Universities are rapidly shifting lessons and exams online, but there are worries disadvantaged students could be left behind

Universities across the UK have closed down class teaching and are running online seminars and tutorials because of the coronavirus pandemic. The race is on to decide how to handle the summer exams so final-year students can complete their degrees. But there are fears that disadvantaged students could suffer the most through the rapid shift to online learning.

Many universities will replace traditional exams with online assessments, as Oxford and Cambridge announced last week. At Imperial College London, medical students have just taken unsupervised exams from home for the first time.

Some universities are handling the change better than others, according to Dr Doug Clow, who spent 20 years working on remote learning at the Open University and is now advising universities on coronavirus. “There’s nothing that isn’t on fire. Assessment drives what people actually learn, so if you’re changing the assessment you really ought to change how you teach, but there isn’t time for that,” he says.

As universities consider their options, one major concern is that disabled and disadvantaged students could be left behind.

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Susie Friedman, who studies sociology at Cambridge University and dictates her exams due to RSI, says changing the format for assessment could be a “massive problem” for students who may need extra time, invigilators, special software, or optional breaks. “It’s an additional layer that [doesn’t seem to be] being dealt with,” she says. “It’s a nightmare.”

Students who don’t have access to reliable wifi, expensive computers, or quiet space to sit an exam could struggle too. Eugene Sinclair, a final year architecture student at Edinburgh University, doesn’t know whether he’ll be able to complete his course because he can’t afford a suitable laptop. “I’ve got one that’s OK for surfing the internet,” he says. “But for architecture you need to be able to do 2D and 3D work. Before, I relied on the university’s computers. Now I don’t feel like I can finish this course because I can’t produce anything.”

For these reasons, students from Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, Bristol and University College London have called for an overhaul of final-year assessments, proposing that they are given a choice between taking a mark based on work completed to date or sitting exams later on.

Daniel Wittenberg, a languages student at the University of Cambridge, says universities should cancel exams. “We’ve spent our whole lives preparing for a very different type of exam,” he says. “The university [can’t] pretend this is going to be a real reflection of our abilities.”

Sabrina Miller, who studies English literature at the University of Bristol, agrees: “Your grades have a lifelong impact so it’s really stressful.”

But delaying exams could have a knock-on effect, too. Employers and professional bodies insist that measures taken during the pandemic must not lead to lower standards.

As much as they want fair assessment, students also don’t want the disruption to affect their future work prospects. On Monday, the Junior Lawyers Division sent a letter to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) asking it to rethink its decision to push back exams until this autumn, which could leave new graduates unable to take them at all or out of work.

In order for assessments to go ahead some exams, such as those at Oxford, will be open book. Another possibility is to run timed, live exams taken from home. “You could have a webcam to check students aren’t looking stuff up, and find tools to check the typing style is right, or that could lock down the computer if someone is browsing other sites,” says Clow. However this would be intrusive and technologically demanding, so it “probably isn’t the solution.”

The shift to online learning is also an adjustment for lecturers. Many are working hard to come up with innovative ways to keep students engaged online.

Sarah Wright, a senior lecturer in primary education at Edge Hill University, says she’s implemented ping pong podcasts, where staff record a podcast for students who then create their own to send back. “They can get away from their screens and think about generating their own content,” she says.

Wright has also been running silent debates, where she puts a provocative statement about education on an online corkboard and students respond using online sticky notes. “Students are being disconnected from home and from their sole purpose in life and we need to make sure they’re still connected,” she says. “Simply putting up a PowerPoint is not good enough.”

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Matt Huxley, a lecturer at Staffordshire University London, uses Microsoft Teams and Discord, a text chat for gamers that is similar to Slack. He’s aware of the challenges: “If someone’s having problems I can’t see them.” Huxley adds that it’s important to make sure everyone understands online etiquette, such as muting your microphone when you’re not talking, avoiding wandering off during meetings, and preventing yourself from being distracted.

Not all lecturers are as tech savvy as Huxley and Wright. “Some academics who have less experience with technology are finding it more of a struggle,” says Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute.

There is one certainty: the pandemic is changing universities’ relationship with technology. “Coronavirus is forcing things like online learning to happen in a completely unprecedented way,” says Hillman. “That will likely be a permanent change, but anybody who tells you with great certainty what’s going to happen is being overconfident.”

Clow says the decisions universities make about online assessments will have to stand the test of time. “We’ve got to make emergency decisions but we need to bear in mind this could go on for a long time,” he says.

Students are facing a degree of disruption that most previous cohorts haven’t faced, Clow adds. “What the sector is in the middle of doing is extraordinary,” he says. “I hope we’ll look back on this period and think we did something remarkable. Though that may be tough consolation for students doing exams now.”