loading
Articles

Local Varsities are Switching Exam Methods since there will be No Physical Classes until Dec 31

Published by Afterschool.my on Jun 18, 2020, 11:04 am

Petaling Jaya, 17 June - Students are unable to take written exams in campuses until Dec 31 due to the government's order to postpone face-to-face teaching until the end of the year. Thus, Malaysian public and private universities are turning to alternative ways to grade their students due to the pandemic going on.

As such many institutions of higher learning have switched from mostly traditional written exams to also include other methods to test their students, ranging from interviews to holding debates. A survey conducted on 61 of the 110 public and private universities in the country found that 42.6% of the institutions polled have changed the way they conduct the mid-term and final exams for most of their courses. Some 21.3% of the universities are carrying out a mix of online exams as well as alternative methods of assessment.

Meanwhile, 36.1% of the universities are opting to only conduct online tests or exams as a method to evaluate their students’ performance, especially those involving technical courses such as medicine, architecture and engineering as they need to meet the requirements of professional accreditation bodies.

The Higher Education Ministry announced on May 27 that postgraduate students, as well as certificate, diploma and Bachelor’s degree final year and final semester students who need to be physically present on campus have been allowed to do so. For everyone else, online learning will continue until Dec 31.

According to Director of Centre for Academic Development Prof Dr Muta Harah Zakaria from Universiti Putra Malaysia, some of the alternative assessments that are being implemented include dissertations, debates, experiments, interviews, mind maps, observations, open book exams, class presentations, think-pair share, role play, reports and peer assessment.

RELATED POSTS
Latest News

Need help?
mail