For faculty looking to move away from paper exams or Scantrons, online testing is available through HuskyCT. Online testing can be offered in the classroom or as at-home assessment. For faculty wishing to administer online testing in the classroom (BYOD testing), UConn’s ITS has verified that all lecture classrooms have Wi-Fi capabilities sufficient to support this testing. Any classroom listed in UConn’s classroom directory (https://classrooms.uconn.edu/classroom-directory/) as “fixed-auditorium” has been verified.

What you need to know about BYOD testing:

• • BYOD testing is not a testing center. Rather, it is an option for faculty to administer computer-based testing in their own class utilizing student-owned computers. Just as with all other classroom-based exams, faculty must proctor their own exam or find their own proctors.
  • BYOD exams are administered using HuskyCT, with or without Lockdown Browser, a browser application that limits students’ use of their computers to just the exam in HuskyCT. When required to use LockDown Browser, students cannot do anything else in HuskyCT or on their computers except take the exam. Once they complete the exam, they can use their computers normally again. LockDown Browser is free and available to all students for download through HuskyCT.
  • Conducting an in-class exam through HuskyCT using LockDown Browser has all the security of a traditional in-person bubble-sheet exam, but it also allows for a wider array of assessment options. HuskyCT allows for 17 different types of questions in a test, which can range from basic text to including images, audio, and video.
  • Using HuskyCT for quizzes and exams also allows for easily randomizing question order, or even answer selections, which can add another layer of prevention against cheating. Questions can be drawn from pools (a.k.a., question banks), so that students get a set number of questions pulled from a larger pool in random order.
  • Many question types, such as multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, and others, can be automatically graded by HuskyCT. Results and grades can be made available to students at any time the instructor chooses. Results appear immediately to the course’s instructor in the HuskyCT Grade Center. There is no wait time to receive results, and no upload process as with Scantron.
  • Editing questions and/or updating grades with tests in HuskyCT is much easier than with Scantron exams.
    CETL’s educational technology staff provides training on how to develop exams in HuskyCT, including HuskyCT functionality and best practices for online exams.
  • Ed Tech highly encourages faculty to administer a no/low stakes practice quiz to all students a minimum of one week in advance of the actual exam, providing students with sufficient time to obtain technical assistance before the exam. These practice exams should be taken on the device the student plans to use for any exams. It does not need to be in the same room used for the exam but should be administered on campus. If faculty do not have a practice exam or do not wish to make one, Ed Tech can share one with the faculty to load into HuskyCT.
  • If students need a laptop (PC or Mac) or an iPad, they are available from ITS.
  • If you are using Lockdown Browser for the exams, please remind students to download Lockdown Browser onto their device or to ensure they ask for a device with Lockdown Browser when borrowing from the library
  • Technology is not perfect so Ed Tech recommends that you bring extra paper copies of the exam.
  • ITS is making iPads available for faculty to reserve. These iPads could be picked up by the faculty and used a back-up devices. Click here for more information on reserving iPads.