proctored exams

R/A students only.

What is the method by which you are examined?

 

You forgot to list the "no examination at all" option.

 

Wait a minute! Let’s not skew the results through improper questioning; we were discussing multiple-choice exams.

In other words, if your grade in a course offered by a regionally accredited school was assessed primarily by examinations consisting mostly of multiple-choice questions, were these exams proctored or unproctored?

 

I have had a little of all of the above. Some instructors chose more than one method in one class. I have had 4 timed exams, and two proctored in just one distance class.

 

For what it's worth, in completing my undergraduate degree at Southern Christian University (SACS accredited), I never took a single proctored exam. And the exams I took were indeed mostly multiple choice tests. At SCU they were administered online on Blackboard. They were not open book tests, but the instructors relied on the students to be honest in the taking of the exams. Proctors were never used.

mhl

 

I have taken programs with only papers but I would consider that akin to a non-proctored exam.

 

Maybe you were talking about multiple choice exams.

Many people seem to make a deal out of proctored exams when, in my experience, they aren't necessarily that common.

 

However, assignments and essay exams are not the same thing as multiple-choice exams. Essays that require synthesis and extrapolation cannot be compared to open-book multiple-choice exams. We were discussing unproctored open-book multiple-choice exams. You seem to now be redefining terms and backpedaling furiously.

 

If this occurred at a regionally accredited school, then yours is a vote for proctored exams.

If the school did not require any (as this was the contention) proctored exams, then yours is a vote for unproctored exams.


This is not an issue concerning whether a specific course offered or required one particular kind of examination or another (or even a combination). If you attended an RA school, and a not a single proctored examination was required, then you should vote “non-proctored.” If, on the other hand, at least one exam in the program had to be proctored, then you should vote for “proctored.”

 

I must have missed the thread where the dispute is, and I was just answering the poll. The course where all three were used in one class was an RA course and all were multiple choice. I think the instructor just liked to mix things up. I liked the non proctored test with no time limit the best.

 

My poll - my rules.

Sorry about the false alarm - the annual reports were filed today.

 

I guess I'm in the same boat with plcscott. I had no intention of jumping into a discussion between Dennis and Gus that evolved from another thread. I was only answering the poll from my own personal experience, which may or may not be representative of most RA schools. But hey, it's MY experience, and I paid dearly for it!

mhl

 

BA--all proctored, all essay, no multiple choice

MDiv--most proctored, all essay, no multiple choice

MA--most proctored, all essay or translation, no multiple choice

stray courses taken at third-world-style state university--non-proctored scantron multiple guess diversity-encouragers graded by machines

 

For some time, you have been making the assertion that proctored exams at regionally accredited schools are not the norm and are, in fact, uncommon.

In spite of the skewed way in which you have structured this poll, and contrary to your experiences with regionally accredited schools (what is the precise number, one?) the evidence so far seems to indicate that, despite your numerous averments to the contrary, the majority of regionally accredited schools require proctored exams.

 

Your experience reveals that not all RA institutions require proctored exams. Much discussion has occured regarding schools which do not require proctored exams, e.g., CCU. The tone of some is that CCU qualifies as a mill because it doesn't require proctored exams. Of course, this would make SACS accredited Southern Christian a mill too, huh?

 

Texas Christian too - what is it with these Christians??.

 

Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo - Biological Science major, taken on-campus:

Lots of lab practical exams. One particularly catchy trick was a lab full of numbered stations. Each one had a microscope displaying something, an anatomical dissection or something. You had to identify what it was or answer a tricky obscure short-answer question about it. Then a timer would buzz and everybody moved to the next station. You progressed around the room that way until everyone had visited every station. Chemistry and microbiology labs were fond of giving us unknown samples and then making us identify them qualitatively or quantitatively using all the tests and instrumentation we had practiced on. Always a professor watching like a hawk, so I guess that counts as proctored.

San Francisco State University - Philosophy and Religion major, taken on campus:

Generally a combination of a significant out of class final paper, plus a midterm and final in-class blue book essay exam. The latter had a professor lurking around, so I guess that counts as proctored. The graduate classes I took often had a seminar component as well, where we had to present a talk and take questions. Lots of rather arcane class discussions.

CSU Dominguez Hills - Humanities major, taken by DL:

Entirely out-of-class papers. Similar number of pages required as at SFSU, but without the midterm and final, and minus the in-class discussions and seminar presentations. No proctors.

 

Stanford doesn't use proctors. While I was there (mid 80's) one professor tried to have his exams proctored, but was rebuffed.

So my RA degrees go in the "unproctored" category.

My non-RA degrees both had proctored exams.

 

As an undergrad, I had a psyc. prof. for an abnormal psyc. class that didn't believe that testing was an effectice method of promoting learning yet he was apparently required to test his students. To get around this, he simply passed out copies of the test a couple of days before the test was given. Then the class went over the test and determined the correct answers. Amazingly, there were always a couple of jocks in the class that would fail the test anyway.

 

At the moment only 8 % say no proctored exams in their R/A program. This is considerably lower than I expected given the anecdotal evidence over time and even in this specific thread.

My conclusion - although unproctored exams in DL courses are reasonably common, they are uncommon here.

My action - ignore the poll and continue on