How to Create Secure, AI-Enhanced Digital Exams with BookWidgets

With BookWidgets, teachers can create secure online tests and engaging, interactive assessments for their own courses to help students prepare for standardized exams, building both confidence and mastery of key concepts.

📺 Join us on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 for a webinar, Preparing for and Taking Exams with BookWidgets– Dos and Don’ts. Join live to receive a professional development certificate. Can’t make it? We’ll record the session and send it to all registered participants. Register today!

Exams—whether teacher-created assessments or standardized tests—are a common way to measure student understanding, critical thinking, and readiness for future learning. While standardized exams like the SAT, ACT, and state assessments help evaluate academic skills, classroom exams allow educators to assess specific learning objectives and provide targeted feedback.

In this blog post, we will take a look at…

• Why Digital Exams Are Essential for Measuring Student Learning Outcomes
• Types of Exams: Standardized Tests, Teacher-Created Assessments, and Digital Formats
• Strategies for Creating Practice Exams and Preparing for Standardized Tests with AI
• Sample Digital Exams Created with BookWidgets and AI-Generated Questions
• 5 Steps to Create and Administer Exams with BookWidgets

Before we begin: If you are new to BookWidgets, BookWidgets is an all-in-one platform that supports the entire learning process, allowing teachers to create interactive activities and evaluate their students’ understanding from start to finish. When BookWidgets is integrated into a Learning Management System like Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Moodle, Canvas –& more!–, teachers can use “Live Widgets” to keep an eye on their students’ progress in real time to give feedback and support when needed. Interested in purchasing BookWidgets without committing to a full year subscription or waiting for the next budget cycle? Learn more about our special, limited-time pricing for schools and groups of teachers.

Why Digital Exams Are Essential for Measuring Student Learning Outcomes

Digital exams provide a standardized, efficient, and flexible way to assess student knowledge, skills, and competencies across all levels of education—from K–12 to higher ed and professional certification. Unlike traditional paper-based tests, digital assessments offer immediate feedback, automated scoring, and detailed analytics that help educators track learning outcomes over time and adapt instruction to meet students’ needs.

At their core, digital exams serve to:

• Assess mastery of subject matter (e.g., interactive classroom exams, SAT and AP exam practice, college entrance exams).
  
• Evaluate problem-solving and critical thinking through multimedia and open-ended digital formats (e.g., LSAT, MCAT).
  
• Certify readiness for professional practice using secure, accessible platforms (e.g., NCLEX for nurses, BAR exam for lawyers).
  
• Ensure accountability in education and training through real-time monitoring, randomized questions, and usage data (e.g., state-mandated assessments).
  

By utilizing digital tools, educators can more effectively measure student progress, personalize feedback, and promote equitable access to assessment.

Types of Exams: Standardized Tests, Teacher-Created Assessments, and Digital Formats

Exams come in many forms, from teacher-created assessments like unit tests and final exams to standardized tests such as the SAT, ACT, and state-mandated evaluations. This table outlines the different types of exams, their purpose, and how they assess student knowledge, helping educators choose the best strategies for effective test preparation.

Tier	Examples	Purpose	Structure & Features
Teacher-Created Exams	Unit tests, midterms, finals	Assess student understanding of specific course content	Multiple-choice, essays, project-based, interactive elements
K-12 Standardized Assessments	NJSLA, STAAR, MCAS	Measure student progress in meeting state learning standards	Multiple-choice, constructed response, and performance tasks
College Readiness	SAT, ACT, PSAT/NMSQT	Assess skills for college admissions	Digital & paper-based, adaptive questions, reading & math
College-Level Mastery	AP Exams	Evaluate college-level subject mastery for credit	Multiple-choice & free-response, varies by subject
Graduate & Professional School	GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT	Determine admission into specialized programs	Verbal reasoning, writing, quantitative analysis
Professional Licensing & Certification	NCLEX, USMLE, CPA, BAR, PRAXIS	Certify knowledge & readiness for professional fields	Multiple-choice, case studies, scenario-based questions

Strategies for Creating Practice Exams and Preparing for Standardized Tests with AI

Creating practice online assessments is one of the most effective ways to help students feel confident and prepared for their exams. Whether it’s a teacher-created test or a standardized assessment, practice allows students to familiarize themselves with question formats, manage time effectively, reinforce key concepts, and become accustomed to secure testing tools and protocols.

When using a digital exam generator for practice tests and standardized assessments, consider integrating strategies that will help students perform their best on test day:

• Match the format and experience of the real exam as closely as possible, including question types, timing, and structure.
• Scaffold instructions to build familiarity with test language—use wording that mirrors standardized test prompts while adding clarifications, hints, or guided examples to help students acclimate to the language and expectations.
• Incorporate timed sessions to help students develop pacing strategies. Have students start with short practice sections and gradually increase the duration.
• Use a mix of question formats to build familiarity with multiple-choice, open-ended, and performance-based tasks.
• Provide immediate feedback where possible so students can learn from mistakes and refine their approach.
• Share and translate the rubric—when applicable, provide the same rubric used for grading and break it down in student-friendly language (AI tools can help with this!) so they understand how their work will be evaluated.
• Encourage test-taking strategies such as eliminating incorrect answers, annotating passages, and showing work in problem-solving questions.

To reinforce learning and familiarize students with standardized test formats, teachers can integrate practice assessments into their regular classroom routines. By embedding standardized test questions within unit exams or using BookWidgets for formative quizzes, educators can help students build confidence and improve test-taking strategies throughout the school year.

Teachers can use AI tools to quickly generate content for practice exams by creating customized questions aligned with learning objectives, state standards, or standardized test formats. AI can help create multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay questions, adapt difficulty levels, and even provide answer explanations and feedback, saving time while ensuring students get targeted, high-quality practice.

Sample Digital Exams Created with BookWidgets and AI-Generated Questions

Effective exam preparation is essential for student success on AP Exams, the SAT, and classroom assessments. By using AI tools to generate practice questions, reading passages, answer explanations, and rubrics, educators can efficiently create high-quality, standards-aligned digital assessments. Well-designed, AI-supported practice tests help students build confidence, improve time management, and strengthen subject knowledge—ensuring they’re fully prepared for both standardized tests and teacher-created exams.

Using BookWidgets for your exams offers several advantages, including:

• Live student tracking for real-time progress monitoring
• Multimedia integration to create engaging, interactive exams
• Reduced paper costs with fully digital assessments
• Accessibility features and differentiation tools to support all learners
• More efficient grading with automated scoring and feedback
• Detailed performance insights through useful statistics and result management

The following example practice exams highlight various question-types, settings, and features available in BookWidgets. You can also find all of the example exams in this folder in the Blog group.

Class Online Exam: Greek Mythology and the Trojan War Unit Test

This Epic, Greek Gods, & Trojan War Exam was originally a traditional paper-based test given during my unit on The Odyssey that required manual grading or scantron sheets for scoring. Now, using the Quiz widget, it has been transformed into a self-scoring digital assessment with a mix of question types and built-in security measures. Students can use their notebooks for reference, but copy/paste is restricted, and a custom background color helps deter navigation to other sites. The test includes randomized question groups, a timer, and automated feedback based on scores. To maintain integrity, students begin the exam by entering a startup password (the password is “Homer”) and they must enter another password—revealed only in the feedback—to review their answers. Both passwords can be changed whenever needed.

NJSLA Grade 8 Research Simulation Task - Practice Test

Each U.S. state sets its own learning standards and standardized assessments to measure student proficiency, with some following national frameworks like the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In New Jersey, the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments (NJSLA) evaluate student progress in ELA, math, and science, while the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment (NJGPA) serves as a graduation requirement for 11th graders. These computer-based tests assess skills like reading comprehension, mathematical reasoning, and scientific analysis through multiple-choice, constructed-response, and technology-enhanced questions.

This example NJSLA Research Simulation Task for Grade 8, created using a Split Worksheet, engages students with three passages on resilience, requiring them to analyze texts, answer questions, and self-assess their responses using a rubric similar to the official NJSLA scoring criteria. The Split Worksheet widget is useful when students need to refer to resources while answering questions. In this example, I’ve included articles formatted with rich text, but teachers can also embed a website or a PDF document in the text pane.

💡 Pro Tip: Use ChatGPT or other AI tools to generate example reading passes, questions, and rationales. This will save you time with generating multiple practice assessments. Here are sample AI prompts that teachers can use to generate practice standardized assessments aligned with state learning standards:

General Standardized Assessment Prompt:
- “Generate a practice standardized assessment aligned with [state name] learning standards for [subject] at the [grade level]. The assessment should include a mix of multiple-choice, constructed-response, and technology-enhanced questions, with answer explanations and scoring criteria.”

ELA Prompts:
- “Create a practice English Language Arts (ELA) assessment for [grade level] aligned with [state] standards. Include a passage set with multiple-choice and constructed-response questions that assess reading comprehension, vocabulary in context, and writing analysis.”
- “Generate an ELA Research Simulation Task (RST) for [grade level] aligned with [state] standards. Provide three related texts (literary and informational) on a common theme, followed by text-dependent questions and a writing prompt requiring students to synthesize information.”

Math Prompts:
- “Develop a math assessment for [grade level] that aligns with [state] standards. Include a mix of multiple-choice, multi-step word problems, and open-ended tasks assessing number sense, algebraic reasoning, and real-world problem-solving.”
- “Generate a practice test for [state] Algebra I standards, featuring equation-solving, graph interpretation, and function analysis. Include answer explanations and rubric-based scoring for constructed responses.”

Science Prompts:
- “Create a science assessment for [grade level] that aligns with [state] standards and includes questions on Earth & space, life, and physical sciences. The test should feature multiple-choice, data analysis, and experimental design questions.”
- “Generate a practice test for high school biology aligned with [state] standards. Include questions on genetics, ecosystems, and evolution, with a mix of multiple-choice, short answer, and data interpretation tasks.”

Social Studies Prompts:
- “Develop a social studies assessment for [grade level] aligned with [state] history and civics standards. Include primary source analysis, multiple-choice questions, and a short constructed-response essay prompt.”
- “Generate a U.S. History assessment aligned with [state] standards, covering key topics such as the Constitution, Civil War, and Civil Rights Movement. Provide multiple-choice and document-based questions (DBQs).”

Customized Exam Features:
Teachers can modify these prompts by specifying:
- Grade level (e.g., “Grade 5 Science” or “High School Algebra II”)
- State name (e.g., “Texas TEKS standards” or “New Jersey NJSLS”)
- Assessment format (e.g., “multiple-choice, open-ended, and performance tasks”)
- Question rigor (e.g., “basic, moderate, and advanced difficulty levels”)

SAT Reading Practice Test 1

The Reading section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) assesses comprehension, reasoning, and analytical skills through passage-based questions. It includes 52 questions in 65 minutes, covering literary, historical, social science, and science passages, some with paired texts or informational graphics. Questions assess main ideas, supporting details, vocabulary in context, and evidence-based reasoning.

In this Split Worksheet, students practice reading a literary passage and answering SAT-style questions plus one reflective checklist within 20 minutes. A built-in timer helps them pace themselves, while the Scratchpad allows them to organize their thoughts for each question. After completing the activity, students can review the rationale for each question to better understand why certain answers are correct or incorrect. Reflecting on both their responses and the explanations provided helps students pinpoint which test-taking strategies to improve with additional practice—building confidence and endurance for the full exam.

💡 Pro Tip: Use ChatGPT or other AI tools to generate example reading passes, questions, and rationales. This will save you time with generating multiple practice assessments. Here are some SAT-specific prompts:

• Prompt for generating passages: “Generate an SAT-style reading passage of approximately 500-750 words on [topic of choice]. The passage should be written in a formal, informative, or literary style, similar to those found in the SAT Reading section. Ensure the passage includes complex sentence structures, nuanced vocabulary, and a clear central argument or narrative. The tone should be engaging but sophisticated, suitable for high school students preparing for college-level reading.”
• Prompt for generating questions: “Based on the SAT-style reading passage about the impact of artificial intelligence on the job market, generate six multiple-choice questions that align with the SAT Reading section. The questions should assess comprehension, analysis, and reasoning. Include the correct answer choice and three plausible distractors for each question. Follow the SAT format by ensuring the questions cover: The main idea of the passage; An inference based on information in the passage; A detail-oriented question requiring evidence from the text; A vocabulary-in-context question, selecting a challenging word from the passage; The author’s tone or purpose; A question analyzing how the passage is structured or how an argument is developed; Ensure the difficulty level is appropriate for high school students preparing for standardized tests.”
• Prompt for generating each rationale: “Generate a rationale for each question that explains why specific answers are correct and other choices are not. The rationale needs to be written for [age or grade] students.”

SAT Reading Practice Test 2

After you create one practice assessment, you can easily duplicate it in BookWidgets and replace the text, questions, and rationales. All of your settings will be carried over from the original widget to the duplicated one, saving you more time!

This additional SAT Reading practice test made was made by duplicating the Split Worksheet I shared above, replacing the text, questions, and rationales (with help from ChatGPT), and adjusting the timer.

AI-Generated Advanced Placement (AP) Sample Practice Questions

AP Exams are standardized assessments offered by the College Board that allow high school students to demonstrate mastery of college-level coursework across a wide range of subjects. AP Exams assess critical thinking, analytical skills, and subject-specific knowledge. Students take AP Exams to earn college credit, advanced placement, or strengthen their college applications by showcasing their academic rigor. Teachers can help students prepare by providing targeted instruction, practice with AP-style questions, essay writing strategies, and time management techniques, ensuring they are well-equipped for exam day.

This Quiz widget includes sample questions from various Advanced Placement (AP) subjects, with randomized question sets organized by topic. I’ve also enabled an on-screen calculator for use with the math and science questions.

💡 Pro Tip: Here is the editor view of the above widget so that you can see how to create sections with randomized questions in your exam with a Text Question. The sections will be sequential order, but you can then randomized questions within each section by checking the box for “Random question order” in the General Settings.

Advanced Placement Document Based Questions (DBQ)

The AP History Exams—including AP U.S. History, AP World History, and AP European History—assess students’ ability to analyze historical developments and construct evidence-based arguments. A key component of these exams is the Document-Based Question (DBQ), which requires students to analyze a set of primary and secondary source documents to develop a coherent essay response. The DBQ measures historical thinking skills, including sourcing, contextualization, and argumentation. Students must use evidence from the documents, incorporate outside historical knowledge, and demonstrate a complex understanding of the topic within a structured, thesis-driven essay.

This Split Worksheet widget provides a customizable DBQ template for teachers to input specific historical documents and prompts while maintaining a structured format aligned with the AP Exam rubric. It includes built-in self-assessment questions, allowing students to evaluate their responses using a rubric modeled after the AP DBQ scoring criteria.

Experience a Digital Exam Made with BookWidgets – Interactive Student View

Want to experience an exam made with BookWidgets from the student’s perspective? Take this sample exam to see key features in action, including automated feedback, answer rationales, and personalized grading. I’ll review your responses so you can see the full feedback loop in action.

For comparison, you can also take the Sample Exam using the Worksheet widget. Unlike the Quiz widget, which displays one question at a time, the Worksheet widget presents all questions on a single, scrollable page. Click here to complete the Worksheet version of the Sample Exam.

5 Steps to Create and Administer Exams with BookWidgets

BookWidgets makes it easy to design secure online exams that are interactive, engaging, and efficient for both students and teachers. With features like live mode, multimedia integration, accessibility options, and automated grading, teachers can streamline the exam process while gaining deeper insights into student performance. Here is a step-by-step guide for creating and administering exams with BookWidgets.

Step 1: Choose your widget

Choose either the Quiz (one question visible at a time), the Worksheet (long scrollable page with all questions visible), or Split Worksheet (split screen with text on one side and questions on the other). Determining which widget to pick depends on the length and layout of your exam and the needs of your students.

Step 2: Add questions and configure the settings

When deciding which question-types to utilize for your exam, consider the following questions:

• Should it be auto-graded or open-ended?
• How does it align with the learning objectives?
• How much time would it take for students to complete the question?
• Does the question-type align with the exam format?

📺 Interested in learning more about Open-Ended Questions in BookWidgets? Check out this previously recorded webinar: How to Use Open-Ended Questions and Rubrics for Efficient Assessment

The Timer, Copy-Paste Restrictions, Scratchpad are just a few examples of useful options and settings for exams.

⚙️ Some of the settings are configured on the Question level (e.g. random display of answers in a multiple choice question).

⚙️ A few settings are configured on the Reporting tab (e.g. Exam mode = Timer)

⚙️ Most of the setting are configured on the General tab (e.g. Showing correct answers after submission, copy-paste restrictions, random question order … )

⚙️ Lay-out changes for font and color can be made in the Preview, by clicking on the Design button.

Step 3: Administer (share) the exam

When administering an exam, it’s important to ensure a secure testing environment and take steps to prevent cheating. This may involve using both settings within BookWidgets and external tools or strategies to restrict navigation, randomize questions, and monitor student activity.

Here are three options to securely share the exams you’ve created with BookWidgets, each providing a different level of control and flexibility depending on your classroom setup and needs.

Option 1: Share the exam in an LMS with a start-up password, without additional software

When BookWidgets is integrated with your learning management system, setting up a start-up password is simple and eliminates the need for additional external proctoring tools. You can enable the start up password in the General settings of your widget and give the password to your students at the start of the exam. Just keep in mind that you cannot block students from visiting other websites or opening other programs. You can deter cheating by enabling the copy-paste restrictions and changing the background color of the exam (when walking around the room and monitoring the class, you can easily see if someone has navigated away from the exam). When ready to share the exam, make sure ‘share by link’ or ‘share by shortcode’ are disabled so that students are forced to sign in via the LMS. This will further protect the test integrity and prevent students from opening the widget exam anonymously.

Option 2: Share the exam in an LMS and use Safe Exam Browser (SEB)

Safe Exam Browser (SEB) is a free web browser available for Windows, Mac, and iPads that blocks students from visiting other websites or opening other programs. Since it is an external tool, Safe Exam Browser will need to be installed on your student devices prior to the exam. We strongly recommend testing this prior to the examination period. Please note that SEB does not work on Chromebooks and is not managed by BookWidgets. Students will be forced to sign in to the LMS when you check the box in General Settings to ‘Open in Safe Exam Browser’ and cannot access the widget exam anonymously. To learn more about Safe Exam Browser, check out this blog post: How to Take Secure Digital Exams with BookWidgets and Safe Exam Browser.

Option 3: Share the exam through an Exam Link in a proctoring tool

Coming soon! When using a exam proctoring tool such as Classroom Cloud, Blocksi, or Senso (to name a few) that is separate from a learning management system like Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams, teachers will be able to share their exams with students using an Exam Link. Students will then use single-sign on to log in to the exam, and the teacher will see their students’ submissions in the Reporting Dashboard in BookWidgets.

Step 4: Score student submissions

Teachers can efficiently score and review student exams using BookWidgets’ reporting dashboard. The auto-grading feature instantly scores multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and other objective questions, while teachers can manually grade open-ended responses with inline comments and feedback.

📺 If you want to learn more about reviewing your students’ work, check out this webinar on Efficiently Reviewing Student Work within the BookWidgets Reporting Dashboard!

By adding a submit/ show answers password to the exam widget, teachers can control when students can view the questions and answers after completing the exam. Individual student feedback will still need to be sent to the students (see step 5).

Step 5: Provide feedback

When reviewing student work, teachers can add summative and specific comments and record embedded audio messages for students. Additionally, teachers can determine when, what, and for how long the students see the feeback.

Teachers can configure the student feedback view to enable (or not) to show total points, points per question, correctness, and correct answers.

Teachers can schedule a date and time to send and reclaim feedback from students so that no matter what time you may be grading your students’ work, the feedback can be sent to them during school hours and it is only visible for a limited time. After this date, students will no longer be able to view the feedback on their exam. Think of this as digitally handing back and recollecting student papers.

Wrap Up

Digital assessments offer teachers a flexible and efficient way to evaluate student learning, whether for classroom exams or standardized test preparation. Using tools like BookWidgets, educators can create structured assessments with features such as automated grading, randomized questions, timers, and real-time progress tracking. These tools help streamline grading and maintain test integrity while allowing students to demonstrate their understanding in a variety of formats. By integrating digital assessments into their practice, teachers can provide more timely feedback and data-driven insights to support student growth.

📺 Join us on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 for a webinar, Preparing for and Taking Exams with BookWidgets– Dos and Don’ts. Attend live to receive a professional development certificate. Can’t make it? We’ll record the session and send it to all registered participants. Register today!

Want to learn more about creating engaging lesson activities with BookWidgets?

✔️ Sign up for upcoming free webinars and view recordings on the BookWidgets Teacher Academy Page.

✔️ Learn more about our special, limited-time pricing for groups of teachers for purchasing BookWidgets now without having to wait for the next school year or budget cycle.

✔️ Follow BookWidgets on BlueSky and LinkedIn and join our teacher community on Facebook!

✔️ And, be sure to connect with me, too, on BlueSky, Facebook, and LinkedIn!