Beyond the “Multiple Choice Culture”: Realizing Hybrid Exams with Tablet-PCs

The vast number of different types of examinations together with the considerable broadness of scientific fields to be covered presents a strong challenge for all academic institutions. So far, many eLearning environments offering electronic examination tools face a severe problem in their acceptance through the academic community since their evaluation methods are usually restricted to simple mechanisms such as multiple choice, short-answer, gap-filling exercises etc. Yet, at higher levels of education, examinations usually contain problems which require deep analytical thinking. Here, the answers are to be given by a freely phrased text, by a detailed diagram with annotations or by a (mathematical) proof with explanatory intermediate steps. Tablet PCs hold a large potential to overcome these problems: Their ability to deal with handwritten texts, sketches, diagrams, and pictures, enables a new type of “hybrid examinations”, combining the advantages of the new media with long-established and well proven examination procedures. Within this project, electronic examination environments are extended, enabling them to network and support both, “simple” problems with automated validation and grading mechanisms as well as “complex” problems with individual correction through a human expert.