Canadian Underwriter
Feature

Rebooting Education


January 1, 2015   by Peter Hohman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Insurance Institute of Canada


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Students taking C40 Business Interruption Insurance, an elective course in the Insurance Institute of Canada’s (IIC) Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) designation program, will notice something new when they take their final exam in December 2015.

The exam centres will feature computers, not paper exams, representing not only a milestone event in insurance education, but also launching IIC’s plan to phase out paper-based exams gradually over two years. By 2017, all CIP and GIE courses will offer computer-based exams (CBEs).

While CBE may represent a sea change for some, IIC has long recognized the emergence of computer technology in the contemporary learning experience. Its first online tutorial for the CIP program was launched in 1998, and the first virtual class offered 11 years later (see infographic timeline to the right).

Since then, virtual class registrations have expanded to 1,500, with most virtual class mid-terms being conducted online. Then in 2010, the executive committee of IIC’s Board of Governors first approved the conceptual development of what are now CBEs. [Click to enlarge infographic below]:

The Insurance Institute of Canada will start offering computer-based exams.

WHY COMPUTER EXAMS? WHY NOW?

One major benefit of CBE for employers and students alike is a new, flexible exam schedule.

Benefits for employers

CBE exam scheduling harmonizes education with the practical reality of running a contemporary insurance business. Currently, all CIP final exams are paper-based and must be written during a one-week exam session immediately following the course. Examination sessions for all CIP courses are held three times a year – in April, July and December.

Compare that to three-week-long exam sessions for CBE courses. Students will have an opportunity to organize their CIP exam dates within that window, subject to certain timeframes and availability of resources.

Offering longer exam sessions will make a big difference to insurance organizations employing CIP students, Chad Shurnaik, vice president of underwriting and marketing at Peace Hills Insurance in Edmonton, suggests, adding that CBEs are a huge benefit. “Because of the pace of business today, having an exam on a specific day doesn’t always work. The company’s work needs to be done, and you have to have people on staff to complete the job,” Shurnaik says.

Managers are responsible for staffing and making sure service levels are consistent and reliable throughout the organization. A challenge arises when staff members are writing multiple CIP exams. Depending on the number of paper-based exams they are writing, CIP students could be out of the office for as long as a week, including time off for preparation and taking the exams.

Juggling staff schedules is not easy. What does a line manager do, for example, when five out of 14 members of the team are writing paper-based CIP exams during a single week? The smaller the organization, the greater the difficulty in finding people to cover for students who are writing their exams.

“We want our students to succeed,” Shurnaik emphasizes. “We give them half a day off to study, and they have a day off to write the exam. That means our company may not have a student for up to two days during the paper-based exam period. Unexpected things can happen at work and, with the three-week CBE exam window, the timing can be managed better if something pops up.”

CBE’s flexibility will also allow employees who travel to, or work in, multiple job sites to schedule exams to suit their preferred locations.

Benefits for CIP students

CIP students have participated in several tests of CBE and have provided valuable feedback. Students who took part in testing last July reported they found CBE to be fast, convenient and comfortable, and the longer exam sessions allowed more time to prepare between exams.

“It takes a lot of the pressure off, because now you are able to spread the exams out,” says Ontario CIP student Kylie Pemberton, who remembers taking four paper-based exams within a one-week exam session. “We were writing back-to-back-to-back-to-back, whereas with the new CBE method of scheduling, you have time in between the four exams to refresh your memory on different subjects.”

Students involved in early testing suggested that CBE will help make the exam experience itself more comfortable and intuitive. “I was done CBE earlier because of the comfort of typing. I think a lot of people in this industry who work in an office type quicker than they can physically write something out,” notes CIP student Alexandra Polianskaia, who participated in early testing.

It is expected the quality of exam responses may also improve since the time saved by typing rather than writing will give students more time to reflect on and refine their answers. Whether CBEs or paper exams, students will have three hours to complete the tests.

“I felt I had more time to formulate a better answer in a computer-based exam than in the written format,” CIP student Brett Logan says of her experience testing CBE. “I was able to think my answers through, see my answers and be able to edit them.”

CBE students will also receive their grades sooner, with the time between writing exams and receiving results expected to be cut about in half from the about five weeks for paper exams.

Faster grading will benefit students anxious to know their results, but will also benefit employers’ human resources personnel, who will be able to make more timely decisions related to promotions and performance reviews based on CIP results and feedback.

THE SPEED OF THOUGHT

In a digital age dominated by the use of desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile devices – and people constantly using keyboards in both their business and personal lives – the same option should be available to those who are writing CIP exams.

“I think the benefit of doing exams on computers is that quite a few people nowadays are so used to typing all day, they are a lot faster typing than writing,” says CIP student Carly Buchanon, who took part in the CBE testing. With computer exams, “you can keep up with your train of thought,” Buchanon says.

CIP students taking computer exams will also be able to keep up with the pace of their business, contributing to both their personal success and that of their companies.


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