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The study has two main objectives. The first is to introduce three new examination policy practices: overbooked exam rooms, a substitute invigilator and an inheritance of the invigilation distribution. The second is the use of the examination model to determine the sustainability of the system against expected changes and to obtain long-term strategic information. This study aims to obtain managerial insights on the sustainability of the examination system with the newly introduced practices; it does not claim to propose solutions for large-scale problems.

This study introduces a multi-objective mathematical model that contains a couple of constraints that belong to new practices. To check the sustainability of the system, this study gets help from sensitivity analysis, which informs the decision-maker about how the results will react to parameter changes. The authors perform all experiments in the Python/Gurobi modeling environment.

The results demonstrate that the proposed practices are effective in the efficient use of resources. Also, this study shows that the examination model can be used as a stress test so that the weaknesses of the system can be identified and long-term strategic information can be obtained.

The contribution of this study is twofold: the introduction of examination policy practices that are overbooked exam rooms, a substitute invigilator and an inheritance of the invigilation distribution. Overbooked exam rooms aim to use resources effectively, taking into account the possibility of temporarily increasing the exam room capacity. The substitute invigilator protects the examination process against sudden events. The inheritance of the invigilation distribution helps to ensure fairness; and the use of the examination model to obtain managerial insights on expectations. This allows testing the validity of existing policies and making necessary changes, taking into account possible changes in the system. In this respect, it differs from the studies in the literature and fills an important managerial gap.

This paper aims to consider the exam timetabling of the re‐sit session in the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences of Sfax. The objective is to find a timetable which minimizes the number of timeslots for exams required by the enrolled students.

Two heuristic procedures based on graph colouring are developed and tested on real data to solve the exam timetabling problem at the faculty.

These heuristics were tested on a simple example which shows the out‐performance of the second heuristic compared with the first one. When tested with the real data of the faculty, exam size heuristic provides a timetable with a shorter timeframe; however, the timetable obtained from the second heuristic is of better quality.

The main contribution of this paper is to create an automated exam timetabling that helps the faculty to manage its own enterprise system.

The purpose of this case study is to share the authors’ involvement and observation in adopting online exam as an evaluation tool, in the hope that others may too be able to adapt and circumvent this lockdown period while bringing a more reliable methodological approach in an online exam.

This is a case study that reports the application of an online examination for a year 3 MBBS Professional Exam during the period of lockdown (movement control). This case highlights the conduct of online theory in the form of single best answer multiple choice questions and online practical via objective structured clinical examination, without jeopardizing the integrity of the system, and the measures adapted to mitigate potential academic dishonesty.

The authors’ observation shows that online exam can be conducted in scenario where conventional exam is not possible.

This is an observation in a real-life scenario that discusses the purpose and the process. A single study may not be sufficient to relate the reliability and generalizability of the analysis.

The practice of social distancing is a hindrance towards traditional classroom teaching. Online exam has promising potential to be the solution to this problem. The authors have demonstrated that an MBBS theory and practical exam can be conducted remotely without any physical contact, without any compromise in achieving the learning objectives within the curriculum. Medical education can proceed with a new drive while ensuring the learning process continues a stable momentum.

Online examination is almost unheard of, especially for undergraduates in the medical programme. This study highlights a plausible approach in the design of the online examination and identifies the barriers and favourable edges of this platform.

This study aims to examine the impact of the transformation of an assessment on students’ performance and perspectives in an English for Academic Purposes course in Hong Kong. The assessment was changed from the traditional pen-and-paper mode to an unproctored online mode.

Using mixed methods, the research team analysed the differences between the assessment performances of those who took the course before the pandemic (n = 664) and those who took it during the pandemic (n = 702). Furthermore, focus group interviews were conducted with seven students regarding their perspectives on the unproctored assessment.

The results revealed that, although there were no major differences in the overall grades of the two groups, students who were assessed online during the pandemic performed significantly better in terms of their English use. Nevertheless, the shift to online assessment had several negative effects on the students.

Previous studies on unproctored online assessments (UOA) were concerned with potential learning quality issues, such as plagiarism and grade inflation. This study, however, provided empirical evidence that high-quality assessment delivery can be provided via UOA if the question types and assessment arrangements are carefully decided.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the fraud triangle, Machiavellianism, academic misconduct and corporate social responsibility (CSR) proclivity of students.

The present study surveyed 471 university students. The study was cross-sectional and employed structural equation modelling in statistical modelling.

The study provides evidence that perceived opportunity to cheat in examinations is the single most important factor accounting for significant variations in rationalization and academic misconduct. Similarly, low Machiavellians significantly get inclined to CSR ideals. The fraud triangle alone accounts for 36 per cent of the variations in academic misconduct, hence the error variance is 64 per cent of academic misconduct itself. This error variance increases to 78 per cent when a combination of perceived opportunity, rationalization, Machiavellianism is considered. Moreover, both Machiavellianism and academic misconduct account for 17 per cent of variations in students’ proclivity to CSR ideals.

Results imply that creating a setting that significantly increases a student's anticipated negative affect from academic misconduct, or effectively impedes rationalization ex ante, might prevent some students from academic misconduct in the first place and then they will become good African corporate citizens. Nevertheless, although the unit of analysis was students, these were from a single university – something akin to a case study. The quantitative results should therefore be interpreted with this shortcoming in mind.

This paper contributes to the search for predictors of academic misconduct in the African setting and as a corollary, for a theory explaining academic misconduct. Those students perceiving opportunity to cheat in examinations are also able to rationalize and hence engage in academic misconduct. This rationalization is enhanced or reduced through Machiavellianism.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused upheaval in university teaching practices. This paper aims to document how the teaching team on a large third-year undergraduate financial accounting course in an Australian university coped with the impact of the virus. Changes in teaching practices when classes shifted from face-to-face to online instruction during the COVID-19 crisis are described and examined using the crisis management process framework of Pearson and Clair (1998). Teaching team members were asked to write brief reflections on their experiences teaching the course during the period from February to July 2020. These were then thematically analysed and included as outcomes within the Pearson and Clair (1998) framework.

Description of COVID-19 induced changes to teaching a large undergraduate financial accounting course at an Australian university.

Six outcomes emerged: learning new technology; collegiality; the course review; the online delivery experience; redesigning assessments and; time investment; conjectures are offered about the survival of some of the changes made during the year.

The research only covers one teaching team’s experience but that is the purpose of the special issue.

Lessons for the future are explored.

The implications of online teaching are explored.

The paper provides a historical record of how the teaching team on a large undergraduate financial accounting course coped with an unexpected, major event that necessitated rapid and radical changes to teaching methods.

Online testing offers many advantages for classroom management and learning: ease of grading, immediate feedback, robust question types, integration of technology such as graphing utilities or specialized applets, and multimedia integration (e.g., questions based on detailed images or video files). It also offers many opportunities for misbehavior, such as misrepresentation (e.g., taking a test for someone else), sharing information between testing sessions, or inappropriate access of online resources during the test. We consider potential tools available in course management systems that can help, and also mention other available resources. With online testing, it is easier for students to save copies of testing materials, which find their way to social web sites. Fortunately, many course management systems allow the possibility of randomization, either by choosing one of several alternate questions on a given topic, or preparing calculated questions in which a parameter is allowed to vary over a specified range of values.

Botswana enjoys the celebratory status of a shining example of a successful democracy in Africa. As such, one expects democracy to underpin policy formulation and the running of the education system. This chapter problematizes the relationship between democracy and education in Botswana. It focuses on the Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Conduct of the 2010 Examinations. The conduct of the examinations marked a crisis which resulted in a deadlock between the Botswana’s Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD), Botswana Examination’s Council (BEC) on the one hand and teachers’ unions-Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) and Botswana Teacher’s Union (BTU) on the other hand. Teachers’ unions complained about poor conditions of service and remunerations associated with the administration of national examinations. This action triggered a national strike in the public service in general and consequently revealed Botswana Government’s undemocratic response to what was a sensitive issue of national interest. When the examinations results were released, it became evident that students performed horribly BEC was persecuted for the poor performance. This chapter therefore registers that the 2010 Examinations crisis in Botswana is a classic indication that democracy and education are two worlds apart in Botswana’s education system.

OUT of 21 centres set up by the Government in 1965 to help industry adopt automation and, later, the use of robots, 11 have already closed through lack of support. Another, that in Birmingham, is very likely to cease its work very shortly. The cause, mainly, is lack of support from the industries they were formed to help