The pandemic has been a stark reminder of how valuable healthcare workers are. It has also shown us that more are desperately needed.
The United States is facing an immediate shortage of physicians and nurses. By 2025, the shortage of full-time physicians is projected to be between 124,000 and 160,000. The projected shortage of nurses is even more concerning, with millions needed in the coming years to meet the needs of a growing and aging population.
Becoming a qualified health professional is no easy task. To ensure that students have the knowledge and skills necessary for professional practice, rigorous examinations are essential. At the same time, the need to attract more candidates, remove unnecessary barriers to entry, and protect student health is spurring many institutions to expand their programs online. But is online testing wise when the stakes are so high?
Online test administration for graduate degree programs in health makes sense when reliable proctoring technology is in place and academic integrity is protected. With the right technology, institutions can confidently move forward with remote learning plans.
Health-related graduate programs are demanding, often requiring students to complete coursework and clinical rotations or internships simultaneously. This can be a serious juggling act, particularly for students who must balance academic programs with personal and professional obligations.
Online test administration for graduate degree programs in health can ease this burden. By allowing students to take tests at home and, at times, schedule exams at their convenience, educational institutions can better support students and remove barriers to learning. It also opens up opportunities to complete clinical work far from campus, which can make meeting practical requirements easier, broaden student experience, and make careers in healthcare more accessible.
Now more than ever, remote learning is also instrumental in protecting the health and safety of students. By minimizing the need to move between high-risk clinical environments and in-person classrooms, online learning is a meaningful way to reduce or prevent Covid-19 transmission for those in health-related fields of study.
Even as institutions begin to welcome students back on campus, both students and faculty are questioning if in-person exams are the right choice. Between the arrival of the Delta variant, ongoing changes in local mandates, travel restrictions, and widespread vaccine hesitancy, the academic year is off to an uncertain start. As a result, many institutions are re-evaluating their plans and expanding online learning options. However, in-person class attendance had been falling long before the pandemic.
According to a 2017 survey, less than 50 percent of second-year medical students attended lectures “most of the time” or “often,” as they considered viewing pre-recorded material to be more efficient. Such findings are strong evidence that technology is empowering students to be more selective about where they learn, and they are increasingly leaving the classroom behind. Institutions must adapt to not only support students, but also to attract them.
Indeed, a recent study on 300 graduate degree programs found that 83% are likely to increase the number of online graduate courses even after Covid-19 has passed. While many institutions had already begun developing online programs and courses, the pandemic has made the move more urgent and more possible. As one dean said:
What the pandemic has done is, first of all, underscore the wisdom of developing online master's degrees. But secondly, it encouraged many units that have yet to develop online programming to start looking at that much more consistently.
Notably, the availability of online graduate degrees is credited with increasing enrollment at many schools. This is a clear indication that remote learning is a meaningful solution to the practical barriers of in-person education.
When migrating to online test administration for graduate degree programs in health, academic integrity becomes a matter of life and death. Therefore, a reliable proctoring solution essential; the stakes are too high to forego exam security or accept substandard software.
Rosalyn’s innovative online proctoring system offers:
Rosalyn is committed to protecting every student’s right to learn. Our industry-first Student Advisory Board continuously guides our product development and allows us to respond to the evolving needs and concerns of test-takers. This helps Rosalyn offer a unique approach to proctoring that:
Whether your institution is large or small, our scalable and cost-efficient system makes the move to online test administration as seamless as possible.
With Rosalyn, you can create comfortable, ethical remote learning environments that meet students where they are and invite greater participation in these critical programs.
Rosalyn.ai
Dublin, OH
