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Technical difficulties with digital examinations

Frequently asked questions about what to do if there are technical difficulties during exams.

What happens if the students are having technical difficulties during examination with Zoom?

(Last reviewed February 23, 2023)

In the event that the technology fails the examination at any place, the examiner may consider the examination to be invalid. In cases where the technology has failed and the examiner rejects the examination or part of the examination, students should quickly be offered a re-exam date within a reasonable time. The examiner can contact students randomly during the assessment and ask about the answers as part of the examination. This is especially helpful in the event of shorter technical errors.

If the technology fails, students are advised to try to reconnect with Zoom and to complete the assignment if possible. Then there is the opportunity to pass the student, possibly supplementary questions or an extra meeting in a breakout room during the examination.

If the students are having technical difficulties, it may form the basis for a report of an attempt of misleading in combination with the deviation report from the invigilator or other circumstances that the examiner may notice during assessment.

Are students allowed to e-mail their answers in case of technical difficulties?

(Last reviewed February 23, 2023)

It is up to the examiner to decide if an e-mailed answer is valid.

What happens if the internet is down?

(Last reviewed February 23, 2023)

If the Internet is down, this should be treated as if the fire alarm has gone off during an exam. In that case, the school must offer a re-exam. If just one student is experiencing technical difficulties, it is advantageous if the exam has been divided into sub-parts so that only one part of the exam has to be re-taken, for example via an oral exam.

I have a quiz in Canvas but the students are having problems with pictures or that it crashes. What should I do?

(Last reviewed February 23, 2023)

Tell the students to reload the page in their web browser. If a picture doesn't load, reloading the page should solve it without kicking you out from the quiz. Try to change browser, Canvas should be used on the current version of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari. You could also recommend to clear the cache. Note that it's a good idea to take a screenshot so that no answers go unsaved. 

The students can’t access the examination room for an ongoing exam via their dashboard in Canvas. What’s wrong?

(Last reviewed February 23, 2023)

Only up to 20 selected courses are visible on the Dashboard. Students will find all the Canvas rooms they have access to if they go to "Courses" and then select "All courses".

What if there are problems with Canvas and the students are unable to upload their scanned documents to the examination assignment?

(Last reviewed February 23, 2023)

If the students are having trouble uploading their answers while the assignment is still open for submissions, ask the students to try again. If the submission time on the assignment runs out and a few students still have not succeeded to upload their assignment to Canvas, ask them to submit their answers to a OneDrive folder (prepared by the examiner). To enable correcting all the students’ submissions with SpeedGrader, the examiner can re-open the assignment for the students that submitted their solutions in OneDrive and ask them to upload them to the assignment. If necessary, the submissions in Canvas can then be compared to the submissions made in the OneDrive folder.

The examiner prepares the OneDrive folder by following the instructions for creating a file request in OneDrive .

Contact and support for examination

Do you have questions about examination? There are contact persons for planning and coordinating examinations at each school, and you can also get help with digital arrangements from E-learning.

Contacts for examination

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Last changed: Mar 06, 2024