Global Journal of Education Research ISSN: xxxx-xxxx Vol. 1 (1), pp. 001-008, November, 2013. © Global Science Research Journals Full Length Research Paper Comparison between invigilated and non-invigilated online exams * Amanullah M., Patel A., Zaman G. S., and Mohanna K 1,2,3,4 Department of Clinical Biochemistry, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Accepted 29 th October, 2013 This paper compares the invigilated online exam with the non-invigilated „open book-open web‟ (OBOW) examinations. An intranet based invigilated and another internet based non-invigilated OBOW exam was conducted, wherein 116 students participated in it. The result obtained in the invigilated exam was compared with the non-invigilated exam taken by the same students. The percentage of marks obtained by the students were graded as “A” for 90-100% marks, “B”, “C”, “D” and “F” for 80-89%, 70-79%, 60-69% and 0-60% respectively. Some students were placed under ungraded category (“U” grade), as they faced some technical problems during the exam. Cheating was assessed based upon the time at which the student started taking the exam, the total time taken to complete it and the marks they scored. The results indicated that there was enormous difference in the results between the two types of exams. The number of students scoring “A” and “B” grades were very high in the non-invigilated exam as against the invigilated exam. A few cheating cases were observed in both the types of exams, which is unavoidable in any circumstance. About 4 students faced technical problems in the online non-invigilated internet based exams. The technical problems encountered were loss of internet connection, slowing of the internet connection due to traffic congestion in the network, hanging of the user‟s computer system. It was concluded that non- invigilated online exams would be better in accessing the student‟s ability to understand the subject and reproduce it, as compared to invigilated exams. Keywords: Open book open web non-invigilated examination, closed book invigilated examination, online exams, authentic assessment, constructivism. INTRODUCTION There are varying challenges to the present medical educators than their ancestors, in imparting medical education to the future physicians (Ruiz, 2006). Vast development in the health care deliverance and enormous progress in the medical field has pressurized the academician, thus there is a consequential short time for educating them as compared to the past (Ozuah, 2002). The present scenario has changed with relation to the delivery system for health care, wherein there has Corresponding Author Email: amanullahmohammed@yahoo.com Tel: + 966 7 2417863 been shifted from acute care to community-based care for chronic diseases. This resulted in variation in the educational settings (Nair, 2003). The present curricula in most of the medical schools have already challenged to cover conventional materials; hence it becomes difficult for the teaching faculty to find time to teach new fields such as genomics, palliative care, geriatrics and complementary medicine. The modification of the curricula towards competency based learning; accentuate the learning outcome rather than the learning itself (Leung, 2002). Online education and examination system uses the internet tools to convey a wide spectrum of solutions that