Exam aquarium – TKK

An exam aquarium is a camera-guarded and computer-equipped room reserved for writing exams. It is a web-based examination system, which requires special software designed explicitly for writing exams. In the aquarium, a student independently takes an exam at a time suitable for him/herself. Teachers create the question database. Students enter the exams as usual and reserve the time to use the exam aquarium.

The purpose of this pilot was to determine the suitability of an exam aquarium at TKK. Additionally, TKK wanted to investigate the possibilities of bringing more flexibility for the incoming and outgoing exchange students and whether students could do an exam also for another (foreign) institution and not just for TKK.

The pilot was carried out by the Department of Surveying, Main Library, Teaching and Learning Development, Language Centre and The Student Union of Helsinki University of Technology. During the pilot (academic year 2007 – 2008), the exam aquarium was physically located at the Main Library. Altogether, eight courses and five examiners participated in the pilot. Additionally, students were able to re-write their maturity tests.

During the pilot, feedback was gathered from all project-participating parties (students, teachers and library staff), and the general opinion was really positive. The exam aquarium was considered suitable for all courses and, especially, for exams including essays and multiple choice questions. Challenges associated with the use of mathematical signs and calculation, as well as the few technical problems however still need to be taken care of.

All students involved in the project were willing to use the exam aquarium also in the future. Privacy, flexibility in entering and taking exams and possibility to structure and revise one's answers were some of the major strengths according to students. The weaknesses, in turn, included small writing space and limited text processing and editing.

Teachers saw the exam aquarium, first and foremost, as a service for students, not a mainstream type of activity. This naturally raised the question of motivation – are the teachers really motivated to continue working with the exam aquarium?

The library staff, who were responsible for the reception of the students during the pilot, were in turn very pleased with the experiment and interested in continuing the work.

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