Students + Directions = Failure

One of the courses I teach is delivered online, without any FTF class meetings. Obviously this means that the exams are conducted online as well. The way we do it is to make the exams open-book, and to make them available during a limited time window, so that everyone has an opportunity to fit it into their schedule. The course delivery software restricts the exam to a 60 minute time limit, with only one attempt per student. Right-click is disabled, meaning the students can't copy or cut-and-paste the exam. The exam questions are also randomly selected from a test bank (50 question on the exam, 200 in the test bank). The order of the questions and the order of the answers are randomized. All in all, it's a pretty secure way to conduct an exam.

The exam schedule and procedures are stated in the syllabus. I also post multiple reminders in the week leading up to the exam. Nevertheless, there's always - and I mean ALWAYS - some student who can't read, can't comprehend, or can't be responsible enough to follow the exam process. For example, here's a direct quote from an email received from a student who missed the exam.

"I was the email about the test but on friday i forgot to take it my boss from work called so i can go to work and i remember but the test right when i got out of work but it was 1 am it was too late. Can i get another chance to take the test?"

Another example: here's what I posted regarding exam availability.

"You can take the exam between noon Thursday and 11:00 p.m. Friday."

Email from a student:

"do we have till friday 11:59 am or 11:59 pm?"

Sigh...

I should note that most of the class completed the exam with no problems (other than their grades, but that's another story).