Aberdeen College has been using the SOLAR online exam system for the past 3 Academic years. Exams are taken by students across most of the curriculum areas offered.
Evaluation of both staff and student use shows that both groups find the exam software very user friendly, being simple and easy to use.
Students particularly like getting the instant results and the review feature at the end of the exam.
Teaching staff like the fact that using SOLAR reduces their marking load whilst at the same time ensuring that students are adequately assessed in line with SQA requirements and guidelines.
I have delivered training sessions to all teaching staff involved with SOLAR and they have all commented on how easy the whole administration system is from scheduling exams, to using the reporting facility. Being able to allocate a different mix of questions to students in the same class also makes the invigilation of the test sessions easier.
Sheila Gordon is a Flexible Assessment Co-ordinator at AberdeenCollege