Today (10th June, 2024) marks the first day of Semester 1 exams for Massey University Students. However, as of 2:45pm, 180 phone calls were received by Massey University's Student Service Team within 15 minutes from panic-stricken students who could not sit their OSE (Online Supervised Exams). The software, PSI, had simply crashed as it could not maintain the capacity of the students. As a result, a vast number of students could not sit their exam at the required time. The exam that influenced this petition was the 115.112 Accounting for Business exam. Many students, such as myself, had to travel to campus to sit the exam due to an unstable internet connection from the PSI software. Furthermore, we had to fight to book a limited amount of available rooms to sit the exam. This meant students, like myself, remained on campus for hours, in hope that we could access our exam. Only adding to the dilemma was that this exam is only open for 24 hours. It is extremely unfair on both staff and students. 

Now, 3 days in, hundreds upon hundreds of students have had a vast range of issues, some of which include: being signed in under other students names, being kicked out, draining power from students laptops,  ‘JavaScript error’, microphone issues, compatibility issues, room scans lasting hours, failing to download the PSI software and the infamous ‘504 Gateway’ problem.

The use of OSE has proven to be unreliable and stressful for students. It is unfair that our academic performance and personal well-being is impaired due to technical failures beyond our control. We urge Massey University to reconsider this form of assessment and explore alternative methods that ensure fairness, reliability, security and reassurance for all students. This could include exams via the learning site 'Stream', where some courses have already adopted, or the re-introduction of paper exams. 

Furthermore, students are understandably anxious about being recorded and monitored whilst completing an exam.

We cannot keep putting students under this kind of pressure and expect our limited support staff to meet the demand. Concerns have been circulating for sometime around the use of OSE's, from both staff ad students. Enough is enough. Please sign this petition to support the removal of OSE's at Massey University!