Running an Online Mathematics Examination with STACK

Abstract

In this paper I discuss running an online examination with STACK for a year 1 "Introduction to Linear Algebra" course. The COVID pandemic has continued to disrupt teaching during 2021-22, and were are still not able to return to the examination hall for a traditional exam. Instead, our examinations were still "take home". Under these circumstances we wrote a fully automatically marked final test for the course. With over 800 students on the course in 2021-22, the paper-based examination was estimated to cost about 50 person-days to mark. Clearly, reducing this cost is an attractive prospect. However, important questions remain. To what extent can we write questions which cover the learning objectives of the course? How did the students do with the test? What recommendations can we offer for similar courses, and future years? In particular, do we need to return to the exam hall?