An evaluation of the 2021 NCEA Online exams shows there has been good progress, with strong growth in uptake and students continuing to have a strongly positive experience.
The evaluation included analysis of a post-exam survey, whose results are being used to action areas for the programme, in collaboration with schools and the education sector.
See the summary of student and school statistics in our document:
NCEA Online Student Experience 2021 [PDF, 530 KB]
NZQA Deputy Chief Executive Assessment (including Digital Assessment Transformation), Andrea Gray said “Despite the impact of COVID-19, participation in the end-of-year 2021 digital exams increased from the previous year and satisfaction levels with the digital assessment experience remained high”.
“I’m pleased to see that 56 of the schools were new to NCEA Online, and that within the overall 14.5% increase in student numbers, the biggest increase (30.5%) was in Māori students”.
Key statistics and findings include:
- 25,812 students from 323 schools participated in at least one digital NCEA Online exam in 2021.
- 56 of the schools were new participants (i.e. not having an assessed result in a digital exam in any year 2016-2020).
- 24 subjects and 151 standards were available digitally: both an increase of 15% from 2020.
- 6.5% of all external assessed results were digital, up from 5.8% in 2020.
- 19.6% of all external assessed results in digitally available standards were digital results, up from 17.5% in 2020.