E-exams under e-learning system: Evaluation of on-screen distraction by first year medical students in relation to on-paper exams

AIM: eExams have been questioned for its validity and sensitivity, especially for the purpose of evaluating a student at university level, though not for competitive exams. No doubt that on-screen visibility, readability and interpretation during an exam are under skepticism as compared to paper. Thus this paper evaluates the effectiveness of on-screen examinations in comparison to pen and paper exams. METHOD: Both on-paper and on-screen exams were conducted in the month of November 2013, wherein 180 students participated. 31 students were given on-paper exam only, while another 31 students took on-screen exams only. A group of 61 male students were made to take on-paper exam, immediately followed by the on-screen exam with the same set of questions. Another group of 57 girls also took an initial exam on-paper and then the same questions were displayed on screen. The results obtained in each one of the on-paper exams were compared with each one of the on-screen exams. The percentage of marks obtained by the students were graded as “A” for 90-100% marks, “B”, “C”, “D” and “F” for 80-89%, 7079%, 60-69% and 0-60% respectively. The distraction index (DI) was calculated using Hogana (2007) formulae by subtracting the % of students scoring highest grade - the % of students scoring lowest grade. A negative value of DI indicates distraction. RESULTS: The results indicated that there was a remarkable distraction in the on-screen exams with a DI of -33 between on-paper and onscreen exams. The number of students scoring “A” grade reduced drastically from 29% in the on-paper exam to 19% in the on-screen exam. Percentage of students failing (“F” grade) in the exam increased to 26% in the on-screen exam from 3% in the on-paper exam. Further the average time taken to complete the exam was higher in case of on-screen exam (46 minutes) as against on-paper exam (36 minutes). CONCLUSION: We cannot conclusively say that the on-screen exams are not superior over on-paper exams, because our experimental design does not represent the universal student population.