We’ve been giving students a chance to do some of their NCEA exams online since 2015 and students tell us that they prefer it.
NZQA will keep working with schools and students to make sure technology delivers a good user experience for a subject before it's offered as a digital assessment that counts towards NCEA.
We are continuing to investigate options where formulas or special characters are required, such as in Mathematics, Science and Music.
More information
Digital assessment vision: A design principles approach
On this page
What is happening?
Many NCEA subjects offer digital assessment
Find out which subjects are offered digitally in our timetable:
National secondary examinations timetable
Incorporating suggestions made by students and teachers
To design a great user experience, NZQA works closely with stakeholders, to ensure their feedback and ideas are heard during the design process, as well as researching what is happening internationally.
Moreover, the data that sits underneath a student’s digital exam experience – how long they took to complete the exam, which questions they spent more time on or returned to, how they wrote, edited or deleted and rewrote their answers, helps NZQA to develop exams.
Getting users involved in the co-design process
Our Customer Experience team run workshops with schools and kura to help shape how we design NZQA services. We encourage school staff and students interested in taking part to email us:
Why is it happening?
Improving learning outcomes
Digital assessment provides better data and insights about how students respond to questions. This will be useful for teachers designing classroom learning and will help in developing future exam questions so students can best show what they know and the skills they have learned.
Providing more equitable opportunities for Māori and Pacific students
Digital assessment has the potential to improve the equity of NCEA outcomes for Māori and Pacific students.
Personalised learning pathways that include digital assessment have the potential to engage more students in new ways more relevant to their individual needs and their culture.
Achieving equitable access and outcomes for ākonga Māori and Pacific students through participation in NCEA Online underpins our innovation, research and service design.
NZQA is prioritising listening to the views and experiences of Māori and Pacific rangatahi, their kaiako and whānau.
That way, we can be more certain that what, how, and why we are implementing digital assessment works.
Support for students and schools
We offer a range of information to support schools and students as they prepare for digital assessment:
Practise activities
Showing students and teachers the features of NCEA Online.
Digital exam preparation for students
Digital device check
Students can check their device and its software are compatible with the digital assessment platform.
School readiness
Working with school leaders to help them assess their readiness to offer students digital assessment.
Getting ready for digital assessment
Technical readiness
Working through Network for Learning to help school leaders and their IT support people to assess their readiness.
Prepare your school's tech for digital assessment
Training
Providing Exam Centre Managers and Supervisors with the knowledge and skills to administer digital exam sessions.