The 2020 worldwide situation has turned upside down the old functioning and operativity of

paper-based procedures in the UK. When students focus on what is their actual concern (life
goal studies and licenses examination taking for the upcoming summer), many are positive than
the online option is already available in our schools and centres. Far from the truth, the system
still has its issues in this field, and needs a lot of resources in order to implement the staff and
technology on time.

Ofqual, has been conducting a research pointing 5 reasons why there are some barriers in the
online/ onscreen options for exam taking and how these shall be overcome (Coombe, Lester &
Moores, 2020). These are the results of the investigation, exposing the points and their
settlement:

1. There would be differences of IT provision between centres, as well as an important

demand of tech resources for a situation that could only last one year. Each school
might use a different software or have less devices for a big amount of students,
preventing them from the fairness of a paper-based examination option.
2. The broadband connection and speed can be insufficient in countryside areas.
3. Centres and schools would require more IT trained staff to adapt the usual paper tests
to the online procedure. There would be not enough time to train the current teachers in
the specialized tech during the next six months. The resources used would increase the
unpredictability and this would be discriminatory for the students.
4. Schools are experienced in paper testing approach for the students, the risk of the new
methodology might compromise the present security management.
5. With the ongoing timescaling, it would be highly exposed to switch the safe paper-
based method for the online option, since foreplanning, risk lessening and setback
challenge retrieving, might take a substantial effort not possible to carry out for summer
21.

This study has not focused on the examination contents, however the two types of tests might
differ significantly, and the same problems of timing mentioned above, can show up as well. As
also seen in this investigation, it is worth to say that the reason number 5 is unbiased for the
centres, and the first four points are uneven for the students, so an adaptation must be
performed to improve the current circumstances.

A review performed by Coombe, Lester & Moores in 2020, underlines the importance of the on-
line and on-creen assessments' taking option for the students who are not able to sit their
examinations in the school or placement. Yet, there is a wide evidence that the students find
more challenging to carry out to accomplish the exams, because scrolling might impair their
reading skills, and they don't use the very helpful notes-taking on paper assistance on screen.

Thus finally, the same conclusion can be done in this research: there is no actual time to adapt
the paper-based system to the online technology, due to the big number of changes and
adjustments needed for this year's june-july exam period.