Technical problems with a new digital platform being used for diploma exams has prompted ATA president Jason Schilling to call for a pause on piloting the new technology until bugs have been worked out.
On Jan. 10, some Alberta students who were using the Vretta digital platform to write the English language arts diploma exam encountered a question that did not match their exam. Meanwhile, students writing with pen and paper had the correct question. The situation was particularly confusing for students who were using both the digital and the paper versions of the test.
Other problems were also reported: the online question was the same as the exam in November, audio versions were not available, the Vretta built-in spellcheck was not working and some schools had problems uploading the student exams.
Since students do not have a choice to write diploma exams, Schilling feels that a program like Vretta should not be piloted in such a context.
“I would encourage the government to delay the pilot of this platform and test it in the field, rather than using it in a high-stakes situation,” Schilling said. “Students should not be penalized for the errors of Alberta Education or for a glitchy digital platform. These exams are high stakes and worth 30 per cent of their final mark (the written portion 15 per cent). It’s important for any programs used ... to be as bug-free as possible.”
Alberta Education provided a written statement on behalf of Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides confirming that the Jan. 10 exam experienced an inconsistency between the digital and paper versions of the English Language Arts 30 diploma exam on one long-answer question. The question on the digital platform was from the November 2023 English 30 diploma exam.
“I have asked my team to explore why this occurred and I am confident we will find the cause of the problem and rectify it,” the statement reads. “This regrettable inconsistency does not compromise the validity of the exam, as all students received a valid diploma question. Students, parents, and teachers can be assured that the diploma exams will be assessed fairly and according to current practice standards.”
Move to digital
Schilling expressed an overall concern about the government’s long-term plan to move all provincial exams on all subjects to an online digital platform. Teachers have expressed reservations about both delivering and marking exams online, he said. An exam delivered entirely online, including all questions and exam materials, goes against many of the strategies that teachers teach their students to use while working with texts and other materials in class.
“In English, I teach many literacy strategies on how to deconstruct information, highlight the text or write on the test to make sense of what the question is asking,” Schilling explained.
“With an online platform, the student is not able to do that. We equip students with a variety of strategies to be successful, and the Vretta platform does not let our students use those strategies, and that is unfair to students.” ❚
