Using Technology during Exam Season

If Autumn is the season of mellow fruitfulness, then Summer is the season of longer days, Wimbledon and…… exams. Students are disappearing on study leave so finding opportunities and strategies to help them with their study becomes increasingly difficult. How many teachers approach the exam season with more trepidation than their students as they now have to trust them to adopt the independent study habits that they have been working hard to instil in their charges throughout the year?

“You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.”

Dr Seuss

Technology can help to provide a welcome structure to help students and teachers make this transition from teacher-led learning to student-centred study, and do so in such a way as to allow the students the opportunity to embed those crucial study skills whilst providing them with a framework in which to work.

One of the important elements of a successful lesson is the path that the teacher leads their students along so as to work through a concept in a logical manner; each step leading inexorably on to the next. Once the teacher’s presence is removed this guidance disappears and students can all too easily lose their way or become paralysed by what feels like a mountain of material to get through, with no obvious starting point or route to take. This was one of the aims of the BBC Bitesize program - topics were broken down into manageable amounts and the student was taken along the learning journey. Can we produce the same effect ourselves?

A well designed VLE section can achieve exactly that; each topic can be broken down into a series of pages with each one focusing on a specific area of knowledge or set of skills. The pages themselves can start with an introduction to the topic, before employing a variety of resources, (notes, diagrams, videos and files) to explain and illustrate the concept. Finally, the page can finish off with a list of the key learning points and a series of questions that allow the student to check their understanding. In this way the students’ revision can be made manageable and less intimidating, thus allowing them to organise themselves more independently.

Another key part of the interaction that takes place in the classroom is the discussion and questions that are answered, either by the teacher or by other students. Blogs and forums that students can contribute to and participate in allow this process to continue, even when the students are not in the same physical space. Many of our students are active users of social media and quite comfortable with this approach to communication, and as such are able to make very good use of it. As a teacher, I can also monitor what issues are arising most often and then produce additional materials to address them so that the resources available to students can grow according to their needs. Of course I also have the advantage that these resources, once created can be used again and again each year; even better, I can get students to produce resources as part of their revision and then share these with their compatriots.

Students are still producing work while they revise and are often hungry for feedback on this. If they can submit work electronically which can be checked and commented on and then quickly and easily sent back, then this is a process which can continue. The student also has a degree of independence in this - they know what they are unsure about and can seek targeted help that is pertinent to them. As a teacher I am not dealing with a whole class all looking for help with different topics all at the same time during one 40 minute lesson. These questions are likely to come in at different times and so answering them is more manageable for me as well.

Finally, what about parents? Exams can also be stressful time for them as well, particularly as they often feel powerless to help their children. Online resources, accessible across a wide range of devices can help to reassure them that their child is not on their own through this process. They can also provide parents with enough information that they can assist their child with their revision, either by helping them devise a study plan, or by going through their notes with them.

“By 2025, we can expect the world to be completely digital. Paper books will be a thing of the past. Education will be delivered through analytics-based assessment tools and adaptive learning platforms.”

Osman Rashid

Of course, as educators we can take great strides in developing the delivery of our subjects in such a way as to help to prepare our students for 21st Century society. However, the methods of assessment used are all too often still firmly embedded in the last century. Whilst some countries are going some way to addressing this through the process of continuous, ongoing assessment and grade point averages, broadening the scope of subjects that are assessed at 16 and 18, and even questioning whether assessments at 16 are even necessary, there is still some way to go. Schools have an opportunity to lead the way in educational innovation and we can hope that over time assessment methods will catch up with us.