Digital exams: Achieving fairness and social justice

Abstract

Digital exams offer opportunities to make assessment more authentic and inclusive, but they also raise important questions about fairness. This review examines what the research evidence tells us about fairness and social justice in the transition from paper‑based to digital exams, with a focus on high‑stakes assessment. Drawing on a wide range of international literature, it explores how exam mode can affect students’ experiences and outcomes, including the role of typing fluency, reading comprehension, marking practices and access to technology. The review pays particular attention to differential impacts for groups such as students with special educational needs and disabilities, students with English as an additional language, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. It also considers wider issues related to health, wellbeing and the design of digital assessments. Taken together, the findings highlight that digital exams are not inherently fairer or less fair than paper exams, but that careful decisions about design, preparation and support are critical to ensuring equitable outcomes as digital assessment continues to evolve.

Keywords

• Accessibility
• Comparability
• Digital exams
• e-Assessment
• Fairness
• On-screen tests
• Reliability
• Social equity
• Validity