OnlineExams

The online HSC, rehearsed properly.

Locked-down online exams for English Extension, Software Engineering, Enterprise Computing and Science Extension. The same platform then runs homework and tests for every other subject from Year 7.

Who built itA team led by a former Software Engineering and Science teacher with nearly 30 years in professional software. When you get in touch, you talk to the people who build it.

Year 12 English Extension 1 · HSC task 1In progress

Question 2 · Answer ONE question.

E1: Confessional worlds
E2: Historical worlds
E3: Hybrid worlds
E4: Natural worlds
E5: Shakespearean worlds

The new English Extension format: students choose their elective inside the exam.

Locked downSafe Exam Browser is checked on every device before the sitting starts.

Wifi dropsAnswers keep saving and recover by themselves.

Special provisionsFor the whole group or for individual students.

Online HSC licence

English Extension 1 and 2, in the new online format

The online HSC asks students to choose their elective inside the exam. OnlineExams builds that as one question with a variant for each elective, each with its own prescribed texts and stem. Your students sit the real structure before the real day.

Extension 2Written responses are marked with comments beside the student’s own words, then the mark is recorded against your sample answer.

Year 12 English Extension 1 · HSC task 1In progress

Elective 1: Confessional worlds

Prescribed texts

Didion, Joan, The White Album
Hughes, Ted, Birthday Letters
Williams, Tennessee, The Glass Menagerie

Evaluate how your studied texts use personal voice to explore the relationship between performance and intimacy.

After choosing, the student sees only their elective, with its own prescribed texts and stem, and can go back to the options.

Software Engineering and Enterprise Computing

Students answer with the tools the subject uses: a Python editor, a live SQL database and working spreadsheets, all inside the locked-down exam. Teachers read the code, the query or the formula, not just the output.

Samples includedNew schools start with sample assessments for English Extension 1, Software Engineering and Science Extension.

Software EngineeringIn progress

# Question 21: return the average score, ignoring absent students
def average(scores):
    present = [s for s in scores if s is not None]
    return sum(present) / len(present)

Students write and run Python in the browser, inside the locked-down exam. The teacher reads the code the student wrote.

Enterprise ComputingIn progress

C10=VLOOKUP(A10,$A$2:$C$6,3,FALSE)

	A	B	C
1	Code	Product	Price ($)
2	P101	USB drive	12.50
4	P103	Keyboard	45.00
5	P104	Webcam	59.95
10	P104	Price lookup	59.95

A working spreadsheet inside the exam. The teacher sees the VLOOKUP formula as well as the value it returns.

Science Extension

Extended responses and data questions built around real investigations. Video stimulus plays inside the question with captions on, and students can pause and replay it while they answer.

Year 12 Science Extension · HSC task 1In progress

4 marksQuestion 3 Watch the clip of the pendulum investigation. Identify one variable that was not controlled, and explain how it affects the validity of the results.

[Narrator] Each trial releases the pendulum and times ten full swings.

1:05 / 2:40CC

Held to exam conditions

Lockdown: Safe Exam Browser locks each device and is verified before the sitting starts.
Dropped wifi: Answers keep saving as students work and recover by themselves when the connection returns.
Special provisions: Add extra time for the whole group in one step, or set provisions for individual students: extra time, rest breaks and a separate room.

Year 12 Software Engineering · HSC task 1In progress

28/28devices verified by Safe Exam Browser

1:12time remaining

2ssince last save

Every device is checked by Safe Exam Browser before the start. Answers keep saving through a wifi dropout.

School licence

Every other subject, Years 7 to 12

The same platform your Year 12 classes sit their exams on, with item types that let students answer the way the subject needs.

Plot data and fit a line

Year 10 Science · Reaction rate

3 marksQuestion 14 Plot the results, draw a line of best fit, and use it to estimate the reaction time at 35 °C.

PointLine of best fitCurveLabelArrow

The student plots the points, places the line of best fit and reads off the estimate. The answer is kept as a graph, not a photo.

Label a diagram in place

Year 11 Biology · Class testIn progress

3 marksQuestion 12 Annotate the diagram to identify the sugar-phosphate backbone, and explain how the structure allows DNA to be copied accurately.

Text boxArrowHighlightLabel

Students annotate the diagram directly with text boxes, arrows and highlights. The annotated diagram is what gets marked.

Listen inside the question

Year 9 French · Listening task

1 markQuestion 4 Listen to the phone message. Where is Julie going on Saturday?

0:31 / 1:24

au cinéma
chez sa grand-mère
à la plage
au marché

The audio plays inside the question. No separate player or USB stick to manage.

Formula keyboard with NSW notation
Essays and source analysis, commented beside the text
Multiple choice and short answer
Extended response
Python, SQL and spreadsheets from Year 7
Audio and video inside the question

Both licences

Practice papers that build themselves

Most tools make you rebuild the same revision set from scratch. OnlineExams assembles it from your question bank instead, on roughly a 70 / 30 split: about 70% on what you are teaching now, the rest pulled back from earlier topics on a widening schedule, so students meet them again just before they would forget.

That is retrieval practice and spacing, the two study techniques with the strongest evidence behind them, built into a paper you did not have to write again.

Why the 70 / 30 split worksSchematic

repeated spaced retrieval single study session

A schematic, not student data. Curve shape after Cepeda et al. (2006), Psychological Bulletin 132(3); retrieval-practice effect from Roediger and Karpicke (2006), Psychological Science 17(3). Practice testing and distributed practice are rated highest-utility in Dunlosky et al. (2013).

Results you can act on

When marking closes, every question gets a facility (how many got it right) and a discrimination (whether it separated strong answers from weak). You see which questions to keep, which to rewrite and which topics to teach again.

Reading this exampleNobody chose the second option, so it is not doing any work as a distractor. The students who chose the key scored far higher overall, which is what a discrimination of 0.87 means: this question separated the strongest students from the rest.

Year 12 Software Engineering · Item analysisResults released

Q13a · Multiple choice · 1 markn = 23

A small business wants to move its customer records from local spreadsheets to a web application. What is the main benefit of a server-side database?

52.2%Facility

0.87Discrimination

Hardeston the paper

Option	Key	Chose	%	Mean score
Multiple staff can access the same up-to-date data at once.	✓	12	52.2%	29.60
Spreadsheets cannot store customer names.		0	0.0%	0.00
Web applications do not require an internet connection.		7	30.4%	4.67
Server-side databases remove the need for backups.		4	17.4%	13.00

For the school

Your school owns the bank: Every question your teachers write belongs to the school, not to us or a publisher. Keep it private or share it with the faculty, and it is ready again next year.
One login: Launches from Canvas, Moodle and similar through LTI 1.3, so students have nothing new to remember.
Australian data: All student data is stored in Australia under the Australian Privacy Principles, including APP 11.

Questions

Do students need another login?

Not if your school uses Canvas, Moodle or another LMS that supports LTI 1.3. Otherwise the school sets up accounts in a few minutes.

What happens if the wifi drops during an exam?

Answers keep saving as students work and recover by themselves when the connection comes back. Nothing needs restarting.

Can we still sit an assessment on paper?

Yes. Export any assessment as a Word paper and marking key, with equations and diagrams included.

Who owns the questions we write?

Your school does. Questions your teachers write stay in your school’s bank, private or shared with the faculty, and carry over each year.

Do we have to write every question ourselves?

Every new school starts with ready-made sample assessments for English Extension 1, Software Engineering and Science Extension. Your own question bank then grows as you teach.

How is it priced?

There are two yearly licences, Online HSC and School, which is priced by school size. Teacher accounts are free. Every school gets a quote, so get in touch and we will send one. Most schools pay by purchase order.

Put it on your timetable

Tell us what you teach and roughly how many students. We’ll set your school up, load the sample assessments and help you run the first one.