Creating and Administering Online or Remote Exams: Considerations and Effective Practices

student on computer outside

As teaching continues to evolve across in-person, hybrid, and online learning environments, many CU faculty and instructional support staff are rethinking how they assess student learning. Decisions about exams are especially important in courses with large enrollments or those that rely on multiple-choice or other structured assessments. This guide highlights key considerations, potential challenges, and effective practices for designing and administering online exams to support learning, academic integrity, and student success.

A few things to keep in mind as you work with students during this time:

  1. Start with care and trust:
    Effective teaching and meaningful learning are built on mutual trust between instructors and students. Students bring a wide range of experiences, responsibilities, and circumstances into the classroom, many of which may not be visible. Creating a learning environment grounded in trust, transparency, and respect helps students feel supported and better able to engage in learning.
  2. We can’t always see the challenges:
    Students may be navigating personal, financial, health, family, or work-related challenges that affect their ability to learn. Others may experience barriers related to disability, technology access, caregiving responsibilities, housing or food insecurity, or mental health. These circumstances can influence concentration, participation, and academic performance in ways that are not immediately apparent.
  3. Be straightforward, clear, and accommodating:
    Clear expectations, consistent communication, and reasonable flexibility can help reduce unnecessary barriers to learning. When possible, provide students with advance notice of course requirements, explain the purpose of assessments, and offer flexibility that supports learning while maintaining academic standards. Designing courses with diverse student experiences in mind can help create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment.

Effective Practices for Online Exams

When deciding whether to use an exam to assess learning, consider how the assessment aligns with learning goals. Do the exam content and format allow students to demonstrate their understanding of key course concepts or ask them to apply skills learned in the course? Good assessments in any teaching modality starts with clear alignment of learning tasks to course learning goals. Assessments should focus on what instructors want students to know or be able to do and not punish students for hidden or implicit expectations (e.g., writing syntax errors).

Research shows that low stakes assessments promote learning by providing frequent formative feedback and multiple opportunities for improvement. Low-stakes assessments reduce testing anxiety and build student confidence as learners. Low-stakes assignments provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning throughout the semester, as well as foster a feeling among students that they are making measurable progress. Brief writing assignments such as one-minute essays, rapid response activities using tools like Clickers, Quizzes in Canvas, Mentimeter, peer- and self-assessments using rubrics, and online discussion forums can keep students engaged and allow instructors to check in on their learning.

If one of the course goals is for students to demonstrate higher-order thinking skills, create exams that allow students to demonstrate learning through analysis, synthesis, or application of concepts to new scenarios. This approach asks students to think critically and tackle tough problems.

“Open-book” exams encourage students to use their course resources to synthesize or evaluate information and go deeper into concepts. Open-book exams tap into students’ critical thinking, analysis, and application skills. Have students show their work, explain answers, interpret data visualizations, or draw connections between ideas. Make sure to clearly communicate your expectations for what resources students are allowed to use, and whether or not they are allowed to work with other students.

Inequities in higher education persist under normal conditions and have come into sharp relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. We must be careful not to inadvertently further or exacerbate inequity through pedagogical or technological choices. The information provided here is meant to support meaningful, learner-centered assessment. Creating assessments with equity in mind means involving students in the assessment process such as using student-generated exam questions; offering flexible options for students to demonstrate their learning; and being able to adapt your exam strategy to student needs.

Concerns about Cheating

Ask students to sign a pledge or write a statement in their own words that they will uphold the Honor Code. CU’s Honor Code states, "On my honor, as a University of Colorado Boulder student I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance." You can include the CU Honor Code statement at the beginning of the online quiz or in the exam instructions.

Canvas Quizzes can draw from a bank of test questions and randomly assign questions to individual students based on set parameters. Some question types allow the instructor to populate test items with different values so that students must solve the same kind and level of problem but cannot share answers with others.

If your exam includes multiple choice questions, you can randomize the order of options so each student is presented with a random order. This setting is available in the Quizzes tool in Canvas. This will make it more difficult for students to share correct answers.

While it is important to provide sufficient time for students to complete the exam so that they can account for competing issues such as their living situation and access to technology, setting a time limit for students to complete the exam could also reduce the opportunities to violate academic honesty. Remember to allow extended time for students who have accommodations through Disability Services.

Canvas Tools for Online Exams

Instructors can administer online exams using the Quizzes tool in Canvas, CU Boulder’s learning management system. The tool has several question types available, including Multiple Choice, Matching, Numerical, Formula, and Essay. Most of the question types can be auto-graded. Instructors can control when a quiz is available and how much time students have to complete a quiz, as well as which results are released to students and when they are released. Quizzes makes it easy to adjust the exam availability window, time limit, and number of attempts for individual students (e.g., if a student needs to take an exam at a different time or needs extra time to complete it). 

Instructors can get support for setting up their exams in Canvas from OIT’s Academic Technology Consultants. OIT offers training sessions on Quizzes in Canvas, both as live sessions and as on-demand recordings. 

Exam setting and configuration strategies to minimize academic dishonesty:

  • Set exam time limit
  • Randomize the order of multiple-choice question answers
  • Randomize the order of questions
  • Create a question bank and set the exam to pull a randomized set of questions for each student
  • Set the exam to not release correct answers to the students until all the students complete the exam

The Assignments tool in Canvas can be used to evaluate papers and a variety of project formats, including video. Assignments has a flexible rubric tool that can help make grading faster and more consistent. Rubrics are also a great way to set student expectations for the quality of work. Speedgrader allows instructors to leave comments and annotations directly on student papers, as well as to provide overall text and video comments on student submissions.

Proctorio is no longer available as a campus-wide service at CU Boulder. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) retired Proctorio as a common good service on August 15, 2024, following a campus assessment of online proctoring needs.

The Leeds School of Business and the Department of Economics continue to provide access to Proctorio through unit-managed licenses. Instructors who believe they need an online proctoring solution should consult with their department regarding available licensing options. Students and instructors using Proctorio through a departmental license should contact Proctorio Support for technical assistance.

Proctorio at CU Boulder

Faculty may choose to use online exam proctoring out of concerns for academic integrity, for verifying the test-taker’s identity, or for administering multiple-choice exams to courses with large enrollments. CU faculty who use the tool say that it is easy to use and reduces cheating. Proctorio gives instructors granular control over the types of test-taker behaviors they would like to monitor. 

Considerations for Using Online Proctoring

Faculty may choose to use online exam proctoring to verify student identity, support academic integrity, or administer exams in large enrollment courses. However, online proctoring also raises important considerations related to privacy, accessibility, technology requirements, and student experience.

Students may face challenges related to internet connectivity, access to appropriate technology, shared living environments, or time zone differences. Some online proctoring platforms may also present accessibility barriers for students who use assistive technologies or require accommodations.

Because of these considerations, instructors are encouraged to evaluate whether online proctoring is the most appropriate assessment strategy for their course and learning goals.

In July 2020, the Remote Exam Working Group in the College of Engineering & Applied Science recommended limiting the use of online proctoring technologies due to concerns about privacy and student trust. Their report, Remote Exam Best Practices, provides additional recommendations for designing assessments that support academic integrity while minimizing unnecessary barriers for students.

If You Decide to Use Online Proctoring..

If your department provides access to an online proctoring solution, consider the following practices:

  • Offer a practice exam so students can test their technology and become familiar with the platform before a graded assessment.
  • Provide alternative arrangements when students experience technology limitations, require disability accommodations, are located in another time zone, or have privacy or safety concerns.
  • Clearly communicate your expectations in the course syllabus and before the exam, including technology requirements, privacy considerations, and the process for requesting accommodations or alternatives.
  • Use the least restrictive proctoring settings necessary to support your assessment goals.
  • Above all, do not require a higher level of proof of learning in an online course than you would in a comparable face-to-face course.

Further Reading & Resources

For more information or assistance with creating effective assessments:

  CU Boulder College of Engineering & Applied Science Remote Exam Best Practices

  Office of Information Technology Academic Technology Consultants

   OIT Proctorio Service Page

   OIT Canvas Service Page

   Bay View Alliance Resources for Assessing Student Learning Online

The Bay View Alliance is an international network of research universities exploring strategies to support and sustain the widespread adoption of instructional methods that lead to better student learning. CU Boulder is one of ten research universities in the network working to bring more effective teaching approaches into wider use by sharing what works and pooling resources. Read more about the Bay View Alliance here.