Case Study
The University of Newcastle, Australia: in-place, invigilated digital exams in computer labs
The University of Newcastle piloted Cadmus’s in-place digital exams across law students, achieving a positive student experience, zero academic integrity breaches, and a seamless transition from paper-based exams to secure, scalable digital delivery.
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Highlights
95%
Positive student experience
100%
Student started submissions
0
Academic integrity breaches reported
The University of Newcastle, Australia (UoN) piloted Cadmus’s in-place, invigilated digital exam functionality in university computer labs to replace pen-and-paper examinations at scale.
The University piloted the solution in the Law School across 619 students. It resulted in an overwhelmingly positive student experience, with 95% of students rating their Cadmus experience good to excellent, and zero breaches of academic integrity occurred.
UoN’s in-person digital exams challenge
UoN wanted a secure, in-place digital examination solution to replace pen-and-paper examinations at scale within the Law School—a traditionally exam-heavy department. The University aimed to offer students a more engaging exam experience while assuring academic integrity in an online environment.
UoN were also driven by a need to make marking a faster, more streamlined process for educators. Moreover, digital exams would mitigate the need to transport paper exams, which took up to two days and delayed academics from being able to mark.
The pilot needed to use the University’s computers in their computer labs, as UoN did not have the infrastructure to enable bring-your-own-device (BYOD) exams, where locked-down browser functionality could be enabled on students’ individual devices. As a result, locked-down browser functionality was not used in the initial pilot but was added in a later implementation.
“For the University, Cadmus represents a way of supporting student learning through best-practice teaching and learning practices, while maintaining the highest academic integrity standards.”
UoN and Cadmus’s in-place digital exams solution
Cadmus had already partnered with UoN to deliver open-book exams and long-form written assessments. As students were already familiar with the platform—and educators had reported positive experiences—this familiarity and trust were expected to reduce anxiety and improve student performance in the high-stakes exam environment.
UoN adopted Cadmus Classic Exams with locked-down browser functionality (integrated with Canvas). This meant students were unable to navigate away from their exam screen during the sitting, only accessing resources previously allowed by the educational parameters (white-listed materials).
With Cadmus’s exam solution, educators seamlessly set up, deployed, monitored, marked and moderated high volumes of exam submissions with ease and efficiency. The solution supported multiple exam formats and was accompanied by rich configuration settings, including:
Varied exam formats: Educators could choose from short- and long-answer questions, essay response exams and customisable individual exam-specific settings.
Locked-down browser functionality: Once added, educators could toggle locked-down browser functionality on and off in exam settings, to stop students from navigating away from their exam screen during a sitting or accessing third-party resources.
Customisable exam settings and configurations: Educators could configure individual exam-specific settings, including auto submissions, late submissions, feedback, and allocation of optional reading time to help students understand expectations before they startedworking.
Student progression and reliability features: Educators were able to add extra time for individual students, create alternative exam sittings, and have confidence of auto-saving throughout the exam.
Streamlined marking and moderating: Educators could allocate student marking automatically, and UoN was able to seamlessly track marking progress across multiple markers in one dashboard.
Assurance of academic integrity: Thanks to Cadmus’s unique real-time academic integrity assurance analytics, educators could monitor the process of student assessment construction during the exam sitting to ensure an authentic working process has occurred.
“The Cadmus team can’t be faulted. As a vendor, the level of support provided has made our lives as a learning tech support team VERY easy in adopting and implementing new technology. The academic team’s ability to call on Cadmus for support has alleviated any potential stress and pressure of adopting new technology.”
How UoN implemented in-place digital exams
Selecting academics
- The criteria called for innovative academics who were looking to transition from paper-based, invigilated, in-person exams (and who met the accreditation requirements).
- Exams needed to be in a suitable format for Cadmus. The exams themselves were not redesigned, with the existing format configured to align with the Cadmus Exam environment.
Selecting venues
- The Student Central (Exams) team located computer labs that would support the number of students required to sit the exams.
- The team set the exams at different times and locations throughout the day to ensure all students had access to a lab computer. These were staggered so that exams would not overlap.
Delivering exams
- The Learning Technology Support Team created practice exams on behalf of course coordinators so students could familiarise themselves with the Cadmus Exams environment.
- Learning Technology Support and exam invigilators were present during exams. Cadmus support was available throughout to support troubleshooting and any ad hoc access issues.
- Following consultation with UoN stakeholders after the pilot, Cadmus supported the installation of locked-down browser functionality on the University computers.
- Using Cadmus’s special considerations functionality, Learning Technology Support and the Student Central (Exams) team were able to adjust exam windows and student access plans.
“It was really helpful to use a vendor that was really engaged; Cadmus couldn’t have done much more to mobilise our transition to in-place digital exams, which was felt by the central team and academic staff. There was confidence throughout the chain among the Learning Technology team, central IT unit and academic staff.”
How Cadmus supported UoN’s implementation
End-to-end examination assessment design and setup: The Cadmus team provided UoN academics with guidance and support during design and setup. They advised on features such as correct multi-choice sequencing, randomisation setup and automation from assessment setup. In consultation with the University, Cadmus developed multi-format assessments that include multiple-choice, true-false, short answers, fill-in-the-blanks, and extended response formats. Cadmus supported course coordinators in transferring their exams and white-listed student resources into Cadmus.
Academic and examination team platform training: The team delivered ongoing group and 1:1 consultations, educating University stakeholders on best-practice approaches for harnessing platform functionality. The goal was to enhance teaching and learning quality in an online environment, in addition to ensuring the highest level of academic integrity.
Technical training and assurance: Cadmus supported exam preparation and delivery with thorough testing of systems prior to university exam periods to minimise the opportunity for technical errors.
Academic integrity analytics training: The team delivered training on harnessing its academic integrity assurance analytics to detect unusual construction behaviours, location of browsers accessing devices, unexpected logins accessing the exam, and the number of exam logins.
“We had looked at other digital exam solutions since 2014, and they required large-scale software licences, which didn’t suit the institution. Cadmus provides a really good end-to-end solution—it’s evident through their solution and approach that they’ve invested time into understanding exactly what academics need and the challenges students are facing. A key highlight is the thorough support provided for academics, and this is reflected in the way they are able to support their students when using Cadmus ... If I was going through this digital transition at another university, Cadmus is the solution I would introduce.”
Outcomes and benefits
Thanks to Cadmus’s best-practice, research-backed approach to the pedagogical benefits of its platform, the pilot— and its partnership model—delivered strong results:
- Student experience: 95% of students reported a positive experience using Cadmus for in-place digital exams.
- Submission rate: 100% of students who started their exams submitted them.
- Academic integrity: 0 academic integrity breaches were reported.
Cadmus received overwhelmingly positive feedback from Law School academics and UoN’s central Teaching Innovation, Technology Support and Exams teams. In particular, the teams highlighted positive student experience and feedback, a streamlined educator marking experience, the benefits of increased security and the ease of use of the platform. The success of the pilot has led to a further implementation of Cadmus Exams with the addition of locked-down browser functionality in the first semester of 2024.
“It was a fantastic experience and made the exam-taking process far less stressful. I was really grateful we were able to type the exam rather than write. The Cadmus program worked really well and was easy to understand. Overall, I found the Cadmus experience to be really good and I hope that the course and maybe the University will continue with it going forward.”
Learn more
Watch a showcase session with Dr Tim O’Connor, Course Coordinator, on using the Cadmus solution in company law exams: Conducting an on-campus digital exam for company law
Watch a Cadmus-hosted roundtable with law academics, the Learning Design and Teaching Innovation team, Learning Technology Support team, and Student Central (Exams) team on: Digital in-place exams pilot results
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