We have just surpassed an incredible milestone…10 million digital exams have been taken and handed in through Digiexam! It has been an incredible journey over the past 11 years, and we have amazing customers to thank for that. We are so lucky to be a part of their school’s digital journey, and we look forward to continuing to help schools offer a better digital experience to their students.
With over a decade of experience, we want to share what we have learned, what we see in the digital testing space, and what our most successful customers are doing.
The trend toward digital education
There is an overall shift towards digital education. Of course, the pandemic significantly impacted how quickly schools had to move to digital environments, especially in the K-12 sector. However, for higher education, the trend toward MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) has been present since before 2020. The pandemic shed light on how slowly higher education institutions have adjusted to this demand.
“If you look around you, everything is going digital. So the first thing is to realize that students and educators, [basically] everyone is expecting some sort of digital learning experience.” - Marcus Dahlman, CEO @ Digiexam
Students seeking higher education have been searching for more affordable and flexible options, and they have found that in MOOCs. Higher education is a sector that needs to become more digital to survive and remain competitive.
The K-12 sector has less pressure to offer online options, but it is the segment where Digiexam is the most successful. We have seen that K-12 schools in Sweden have been the most willing to adopt an online examination platform.
The trend toward digital learning environments for K-12 and higher education alike means schools must find ways to assess students online.
“It's always difficult to foresee the future, but there won't be any less digital options or alternatives as we move forward.” Pelle Englund, Customer Success @ Digiexam
Challenges for schools when going digital
One of the biggest challenges our team at Digiexam has seen is that schools often don’t connect the overall school strategy with why they are choosing to invest in a digital testing platform. They haven’t considered why they are investing in a platform, which leads to poor implementation for their teachers and students. Having a clear strategy and a clear reason why you are investing in a digital testing platform, or any platform, is a top priority if you want to have successful implementation and usage.
One of the other challenges the Digiexam team has seen with schools over the years is that there is a wide range of digital maturity within school organizations. Therefore, it is valuable to place a lot of importance on the training and onboarding of the platform. Find a technology partner that will be by your side during the onboarding process and beyond.
What are our best customers doing?
The schools and universities that are shining and getting a lot of value out of Digiexam are the ones that have a clear digital strategy, focus on training and adoption of the platform, and are finding ways to expand their use of the platform outside of high-stakes exams.
“They have this clear vision of what they want to achieve by using the tool. And they also have a clear vision of what role the tool should play in their digital ecosystem. They [also] start to connect their different systems [like their LMS with their digital testing platform].” - Gustaf Nilsson, Customer Success Manager @ Digiexam
Schools that realize the value of the lockdown environment in more settings besides an exam or test tend to have higher adoption rates and see the full value of having a digital testing platform in the classroom with them.
“A first thought I got when I started working at the company was that this is kind of a lockdown thing I could benefit from in classes. So if I have certain web pages, or YouTube clips, or anything that I want my students to watch and reflect upon during a class, and I want them to be able to use their devices, but I do also not want them to do anything else that might be distracting, then I can use [Digiexam] as a kind of a lockdown shell. I can plan a class or a lesson in Digiexam, and I have the students answer everything there.” - Gustaf Nilsson, Customer Success Manager @ Digiexam
In higher education, universities can use the flexibility of online assessments to expand their offering, and continue to remain competitive for students as online options keep increasing. The best universities are doing just that!
Check out if Digiexam is right for your school!