Getting started with online exams

Below we offer some information on online exam possibilities in Nestor:

Important information before you start

Always check with the Board of Examiners before making any changes to your exams and how they are administered!

Keep in mind that making changes to an exam can throw off your course’s alignment. Make sure that a new online exam tests the same cognitive levels (e.g. knowledge and insight, application or analysis, see Bloom’s taxonomy).

We also strongly recommend you consult with your colleagues, department, and faculty before finalizing any changes to your assessment structure, and make sure you meet the guidelines set by the exam committee.

Register your online exam

If you plan to have an online exam, please register at least five working days before the exam takes place in order for us to provide you with the right template exam course, even if your exam was already scheduled as a digital exam. If you want to schedule an exam, please contact your faculty scheduler.

Any questions on preparing the exam can be sent to digitaaltoetsen rug.nl. We will monitor this email inbox closely and respond as soon as possible. You can also watch the recordings from our webinars on online exams and online written exams.

Student Pledge

In the template for written online exams we added a student pledge: In these unusual times we have to take unusual measures with regard to online exams which would normally not be used. While we want to remain generous and flexible with our students, it is also important that you are aware that this move to online exams comes with some provisions:

Students are expected to complete the work autonomously, using only the tools, resources, and aids that the instructor has allowed them to use. You can ask students to sign a pledge; this has been shown to be an effective deterrent. When you request an online exam in Nestor it will contain boilerplate language for a student pledge.
Communicate (verbally and in writing) that any attempts at cheating, fraud, and plagiarism will be taken very seriously and forwarded to the Board of Examiners.
As an instructor, you are allowed to do a random sampling of your students to check if they are doing their own work. You can randomly ask students to answer a few questions or elaborate on their written responses through video conferencing. Make sure you communicate beforehand that they might be asked to do this.