On Line Examinations For Object Oriented Programming
Cordelia M. Brown, Yung-Hsiang Lu, Melissa Seward Yale, Deborah Bennett · 2020
On-line content (such as handouts) have been widely adopted in today's classrooms.On-line examinations have yet to be accepted due to several reasons.For example, computers and networks may be unavailable during an examination; email and instant messaging may compromise academic honesty.This paper reports our experience in using on-line examinations for a course on object oriented programming.It has been observed that traditional paper examinations do not necessarily reflect students' programming skills.We study whether on-line examinations are more appropriate for a programming course.The examinations can be taken on-line or on paper in a classroom.Both formats are open-book and open-note and have the same amount of time.This study considers the following questions: (1) Do students perform better in on-line examinations because they can type, instead of writing, code and have access to compilers?(2) Do students prefer on-line examinations to traditional paper-based examinations?What are the reasons?(3) How can appropriate technology be used to maintain honesty?We measured the appropriateness of on-line examinations through comparing the performance of students taking the exam on-line to those taking the paper version of the exam.We also measured the appropriateness through surveys and focus groups with the students and the instructors.