Digital, Online, Take-Home – University Students’ Attitude towards Different Examination Formats

At German universities, recent semesters have seen a significant move towards the digitalization of summative assessments. This development is in part due to the COVID19 pandemic, which presented a number of challenges with respect to classical exams. In particular, many universities have introduced the possibility of online exams for the very first time during these semesters. In order to investigate the attitude towards such new exam formats among students compared to classical written exams, we present a survey with more than 1,000 university students on their experience with digital and analog exams, taken both in presence and at home. Our results show that these newly introduced formats are well received by students and can, in particular, significantly reduce the stress and anxiety experienced by students before and during examinations. However, privacy concerns need to be addressed by educators relying on digital proctoring systems.