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Digital assessment arrangements with exam.net

Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 23rd January, 2025

Category Digital Exams Assistive Technology

Last week we had an excellent webinar from Nic Cardwell of exam.net and Andy Auld and Adam Llewellyn from Larbert High School. Exam.net is a secure online assessment system and in 2024 pupils at Larbert High School used it to access their SQA examinations using their iPads. If you're interested in using iPads, Chromebooks or Windows devices for digital assessment arrangements, read more here and check out the archive recording of the webinar.

Digital Assessment Arrangements

In March 2023 we set up working groups to explore the use of iPads and Chromebooks for digital assessment arrangements, because we knew that pupils were not able to use their personal devices in exams, for several reasons.

This presents a challenge because:

Now while it is possible to set up iPads and Chromebooks for secure examinations, it's not easy and very few pupils have ever used these devices in SQA exams. Most pupils use Windows laptops or desktop in exams.

There is an urgent need to find tools that will allow learners to use their familiar devices and accessibility tools for SQA examinations.

Working Groups

In 2023 we invited educators in Scotland to join an iPad in Exams Working Group and a Chromebook in Exams working group and a some progress was made during 2023-2024. The groups were introduced to several apps and systems for managing digital assessment arrangements including:

DocsPlus

exam.net

OrbitNote

Read&Write

Trelson Assessment

Colleagues across Scotland explored and evaluated these tools and Andy Auld and Adam Llewellyn and colleagues at Larbert High School in Falkirk decided that exam.net was suitable for their context.

Larbert is one of the largest secondary schools in Scotland and 40% of the pupils are identified as having an ASN. Providing assessment arrangements was a challenge: 15 - 20 rooms were required for students with needed assessment arrangements rooms, with large numbers of support staff, invigilators and laptops or desktop PCs.

Staff and pupils were trained how to use exam.net and the free exam.net app was installed on pupils' iPads to ensure that the exams were secure. Last week Adam and Andy reported the following benefits of using exam.net for the 2024 examinations:

You can view the webinar recording below and at Digital assessment solutions for AAAs with Exam.net, where you can also download the presentation slides.

Our thanks to Nic, Andy and Adam for presenting last week and to Adam and Andy and colleagues for their pioneering work and initiative!

Disclaimer: we do not endorse exam.net or any other products and tools for digital assessment arrangements. Our role in CALL Scotland is to research and find solutions, bring them to the attention of educators, and work with developers and suppliers to enhance products to meets the needs of learners, staff and families in Scotland.

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