Examination Management As A Way Of Achieving Quality Assurance In Odl Institutions: The Case Of Zimbabwe Open University

Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE January 2013 ISSN 1302-6488 Volume: 14 Number: 1 Article 28 EXAMINATION MANAGEMENT AS A WAY OF ACHIEVING QUALITY ASSURANCE IN ODL INSTITUTIONS: The Case of Zimbabwe Open University Onias MAFA Zimbabwe Open University, Matabeleland North Region, ZIMBABWE ABSTRACT Enna Sukutai GUDHLANGA Zimbabwe Open University, ZIMBABWE An examination is an important component of any institution that educates people. It is a form of assessment used to measure the students’ understanding of the concepts and principles they would have learnt. Zimbabwe Open University, an Open and Distance Learning institution has been setting its own examinations for the academic programmes offered. Through examinations, ZOU students are encouraged to take an active role in analysing and questioning the things they would have learnt. This paper discusses the examinations management at ZOU with a special focus on the setting, administering, marking right up to the publication of results. It will also discuss the challenges that ZOU is facing in conducting examinations. It will finally emerge with some valuable practical suggestions on how ZOU can improve on its examination management and thereby achieve quality assurance in all its programmes. The investigation adopted the qualitative methodology and a case study design to generate data to address the questions which guided the study. The purposively sampled sample was drawn from ZOU’s National Centre, Bulawayo and Matabeleland North Regions. The sample consisted of manager -examinations, managerquality control, chairpersons of departments from different faculties, programme leaders, programme coordinators, regional quality coordinators, regional administrators, and students who were in their second year of study. Face-to-face interviews were used to generate data from manager -examinations, manager- quality control, regional quality coordinators and regional administrators. Data from chairpersons of departments from different faculties, programme leaders, programme coordinators, second year students were generated through focus group discussions. Major findings were the management of examinations at ZOU enhances quality assurance, cited activities which contributed to quality assurance included setting of examination items for the item banks, tight security in the transporting of examination items to and from the regions, residential marking, active invigilation. Participants were aware of activities that compromised quality assurance such as uncommitted invigilators, incomplete examination, lack of clarity on instructions, lack of security and non-confidentiality of examination items, timetable alterations. Some of the challenges that were mentioned by participants were unrealistic deadlines set by academic registry regarding marking, delays in dispatching of Personal Identification 326 Numbers to newly admitted students, welfare of invigilators during invigilation, and the need for communication between invigilators and other relevant authorities if the need arise when the examination is in progress. Some of the recommendations arrived at were that faculties should hold periodic workshops on examination management, induction of new staff members who deal with examination management, adopting ICT in the dispatch of examinations to regional centres and networking of the National Centre and the regional centres to facilitate communication and generation of student Personal Identification Numbers. Keywords: Zimbabwe Open University, an Open and Distance Learning. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) is an Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institution that was approved by the Government of Zimbabwe through an Act of Parliament. The University started as a University College of Distance Education (UCDE) of the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) (Government of Zimbabwe, 1999). In March 1999 it attained University status and it now operates separately from UZ (Pfukwa and Matipano, 2006; Nyaruwata, 2010). ZOU currently has four faculties namely, Commerce and Law, Arts and Humanities, Social Science and Science and Technology. The University has a main central campus in Harare. In addition to this, “there are 10 regional centres conveniently established in each province in order for it to be accessible to every potential student throughout the country” (Benza 2001: 18). In addition the university has added an 11 th region; the Virtual Region which services students who are abroad. These regions have enabled the University to decentralise and to go beyond the traditional boundaries of tertiary education. LITERATURE REVIEW: THE IMPORTANCE OF EXAMINATIONS IN QUALITY ASSURANCE Examinations are crucial since university study ends up with an output – the credential. It is imperative that this credential be a result of evaluative mechanisms that are worth their salt, that seek to objectively establish whether or not a student has obtained the necessary knowledge and/or skill in a subject to warrant certification and graduation (Ramsden, 1992). Functions of assessment are varied and include: that it is a mandatory requirement of universities; to provide feedback to both students and teachers; as motivation to students; and preparation for life (Exam Quality Accessed on 8 August, 2011). Grading of students based on examinations results, has implications for their future, and students view grades as determinants of extrinsic rewards, e.g., future employment or post graduate selection (Rowntree, 1977). The argument transcending this paper is that since examinations fulfill such important requirements, it is imperative that they be managed efficiently if quality assurance of credentials (the end product of university study) is to be realized. The paper also acknowledges that examination management is one of the many university activities which culminate into quality assurance. The university should jealously guard its brand since quality ensures that graduates meet the standards and expectations of the industry, professional bodies and the society in general (Midlands State University, undated). To this end, ZOU has a fully fledged quality assurance setup, staffed by a director, quality manager and regional quality coordinators in each of its regional centers. 327 MANAGEMENT OF EXAMINATIONS IN ODL ODL is credited with bringing education to people’s doorsteps, thereby availing university education to populations who find it difficult and impossible to attend conventional universities due to a number of limitations (UNESCO, 2002). However, if the institute offering ODL programmes is decentralised, as is the case at ZOU, the distance between the National Centres and Regional and District Centres may be a source of problems in the management of examinations. In our view, problems associated with management of examinations in ODL are threefold:    Expenses in delivering examinations to (...truncated)