Abstract

A closed-book and paper-based final examination is the most common summative assessment administered in universities around the world (Williams & Wong, 2009). However, with the COVID-19 pandemic occurring in early 2020, educators were forced to transition to open-book online final exams operated through a range of learning management systems (Dicks et al., 2020). Although online exams are not novel, their use in chemistry courses on such a large scale was undeniably so, with many students and staff having limited experience with them (Nennig et al., 2020). This seminar will detail two projects that examined the impact of the online delivery of science final exams across several Australian universities. The first explores the experiences of academics and students at The University of Sydney through this transition using semi-structured interviews. Students were asked about their experiences and strategies used to complete exam questions across both models. The second project extended the scope to analyse exam questions for exams written in 2019 (paper-based exams), 2020 and 2021 (online exams) specifically exploring how the following factors changed: complexity of questions asked, question types, response formats, and security with regard to open-book conditions.

Biographical Info

Dr. Reyne Pullen is an education-focused senior lecturer in the School of Chemistry, University of Sydney. Reyne has experience in delivering online and blended learning experiences, and designing course-level blended learning models, both at the tertiary level. Reyne has also worked within the secondary education sector, teaching both science and maths. Highly active in the chemistry education research community, he has previously been awarded the 2021 RACI Chemistry Educator of the Year, a 2021 RACI Chemistry Education Division Citation, and several institutional Outstanding Teacher and Researcher awards.

Zoom Registration

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