England’s major exam boards were asked if they could move GCSE and A-level exams online this summer, Tes has learned.

And sources say that the eventual cancellation of this summer’s exams has made the Department for Education much more receptive to making the long-anticipated switch away from pen and paper GCSEs and A levels in the future. 

The revelation comes at the start of a major series of Tes articles about the dramatic changes around the corner for our post-Covid assessment system: Pens down: Exams’ digital revolution.  

Sources have revealed how, in autumn last year, the DfE asked the boards whether GCSE and A-level exams for summer 2021 could be run online to avoid further Covid disruptions following the 2020 cancellations.

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In the event, the boards were emphatic that this would not be possible at such short notice because of the complexities involved, and also raised concerns over whether all students would be able to access a reliable internet connection.

GCSEs and A levels: Covid could trigger the demise of pen and paper exams

But the request -- made before this summer’s exams were cancelled - is being viewed as a signal of a major change in attitude towards online assessment that could spell the end of pen and paper exams before too long, Tes understands. 

Sources close to exam discussions with the DfE said that prior to the pandemic, it had been sceptical about electronic exams. But the disruptions of Covid are said to be making the department much more open to the idea.

Headteachers’ leaders are also receptive. Richard Sheriff, the Association of School and College Leaders’ president, said: “I think the debacle of 2020 and that summer when everything went wrong has opened decision-makers’ eyes to the need to have a plan B in place that’s robust.

Pandemic has laid bare vulnerabilities of existing A levels and GCSEs

“And having an exams system that’s vulnerable in all kinds of ways is not good if that’s your single way of assessing the population in schools.” 

Tes understands that following the cancellation of GCSE and A-level exams in 2020 and 2021, the government now feels there would have been less overall disruption if some subjects could have been run on-screen; for example, GCSE maths and English.

This has led to discussions in government about a future switch to digital assessment, as part of building resilience in the exams system to create a more robust form of assessment.

Any move to national digital assessment would require significant investment so that schools would have the internet connection and devices capable of ensuring that online exams were fair.

The need to address England’s digital divide

Professor Robert Coe, a member of Ofqual’s standards advisory group, said that digital assessment was being adopted around the world. But he added that the digital divide would need to be addressed in any roll-out of on-screen GCSEs and A levels in England.

”[Digital assessment] is quite widely done in many parts of the world,” he said.

“I think one of the main reasons we haven’t gone down this road for GCSEs is the scale of it, with hundreds of thousands of candidates on the same day - and not every student has access to a device or certainly hasn’t had.

“There are questions of security as well, but the main one is about the prevalence of devices.”

Professor Coe said some students might be more experienced in using keyboards and devices, and so issues around equity needed to be considered.

“Those are the concerns about access and in the pandemic people have had to face up to that a bit with online learning,” he said.

Digital assessment technology ‘not new’ for exam boards

However, he said that for the boards, “this is not new technology for them” and that the example of successful digital assessments in other countries would mean that introducing on-screen national exams in England “shouldn’t be years” away in the future. 

Tes understands that in order to completely overhaul the system from pen and paper-based exams to digital assessment, there would need to be commissioned pilots running for two to three years as a minimum before on-screen GCSE assessment was introduced.

It is thought that online exams could be piloted by the boards in some subjects, such as ICT, before all exams were sat online.

Mr Sheriff said: “There needs to be a business continuity plan for the exams system, and an online version of that which should run in parallel or instead of seems to me a very sensible idea.

“It could be introduced slowly and trialled and then brought in for certain subjects first and for other subjects later.”

An Ofqual spokesperson said: “In the long term, there is scope to reflect on what we have learned since the pandemic began and what implications this will have for greater use of technology when it comes to qualifications.

Ofqual warns of ‘barriers’ to moving exams online

“The barriers include IT provision, security and staffing issues. There are also considerations about how to assess effectively different subjects online. It is clear that moving qualifications like GCSEs, AS and A levels online would take time, investment, commitment and careful risk management.

“For example, good assessments cannot always be transferred online as the format may not work, while technology may interfere with the skills being assessed.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We decided exams would not go ahead this summer because of the disruption pupils had faced and the impact on their education.  

“Given the disruption, to hold exams would have been unfair to pupils regardless of whether they took place online or in schools and colleges.”