Proctored vs Unproctored Online Exams in Language Courses: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This study investigates online exams of online language courses at a distance education center of a public university in Turkey. Causal comparative research design was followed to examine issues in online language courses with the aim to better develop online exams. Participants were 105 students from spring semester of 2019 and 116 students from spring semester of 2020 from six different programs at associate degree level at a public university. The overall findings indicated that there were varied results in unproctored online exams (UOE) of online Turkish (written and verbal expression) and English (grammar) language courses. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were observed in an unproctored online final exam for the English language course. However, tests showed that there was a high reliability when they were administered in different years to similar conditions and groups of students. As an online exam platform, Moodle LMS was used. Students of Computer Programming and Justice programs in online language courses had greater achievement results when compared to other educational programs whether online or paper-based and proctored or unprocotored exams were conducted. Although gender did not play a vital role in achievement results in general, it was highly influential in the unproctored online English final exam in favor of male students.