is provided through student login into Canvas, and the display of a government-issued photo ID when prompted by the AI-Invigilated service. 
• Can be open book, restricted open book, or closed book. 
• Students have access to a university practice exam site, enabled with the AI-Invigilated service experience, so that they can become familiar with the AI-Invigilated service before their exam. This site is usually available three to four weeks before the start of the formal exam period. 

Questions for quiz-based exams

• Students can usually type faster than they can hand-write. Thus, answers to a short answer or essay question in a quiz-based exam are likely to be slightly longer than paper-based exams. Clear word limit guidelines for the answers may be necessary to manage marking workloads.
• Be guided by the subject learning outcomes with your exam questions.  You may like to refer to Blooms’ Taxonomy to help you identify which verb would be suitable to use in your questions.  
• Where possible, choose a theme or context to set your question in, to give the question authenticity.
• When writing a multiple-choice question, check that the language and tense in the question and options do not give away the answer.
• When writing the distractors for multiple-choice questions, be grammatically correct and keep options at a similar length, so as not to give away the answer. Use plausible distractors. Balance the placement of answers. Keep fairness in mind – don’t try to trick students with clever word play.
• Consider using different question types in your exam, not just multiple-choice questions.

Encouraging academic integrity and discouraging cheating

• Use the question banks and question groups functionality in a Canvas quiz to randomise the order of questions in an exam, for each student. 
• Where possible, create new questions each session and minimise re-using questions​ from previous sessions.
• Create different versions of the exam for alternative times or deferred exams. 

Timetabling of take-home exams

There may be students with exams in up to four subjects. For this reason, exams will be entered into the exam timetable to avoid clashes. The exam window will commence from the scheduled start time in the timetable and continue until the finish time set by the subject coordinator.

Communicating to students

The timing of the exam window needs to be clearly specified to students before the start of the exam. Students should also be appropriately advised on how to best prepare beforehand for this type of exam, where to get support, and how they can seek more information about their exam.

Accessibility 

Follow the LX Accessible Content Practices when you add content (e.g. add alt text for images, transcripts and/or captions for videos) to your exam, to ensure that all students can access the exam.

It’s important to be aware that some students with accessibility requirements might have approved exam provisions like additional time or accessible formats.  This will be entered by the Exams Team in your exam shell.     

Student wellbeing

Exams are stressful for students, especially if they have not experienced a quiz-based exam before. To help students prepare, consider providing a practice online exam experience so that they can experience what it may be like. 

Availability

Subject coordinators should be available by email at minimum for the first hour and last hour of the exam window, as well as advising students of any other times when they will be available. 

A template containing exam instructions for either a Timed LMS or an AI-Invigilated exam is available. These need to be included in your exam, before students start the exam in Canvas, to ensure consistent instructions for students and to align with university policies around misconduct.