How to Choose the Right Technology Platform for High-Stakes Testing

For recruitment professionals, teachers, and entrance exam invigilators- cheating is a major bottleneck to tackle. High stakes tests are conducted every year and sometimes twice or thrice a year, hiring a test invigilator for each test will only add on to the physical logistics. Hence quite naturally a feature like online proctoring will only remove a huge burden from the shoulders of the exam conductors. (Read more about Online Proctoring here)

Computers/Tabs/Laptops that are used for assessments are often owned by exam centres (schools, exam venues, halls), and have minimum browser and hardware specifications. Platform used for conducting high-stakes tests should have a software/application in the cloud that is compatible with all browsers and can be run using minimal bandwidth. At the same time, it should be scalable and redundant enough to handle huge cyber traffic of test-takers. Auto-save feature and “start from where you left” feature should also be added as an extra back up.

In an interview conducted to check the motivation of students to take high-stakes test, it was observed that students did not find the tests engaging enough and their interest in the test content was low. To keep this at check, a technology platform for conducting high stakes tests should provide custom test creation feature with possibility of including interactive illustrations, drawings, graphs, charts, tables etc. apart from the usual MCQs and essay type questions .

In organizations where high-stakes testing is a fairly new concept, for example schools, there is a need to make individuals digitally literate. For this to happen a high stakes testing platform should allow custom mock test and practice test creation that can be used for internal assessments, unit tests or as a practice test (Common Entrance Exams) for individuals preparing for a standardized test. This will not only familiarize users/test-takers with the software and make them test ready, but would also provide in depth insights into student/employee learning.

These are the major features that one should look for in a high stakes testing platform. However, there are several other factors that might influence the decision of an exam conductor, we will cover all of that in another blog post, so keep watching this space for more…