Face the Screen: Panacea Outlet for the Conduct of Examinations in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

PCF10 Sub-theme: Inspiring Innovations // The increase in the use of technology devices and development of various software applications the world over has enabled identifiable solutions to various human problems that looked like Herculean tasks in the past. In the ODL mode of education, as leaners juggle study, work and the responsibility that family life entails, the flexibility characteristic of ODL is paving way for the expected continuity in the teaching and learning process through technology. These include examinations and evaluation processes. Educational institutions in Nigeria before now, based only on traditional methods of learning, that is, they follow the traditional set up of face-to-face lectures including term or semester examinations in a classroom. With the advent of distance learning mode, many universities running dual mode of education along with the only single mode university available in the West African coast - the National Open University of Nigeria, have started blended learning. Although many of the existing colleges and universities are stuck with old procedures of teaching in various ways, the narrative changed when the deadly disease called Covid-19 caused by a Corona Virus (SARS-CoV-2) shook the entire world. Part of the challenges brought about by this World Health Organization declared pandemic was how to ensure continuity in the process of teaching and learning. It is against this background that exigency of time have made it mandatory for institutions of learning to fully turn to technology for solutions to examinations and evaluation process, hence, the reason for virtual examinations which made students to face the screen instead of the traditional assessment system facilitated through the face-to-face classroom environment. Very many conventional institutions of learning which were reluctant to change their pedagogical approach along with the technologically inclined institutions such as NOUN took the advantage of the situation to introduce virtual examinations which points to the fact that students must face the screen if they were to be evaluated. The aim of this paper is to share the experience this mode of examinations entails in the developing countries of West Africa for the purpose of improvement and enabling students outside the shores of the locations of various institutions the opportunity it portend for access to education. // Paper ID 0403