This past July, College Board announced that it was beginning to transition from paper to online AP tests. In total, 28 tests have been altered, and College Board is planning on adapting eight more exams in the future. At North Allegheny, 13 tests are now completely online, 12 exams are a hybrid mix of online and paper, and Music Theory and all languages, aside from Latin, will remain on paper.

This is a massive switch determined on a national level. Will it positively or negatively impact our own high school?

There is no doubt that this new age of electronic innovation merits changes to education, but when should the value of a pencil scratching on paper give way to the click and clank of a keyboard?

Certainly, the benefits of an online platform for AP testing are evident. When College Board first released the information, they cited an attempt to eliminate cheating as a reason for moving these tests online.

“Accelerating the digital transition will help us preserve the integrity of the AP exam experience for students and educators,” College Board released.

But this improvement seems to overshadow its complications.

As NASH students know, school-issued laptops come with their own array of problems: a sudden need to restart, a tired or dead battery and a forgotten charger, or a malfunctioning keyboard. Might this online switch hinder schools without easy electronic access and add to the checklist of needs for the ones who do?

College Board claimed that it would “work closely with the AP community throughout the year to ensure that schools have the information and resources they need to prepare for digital AP exams,” and that it “would supply loaned devices and Wi-Fi support to schools in need.”

At a local level, North Allegheny has also been working to revise their own testing strategies. NASH school counselor Mary Insana, who is also the district’s AP Coordinator, said that “preparations including testing locations/charging/technical support are being worked out at this time to ensure we are as prepared as possible for any concerns with uncharged devices, loss of charge, or tech concerns with the AP Bluebook app for the exams. ”

Insana also reminds students and teachers that “we have to be flexible and hope for the best but be ready to solve problems as they come. It is not a flawless system. Thus, we have to understand there could be issues in implementing something like this given the number of exams we provide.”

Particularly in English and writing-based tests, this change from pencil to keys isn’t one without problems. Could introducing a keyboard with a time constraint increase the amount of students who experience writer’s cramp? Could the implementation of screens incentivize some students to cheat?

Additionally, increased exposure to a screen is proven to decrease attention span and increase other negative side effects. This is clearly problematic, especially when students are taking more than one AP test a day — a phenomenon not uncommon in the NA culture. One study showed that “time spent staring at a screen on a device, is linked to a lot of negative influences on our brains, from disturbed sleep patterns, to our attention spans.”

Decreased attention span as a result of encouraged laptop usage for rigorous classes won’t be beneficial in the long run. And truthfully, this change on the national level warrants change in each school. College Board has offered increased, free, online resources to help students prepare, an indication that a generation of students that already struggles with excessive screen time is being assigned even more of it.

Nevertheless, NASH has no choice but to follow College Board’s lead.

“Online practices exams are one of the resources for teachers to provide practice for their students,” Insana said.

Darrah Rhinehart, NASH’s AP Literature and Composition teacher, is prepared to transition to the digital format.

“I think it will be beneficial in the long run,” she said.

Still, Rhinehart has several concerns.

“Using laptops for essays in class adds a layer of potential obstacles such as tech and internet issues that did not exist with the handwritten approach,” Rhinehart said. “It also means that students will be annotating passages on a screen rather than on paper.”

This change seems daunting and negative at first glance. Regardless it’s a change that the North Allegheny community will learn to deal with. We may have an immediate action plan, but how will the AP community as a whole respond to the negative impacts this change ushers in? How will we address screen time issues while simultaneously adding to the problem? What will we do about the cheating incentives provided by a laptop screen wall? How will we plan for hand cramps, headaches, and stubborn WiFi?

Unfortunately, we will have to wait until the spring to assess the real damage, success, and backlash of these new online exams.