Abstract—This paper investigates the effects of online exams on students' achievements and the students' perceptions of online and paper exams after taking an experimental online and paper based exams. Carefully designed exams that included various types of questions were attempted by male students in the faculty of computers and information technology and female students in the faculty of Education and Arts. The Moodle Quiz tool was used to design and conduct the online exams. The results of the online exams were compared with similar designed paper based exams. The students' performances in exams were measured in each question type (MCQ, TF, short, essay, numerical, and descriptive). Surprisingly, the mean and standard deviation statistical results were found to be similar between both paper based and online exams in the MCQ, TF, and numerical type of questions; while the essay questions results indicated that the students preferred to answer on paper rather than type on the computer screen. In the followed survey about their experiences with both exams, the students indicated to prefer certain aspects of online exams such as automatic results and feedback. Index Terms—Paper exams, online exams, experimental exams, Moodle quiz, question types. I. INTRODUCTION Examinations improve teaching by helping the teacher's planning and consistent student preparation. Examinations are not limited to measure educational or societal objectives and needs but incorporate in a way of coping with the educational system [1]. Exams generally determine the extent to which educational objectives are achieved as well as the extent to which educational institutions serve the needs of the community and society [2]. Rehmani (2003) explained that ‗examinations play a significant role in determining what goes on in the classroom in terms of what, and how teachers teach and students learn and can have impact on both teaching and learning [3]. The rapid advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in teaching and learning has shifted the paradigm from paper-pencil-based to computer-based system of examinations [4]. There are many names and forms to computer based exams: Computer Assisted Testing, Computerized Assessment, Computer Based Testing (CBT), Computer Aided Assessment (CAA), Computer Based Assessment (CBA), Online Assessment, E-Assessment and Web-Based assessment and others. Bodmann and Robinson (2004) contended that Technology based assessment provide opportunities to measure complex form of knowledge and reasoning that is not possible to engage and assess through traditional methods [5]. According to Conole and Warburton (2005) explained that CAT items are written to test particular levels of ability they have the potential to deliver more accurate and reliable results than traditional tests [6]. Al-Mashaqbeh, I.F and Al- Hamad in the department of computer education in Jordan showed that there was a positive perception towards adopting online exams. They measured students' perceptions toward the use of an online exam as an assessment tool on university campus within a Decision Support System Course at Al al Bayt University [7]. Mazzeo, Druesne, Raffeld, Checketts, & Muhlstein (1991) showed that paper-based test scores were greater than computer-based test scores for both mathematics and English CLEP tests [8]; although studies of Schaeffer, Reese, Steffen, McKinley, & Mills (1993) have reported no difference between computer and paper-based tests [9]. This paper presents the results of comparative study between paper based and online exams conducted on a group of Tabuk university students, who had no prior experience of taking online exams, in the region of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. In this paper, the name "online exams" is adopted to refer to an exam that is computer based with connection to a network in the server/client setup, where the student sits on the client side and the exam is located on the server side (that can be outside of the local university campus). The paper exam is the traditional paper and pen exam that requires students to write their answers. First, this research paper gives the statistical results of conducting two online exams and similar two paper exams for two groups of people. Then, it gives the results of a survey about students' perception of online exams and paper based exams: which type is more effective evaluation tool and which type is more satisfying to the students. The significance of this study is that it took place in a university/faculty that is only experimentally starting to selectively implement online exams for possible full implementation in the university with participants who were seeing such method of evaluation for the very first time. The overall results of this research should give the administration at the University of Tabuk some good knowledge based on the students' exam results and the results of the surveys on future directions of implementing online exams (especially for final exams) and the difficulties that surround such a step; especially, when completely replacing paper exams with online exams. II. METHODS Fifty male undergraduate students in their third or fourth year levels in the Faculty of Computers and Information Technology with majors in Computer Science or Information Technology and fifty female students in the faculty of Comparing Online and Paper Exams: Performances and Perceptions of Saudi Students Majdi Al-Qdah and Islam Ababneh International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 7, No. 2, February 2017 106 doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2017.7.2.850 Manuscript received August 10, 2015; revised November 4, 2015. Majdi Al-Qdah and Islam Ababneh are with University of Tabuk, Tabuk, KSA (e-mail: mqdah@ut.edu.sa, iababneha@ut.edu.sa).