Testing across platforms with Next-Exam

Digital examinations are written performance assessments that are carried out using digital devices such as laptops or tablets. The number of such devices in schools has risen sharply, not least thanks to the device initiative.

Despite the almost comprehensive equipment in many school levels, there is no obligation for schools to to take examinations digitally. However, schools can decide within the scope of their own autonomy that examinations are taken with digital support. The framework conditions to be applied are also at the at the discretion of the respective school.

Specialized software products are often used to perform digital inspections. These products, known as “digital examination environments” (DPU) can be roughly divided into two categories, namely (1) solutions that prepare an examination didactically and pedagogically by means of different types of questions and (2) solutions that regulate the organizational framework and are intended to prevent the faking of performance (“cheating”). As there are already systems provided by the BMB for the acceptance of electronic tests (e.g. the learning platform “eduvidual.at”), this Digital Examination Environment (DPU) serves to secure the organization of the examination, provided that different examination modes (learning platform, Office tools, Geogebra, ...) are possible.

It is important to the Federal Ministry of Education (BMB) to support teachers in the implementation of this project and to help create safe, reliable and fair framework conditions. Therefore BMB makes recommendations to ensure quality and fairness. Particularly important in this context is training of teachers and preparation of students is considered particularly important in this context in order to ensure that exams are digitally didactically meaningful and legally compliant.

The Ministry of Education provides comprehensive support - from recommended framework conditions and checklists to crisis scenarios such as power outages or technical failures. Suitable support structures are used to help schools that implement the recommended framework conditions. These schools are referred to as “DPU schools”. The support structures work on three levels:

• 1^{st level: DPU school coordinators}
  DPU school coordinators are trained at the schools. These teachers are to coordinate the implementation of the recommended framework conditions. This includes, among other things: Collaboration with the IT system administration, conducting internal or inter-school DPU training courses (SCHILF/SCHÜLF), maintaining internal school documentation such as emergency checklists, liaison between teachers and the DPU regional supervisors.
• 2^nd level: DPU regional supervisors Several DPU regional advisors (currently 6) spread across Austria are available to the DPU school coordinators as contact persons. The tasks of the DPU regional supervisors are the further training of the DPU school coordinators and support of the community forum, conceptual participation in the further development of the DPU examination environment and link to the 3^rd level support.
• 3^rd level: 3^rd Level Support The 3^rd level support is provided by a company commissioned by the BMB, which is the last point of contact for all technical problems. This support is responsible for collecting change requests and bug reports for the further development of the exam client, or to provide feedback on how problems problems can be solved at school level.