The College Board announced Friday that Advanced Placement tests, scheduled to be administered in May, will be offered to students online for the 2019–20 exam administration due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Educator-led development committees are currently selecting the exam questions that will be administered in a 45-minute online assessment.
In the past, colleges have accepted a shortened AP Exam for credit for groups of students who have experienced emergencies.
According to a statement, students will be able to respond to items on these streamlined exams on devices, such as computers, tablets, or smartphones. The College Board will also accept photos of handwritten work.
"AP curricula are locally developed and we defer to local decisions on how best to help students complete coursework," College Board officials said. "To be fair to all students, some of whom have lost more instructional time than others, the exam will only include topics and skills most AP teachers and students have already covered in class by early March.
The College Board will employ digital security tools and techniques, such as plagiarism detection software, to discourage cheating.
"Scoring at-home work for an AP Exam is not new to the AP Program," they said. "For years the AP Program has received and scored at-home student work as part of the exams for the AP Computer Science Principles and AP Capstone courses.
To accommodate students who may want to take the exam sooner rather than later or want to spend additional time preparing for the exam, the College Board will announce two different testing dates by April 3, 2020.
Low-income or rural Students who need mobile tools or connectivity can reach out to the College Board directly, here.
"Through our members across the country, we understand the new time constraints on everyone in the education community," they said. "These solutions are meant to be as simple and lightweight as possible for both students and teachers — without creating additional burdens for school leaders during this time."
For more information, the College Board provides updates on their https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/news-changes/coronavirus-update
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