Case Study
The University of Western Australia Runs In-Place Digital Exams in Lecture Theatres
The University of Western Australia partners with Cadmus to pilot in-person digital exams using students’ own devices in lecture theatres.
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Highlights
98%
Student experience
89.4%
ease of use
0
academic integrity breaches
Overview
The University of Western Australia (UWA), ranked in the world’s top 100 universities, trialled in-person digital exams in lecture theatres in partnership with Cadmus.
The digital, invigilated exams used Cadmus Exams software and lock-down browser functionality on students’ own devices in lecture theatres in the School of Humanities and the School of Business.
The trial resulted in a 98% positive student experience with 0% breaches of academic integrity during exam sittings supported with the locked browser and Cadmus’s Academic Integrity Assurance Analytics.
Building on the success of the pilot, UWA is now scaling up adoption of Cadmus across the institution.
UWA’s in-person digital exams challenge
As part of its digital innovation strategy, UWA wanted to move to secure in-person digital exam delivery to overcome the increasing challenges of pen-and-paper exams. In moving to digital exam delivery, the university sought to improve several factors.
- Efficiency: In-person digital exams would speed up the process of distributing papers to markers, streamlining the marking process while also limiting potential errors caused by the challenges of handling manual papers and deciphering students’ handwriting.
- Experience: These exams would avoid the disconnect created by asking students to write long, high-stakes assessments by hand, when most formative written assessments are digital.
- Integrity: In-person digital exams could assure security without imposing on student privacy. UWA had previously trialled remote online proctored exams, but this presented academic integrity concerns, particularly with the emergence of generative AI.
“We can’t operate digitally throughout the semester, and then we get to exams and expect students to write for two to three hours.”
UWA and Cadmus’s in-place digital exams solution
For many years, Cadmus has been a valued partner of UWA, playing a pivotal role in elevating assessment design and quality across the institution. It’s innovative learning environment enhances the student experience, drives academic success and reinforces a strong culture of academic integrity.
Building on the success already achieved by students and educators—and the familiarity both staff and students had with the existing platform—UWA chose to continue its partnership with Cadmus to deliver secure, locked-browser, in-place exams. UWA successfully piloted the solution across the Business and Humanities schools before moving to a broader institutional rollout.
With Cadmus’s locked browser exams, educators could seamlessly set up, deploy, monitor, mark and moderate high volumes of exam submissions with ease and efficiency. The solution supported multiple exam formats and was accompanied by rich configuration settings.
- Varied exam formats: Short- and long-answer questions, essay response exams, multiple-choice questions and customisable individual exam-specific settings.
- Customisable exam settings and configurations: Configure exam-specific settings such as auto submissions, late submissions, and feedback, while also allocating optional reading time to help students understand expectations before they begin.
- Student progression and reliability features: Ability to add extra time for individual students or alternative exam sittings, as well as auto-saving functions throughout the exam.
- Streamlined marking and moderating: Ability to allocate student marking automatically, while seamlessly tracking marking progress across multiple markers in one dashboard.
- Assurance of academic integrity: Locked browser functionality is paired with real-time Academic Integrity Assurance Analytics, which monitor the process around student assessment construction behaviour and provide clear indicators highlighting the authenticity of each individual’s work during the exam sitting.
"Regarding our engagement with the Cadmus team, we had complete confidence in the partnership, particularly their deep-found understanding around the importance of assessment—an important factor when choosing an in-place digital exams delivery partner."
How UWA implemented in-place digital exams
To prepare for and deploy in-place exam sittings in lecture theatres, UWA undertook four major phases of work in partnership with Cadmus.
Selecting the exam solution: The University selected their Cadmus solution by addressing their key needs of maintaining academic integrity and easing the transition from paper-based in-person exams. They chose formats that aligned with pre-existing paper examination formats and integrated with the existing Cadmus assessment environment.
Selecting the exam venue: The UWA Central Exams team supported the School Administration Team (Teaching Operations) to locate appropriate venues based on sufficient space, availability of plug points and access to digital infrastructure and Wi-Fi. The team also developed a plan to manage students with special considerations and/or without their own devices by scheduling them separately in a computer lab.
The School Administration Team (Teaching Operations) developed a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) exam plan that outlined the overarching strategy for preparing, delivering, managing exams and communicating requirements to students. They also trained invigilators for the new type of exam.
“Our main stakeholders we had to engage with were the exams office, IT and Campus Management. The exam setup we went with provided students with the option to bring their own device. As a result, the IT team needed to ensure we had the infrastructure to support this. On an old campus like ours there are so many peripherals that need to be considered to make it work. We weren’t able to use traditionally large venues as they’re not set up for electricity or Wi-Fi so we’re using some of the smaller venues.”
Exam delivery and management: Online digital exams were initially run by the schools but transitioned to ownership by the Educational Enhancement Unit, together with UWA central exams teams. This gave UWA control to be able to scale and manage the logistics centrally and extended the benefits of these exams to a wider range of schools across the University. The IT and Campus Management teams oversaw IT infrastructure and hardware, spare laptop availability, in-venue tech support, continuity of Wi-Fi and power, and plug point availability.
Preparing the students: Cadmus partnered with academics to set up practice exams so that students could familiarise themselves with the Cadmus Exams environment and download the locked-down browser functionality before the exam. A total of 75% of students downloaded the browser and completed the practice exam prior to the main exam. The remaining 25% of students installed the browser immediately prior to the exam with no issues.
"My students and I had a great experience with Cadmus’s exam solution. There was excellent support from everyone involved, which meant that there was little involvement needed from my side. Having online digital exams paired with the lock-down browser functionality ensured that students didn't use external/not permitted materials, while allowing for a smooth marking process that saved time when compared to a paper exam.”
How Cadmus supported university implementation
The Cadmus Academic Team supported UWA in five major phases of work to ensure the success of the digital in-place exams pilot.
- End-to-end examination assessment design and setup: The Cadmus Academic Team managed the exam design and setup process on behalf of UWA academics, reducing workload for academics and optimising the platform environment to support student success.
- Academic and examination team platform training: The team delivered ongoing group and 1:1 consultations, educating university stakeholders on best-practice approaches to harnessing platform functionality for enhanced teaching and learning quality in an online environment. They also ensured the highest level of academic integrity.
- Pre-exam student training and communication: Cadmus prepared practice exams and training materials for students to ensure they were familiar with Cadmus’s exam environment and browser functionality before going into a live environment, therefore reducing stress and anxiety.
- Technical training and assurance: Cadmus supported exam preparation and delivery with thorough testing of systems prior to university exam periods to minimise opportunity for technical errors in exams.
- Academic integrity analytics training: the team delivered comprehensive training on harnessing its academic integrity assurance analytics to detect unusual construction behaviours, location of browsers accessing devices, unexpected logins accessing the exam and number of exams logins in conjunction with the security of locked-browser functionality to assure the highest level of academic integrity in exam sittings.
“When we’re trying to convince other academics to adopt a new solution, being able to assure them of the high levels of support Cadmus provides was a key influencing factor. Cadmus support is fast and—in time-critical exam situations—rapid support is a necessity. Despite Cadmus’s global reach and the number of universities it supports, the Cadmus team consistently addresses any issues and provides immediate support.”
Outcomes and benefits
Cadmus takes a best-practice, research-based approach to the pedagogical benefits of its platform. The success of this approach—and its partnership model—can be seen in the following results from the UWA trial, based on 498 students.
- Student experience: 98% positive experience when supported with Cadmus’ digital in-place exams solution.
- Ease of use: 89.4% of students agreed it was easy to complete and submit their exam.
- Exam features: 77.6% of students agreed that Cadmus had all the features they needed to complete the exam.
- Time management: 84.7% of students agreed it was easy to track and manage their time during the exam.
- Academic integrity: 0% breaches of academic integrity during exam sittings when supported with locked browser functionality and Cadmus’s Academic Integrity Assurance Analytics.
“The time feature was very useful and kept me on track in the exam. In addition, editing my work in the exam was also much easier in Cadmus than in a written document.”
For academics, the time saved in marking was significant—educators did not have to navigate legibility issues with students’ handwriting and the versatility of the multiple exam formats available, such as multiple choice questions and one-word answer formats.
"Cadmus Exams has reduced the time I spent marking. I timed the marking sessions and it came to approximately eight hours—about half the time it usually takes, so that was a huge win for me.”
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