Guide
Running Online Subjective Exams
How institutions administer subjective, descriptive-answer exams online, and how AI-assisted evaluation is being applied to written responses.
A subjective exam asks for a thorough, detailed written response rather than a selection from fixed options, which changes both how it is delivered online and how it has to be evaluated afterward. This guide covers both halves of that process.
What this guide covers
- Technological features needed to administer subjective exams online, such as long-form answer editors and autosave
- Procedural steps for running a subjective exam from start to finish
- How AI is being applied to support evaluation of descriptive responses
- What institutions should keep as a manual review step regardless of tooling
Who it is for
Controllers of examination and faculty who set and evaluate subjective, descriptive-answer exams and are considering moving that process online.
The guide separates delivery from evaluation deliberately, because the two present different challenges: delivery is mostly a platform question, while evaluation is where consistency and fairness across examiners has to be protected.
For: Controllers of examination and faculty