Danish ‘A’ level students are likely to be able to use the Internet in their written exams if a test run later this year proves successful.

The Ministry of Education says that pupils already use the Internet for tests.

“It’s a good way to get hold of historical facts or an article that can be useful, for example, in a written social sciences exam,” Ministry Education Consultant Søren Vagner tells MetroXpress.

Digital hand-in

In order to prevent students from cheating by downloading translation programmes or communicating using chats, the idea is that papers should be handed in digitally and that there should be random checks on sites that students visit during an exam.

“That will enable us to carry out plagiarism checks,” Vagner says.

Students happy
Students seem happy with the new initiative.

“This is a really good development as exams should mirror reality. When you write longer articles or reports at work, you also have access to the Internet,” says Danish High School Association Chairwoman Mina Bernardini, adding that random checks are a good idea.

The Association of High School Headmasters says that monitoring is vital in giving Internet access.

“As long as we are reasonably sure that we can discover cheating, it is a good idea,” says Association Chairman Peter Kuhlman.

Autumn tests
The plan is that several high schools will test the system during mocks this autumn. If the tests are successful, the system will be introduced for finals in 2011.