Can you believe this happened?

puggymae · May 13, 2007

You were certainly within your right to talk to someone, I probably would have started with the Department Chair or Dean. What did the President say about the situation (just curious!).

I never give an exam on Blackboard during midterm or finals week because I know that it will crash - it is just easier to do it on hard copy.

And...how did you do on your exam in spite of the chaos?

krazykev · May 14, 2007

We have talked to the Dean of the Nursing College before and all we got was lip service because nothing changed.

Also, the first time I took the exam, I my score was 68% and I failed the class by 1 point 79%

Second time I passed the exam 80% and passed the class with 84%.

I never want to take to comprehensive exams for the same class again.

justme1972 · May 14, 2007

Fellow Humans:
I was beginning to take my comprehensive final exam for my Health Promotions class (nursing class) when the computer system crashed. So then everyone panics, and begins to talk. Then the instructor goes to print off paper copies and then we begin to take them again. But it was still noisy (people talking) and I was really stressed out from all of this mess.
Then later on in the day the instructor begins to call people to tell them that everyone can retake the final exam again due to all the crazyness in the testing area. It was at this point that I arranged a meeting with the President of the technical college that I attend because this is the 3rd time that the computer system has crashed during an exam.
Now, do you think that I was out of line for talking to the President of the technical college about the computer system crashing?

Yup. I would never, ever go to the President of the college before the Dean. Mainly because the President of the college is not in tune with students directly as much as the Dean's are, and I believe in going up the ladder when you have an issue.

By the way, you have a very legitimate concern, because if the computer is crashing that much, then they should be using scantrons. The exam should have been given the same day, and not another day.

Once you have seen the questions, you have seen them.

vamedic4, EMT-P · May 14, 2007

You're not out of line at all. Your hard earned (or borrowed) money is going to this place, and you have a legitimate gripe. I also agree with seeing the Dean first - either the Dean of the department or of the specific school you attend. If you speak to them but feel unheard, there are state agencies you can report them to. That bites.

ChocoholicRN · May 14, 2007

I have experienced very similar situations in nursing school when it comes to taking online exams. My L/D teacher gave all her exams online, not a big deal, right? Wrong. She gives us a 4 hour time frame in which to log on to take the test, and if for whatever reason the computer crashes, we have 30 minutes to log on again somewhere else. Well, during our second exam, the schools website where the test was located was down because they were doing maintenence work on it. Granted our teacher didn't know about this in advance, but these things happen and it is completely out of our control. When we called her to tell her the situation (we don't have to take the exam at school, can be from any computer anywhere) she just told us to keep trying, as if the website would magically fix itself in this situation! During the final exam, a number of us took it at school using their computers. Literally in the middle of answering a question, the computer froze and we all got booted. Turns out the schools internet was down throughout the entire campus! And a lot of ppl were doing online exams at the same time because it was finals week!! My teacher told us to just keep trying and go to so-and-so because they can override the system. Ummm, no they can't, not when the entire campus is down. :angryfire I also couldn't drive home to take the test because it would take me more than the allotted 30 mins. to get home. Anyways, sorry to rant about this but I absolutely hate online tests, computers are extremely unreliable. If I were you, I would have gone to the Dean first. Our Dean is very in tune with the students, where the president is never even mentioned regarding students concerns. If this happens again, keep a record of everything that goes wrong while taking the computer exams and bring it to the Dean. See if you can get a few classmates to help out too. Good luck!!

gonzo1, ASN, RN · May 14, 2007

You pay a lot of money for an education. You should expect/demand that everything works as it should. If not start up the chain until you get satisfaction.

krazykev · May 14, 2007

We DID talk to the Dean of the nursing school on two seperate occasions before this time, the 3rd time. And this is why I went to the top because nothing was changing.

LadieRn · May 14, 2007

You go KrazyKev. Sometimes you have to go to the top to get things done. Especially after you went to the Dean on several occasions.

TrudyRN · May 14, 2007

I have experienced very similar situations in nursing school when it comes to taking online exams. My L/D teacher gave all her exams online, not a big deal, right? Wrong. She gives us a 4 hour time frame in which to log on to take the test, and if for whatever reason the computer crashes, we have 30 minutes to log on again somewhere else. Well, during our second exam, the schools website where the test was located was down because they were doing maintenence work on it. Granted our teacher didn't know about this in advance, but these things happen and it is completely out of our control. When we called her to tell her the situation (we don't have to take the exam at school, can be from any computer anywhere) she just told us to keep trying, as if the website would magically fix itself in this situation! During the final exam, a number of us took it at school using their computers. Literally in the middle of answering a question, the computer froze and we all got booted. Turns out the schools internet was down throughout the entire campus! And a lot of ppl were doing online exams at the same time because it was finals week!! My teacher told us to just keep trying and go to so-and-so because they can override the system. Ummm, no they can't, not when the entire campus is down. :angryfire I also couldn't drive home to take the test because it would take me more than the allotted 30 mins. to get home. Anyways, sorry to rant about this but I absolutely hate online tests, computers are extremely unreliable. If I were you, I would have gone to the Dean first. Our Dean is very in tune with the students, where the president is never even mentioned regarding students concerns. If this happens again, keep a record of everything that goes wrong while taking the computer exams and bring it to the Dean. See if you can get a few classmates to help out too. Good luck!!

What was the result for you? I hope you raised holy you-know-what about this teacher and this situation to whoever accredits this school. After following chain of command, of course, . This is just so much unnecessary stress. How hard is it to get an exam printed up and use the Scantron to grade it?

GingerSue · May 15, 2007

doing exams on computer can have problems

and it sure can create a lot of unnecessary stress

where I am, often they can't even get me logged in to

the exam, so I arrive and expect there to be problems

every time

(last time it worked okay - surprise).

When they can't log me in, then they offer me hard copy.

So, they should always be able to offer hard copy if there

is a problem for students. Then the staff in the test centre

mark is right after I write it.

And I always grab a piece of paper just before sitting to write

any exam, in order to calmly write down any stupid question

that appears on the exam, or any problems that have occurred

while I was writing the exam. And follow up afterwards too.

As a student, each one of us is paying a lot of money for

this education. Make sure they know what the problems are.

I hope that you do well in all of your exams.

krazykev · May 15, 2007

Another thing: We are not allowed to write down any questions that are on the test that we would like to research the answers too. Then too, if we have a question about a test question, we need to site two separate references as to why we have a question regarding a particular question.

But remember, we are not allowed to write down the question in the first place. Then if we actually do remember the question, the first thing the instructor asks is "When did you write done the question?" or another favorite saying of theirs is, "How did you remember the question in the first place?"

I think this is totally nuts.:angryfire

Finally, I am going to a psychologist to get him/her to agree that I learn better taking a paper & pencil test. Then, I will qualify as a student with special needs and will be able to take a pencil paper test. I am not really happy with this, but it is a whole lot better than dealing with exams that are not being administered in a functional manor. After all, nursing is my 3rd degree and I have never encountered exams that are given in such a dysfunctional manor.