The digitisation of teaching is also progressing in the subject German as a Foreign Language (DaF) at the Faculty of Applied Natural and Cultural Sciences. As part of this year's holiday courses, electronic language exams at levels A1 and B1 were successfully conducted for the first time. The holiday courses are part of the welcome programme for international exchange students at OTH Regensburg.
High demand: 80 students in five language courses
The language courses prepare international students for their studies at OTH Regensburg and are in high demand every year. A total of five courses from A0/A1 to B2/C1 started in September with around 80 participants. The implementation provided a good opportunity to test digital exam formats in a realistic setting and to review their usefulness for the DaF (German as a foreign language) sector.
The Safe Exam Browser (SEB) was used to ensure that the exams were conducted fairly and in a controlled manner. It blocks unauthorised programmes and websites during the exam, thus ensuring equal conditions for all. In the A1 courses, a scenario was also tested that deliberately allows access to certain websites – for example, for tasks involving online materials.
Electronic examinations offer several advantages: many question types, such as matching exercises, cloze tests and multiple-choice true/false questions, are marked automatically. This saves time and ensures quick results. Open-ended tasks – especially those involving written language production – are still marked manually. This ensures a differentiated assessment of individual language skills.
Digitalisation strengthens internationalisation
The positive experiences show how much digital examinations contribute to internationalisation. They promote the digital literacy of international students and make it easier for them to start their studies at OTH Regensburg.
Based on the good results, electronic examinations will be used regularly in the DaF courses at levels A1 to B2 in the future. The German as a Foreign Language department is thus strengthening its pioneering role in digitally supported and competence-oriented examination development.
More information at Assessment OTH Regensburg
