Rethinking Exams for a Digital Generation

An interview with Rita Bateson, Founder of Eblana Learning

As anxiety, artificial intelligence and digital transformation reshape the classroom, long-established assessment models are under pressure. Rita Bateson of Eblana Learning reflects on what students now expect from exams, and where education systems are struggling to keep pace.

What changes have you observed in student expectations around assessment in the last three to five years?

In our work with schools, we’ve observed a high degree of anxiety around assessment and concern about the future of assessment, particularly around digital and AI-influenced changes.

At the same time, we are seeing green shoots of optimism around the potential for AI to reduce barriers to access, increase student engagement, and improve attainment. There is a high degree of optimism, particularly around personalised and differentiated learning.

At Eblana Learning, we are most excited internally about the potential for effective, valid, and reliable group assessment thanks to AI. We’re working very hard on both the assessment of AI literacy and the assessment of group dynamics using AI. Two huge projects, but very exciting.

How are students responding to digital or hybrid exam formats?

The experience really varies between digital tourists and digital natives and everybody in between.

Students feel a level of comfort with digital exam formats for certain subjects, particularly those with longer writing expectations. However, there is a degree of discomfort with digital mathematics exams, for example, and with some styles of science exams.

There is an openness to moving to digital, but also an anticipation of what that might mean for pedagogy, what it might mean for investment, and what the formats will look like in practice - all of which are not yet clear to schools. This creates a real opportunity to unlock a huge and diverse set of question items and stimulus, both in digital and hybrid formats.

What do students tell you they find most stressful or challenging about the current exam experience?

I think I touched on some subject-specific challenges earlier, but students still struggle with longer paper-based exams that conflict with their everyday experience.

Some students find paper reassuring, but many report that it is slow going, that it challenges their attention and retention spans, and that high-stakes environments are not conducive to producing their best work. Some students do thrive under pressure, but overall student wellbeing indicators suggest that most find this a very negative and very stressful experience.

This is particularly noteworthy in the 16–18-year-old age group. It is also emerging in conversations about AI, where some students show optimism that AI could alleviate this stress, while others are doubtful about how AI could realistically be used within the current exam experience.

Where do you see the biggest gaps between student expectations and current assessment delivery?

I think the biggest gaps between student expectations and current assessment delivery are still somewhat under-expressed.

We are doing a lot of work into the effects of AI on teaching and learning, and what that means for student expectations, both in assessment and later life. One concern is around cognitive atrophy, retention, and recollection. These issues are beginning to manifest in examinations: some students are using AI very effectively to prepare for assessments, but they are not retaining the information in the longer term.

The other concern I would note - because I always do - is that students have a high degree of exam anxiety, and now, at the early stages, AI anxiety as well. Added to this is eco-anxiety. If we are thinking seriously about the gap between student expectations and our current assessment delivery, then we also need to consider the sustainability of digital assessment, both for the environment and for cognition.