Online College Exams Do People Cheat
Online college courses can be an excellent way to further your education even when living far from your university of choice, yet they present unique challenges when it comes to academic integrity.
Proctoring companies like ProctorU have seen cheating rates skyrocket as students increasingly turn to the web for answers, including cheating during exams. NBC News Stay Tuned explores some of the more sneaky ways that students attempt to cheat during an online exam.
Screen Sharing
Online exam cheating takes many forms. Some students may be tempted to cheat by keeping answers handy in a notepad, Word document or similar convenient location and copying them during the test. Others can try traditional methods like cell phones or signing language to communicate with one or more friends during an examination.
Cheating during an online exam is made easier through screen sharing, using remote desktop software (RDC) to give their friends access to their computer during an exam so that they can assist with questions. While this type of cheating may be hard to detect due to both parties sharing one computer simultaneously, if using an anti-cheating browser such as Zoom with unique login requirements each exam session can help detect it more easily and prevent its recurrence.
Others students may attempt to buy more time by pretending technical issues or engaging in distracting behavior, which may be difficult for examiners who are familiar with online exams technology to detect. To counteract this practice, both candidates and examiners should utilize proctoring technology that monitors webcam, audio, screens, apps and devices of candidates during an examination.
An increasingly sophisticated way of cheating during an online exam is creating a virtual machine on their computer running another operating system than their main OS; then using this VM during their exam to access Google or other search engines to search for answers to any given questions posed on Google or elsewhere on the internet – while still appearing as though they’re taking part using their MacBook, while really searching for answers through Windows 11 virtualization on Mac OS.
Hacking an online exam platform to find correct answers has become an increasingly sophisticated practice among savvy students, using their coding abilities to decipher multiple-choice questions before using this information to determine the correct answers through looking for patterns of 1s and 0s in their responses. While this type of cheating may be difficult to detect, advanced proctoring technology is now providing protection.
Unscheduled Toilet Breaks
If you are taking an online proctored exam and must use the restroom during it, chances are your proctor will call to check you’re still present in the room or review security camera footage of your area of the test room. Any act such as leaving the room without notifying your proctor first or moving out of view from webcam or turning your face or body away can be considered suspicious and lead to you being terminated from taking this examination.
Cheating may occur during unscheduled toilet breaks when students use other devices to assist them with answering exam questions, such as smart watches or Google Glass to access databases of answers; smartphones to store notes or formulas; or earpieces which allow the user to receive remote voice assistance during exams.
Students often attempt to hide additional devices under their desk or within clothing in order to bypass security measures, so it is crucial that all test takers remain seated throughout their exam and stay within view of the webcam at all times.
Test takers must refrain from drinking too much water prior to and during an exam session. Doing so could result in frequent bathroom breaks and could impede answering exam questions successfully.
Proctored exams allow test takers only five minute breaks during online proctored exams; to take one, select and confirm their desire to pause by pressing the “Pause Exam Button”, which then appears as an alert with its own five-minute countdown timer. If a phone rings during an exam for any reason that isn’t technical related, test takers should simply ignore it until their break has expired before returning to take part in it again.
Hide Devices
Online exam proctors are becoming smarter while students are coming up with new ways of circumventing them. Beyond screen-sharing, students now use other devices like phones, tablets, smartwatches and earbuds to communicate with their helpers during an exam; send texts or use messaging apps such as Whatsapp for chat to communicate; look up answers online – many can even be hidden from view of an exam proctor so catching cheaters becomes harder.
An effective way for students to conceal their device is through using what’s known as a “summarizing app.” These applications extract key pieces of text and summarize it, making it less likely that anti-plagiarism software would flag it for plagiarism. You can purchase these apps online and try hiding devices under desks or bookshelves; however these methods could potentially be foiled by proctor webcams or AI test-taking systems which detect suspicious noises, devices, and body language anomalies.
Many students believe that since online exams are administered remotely, universities do not take cheating seriously enough. This couldn’t be further from the truth – in fact, colleges that administer tests online have stringent rules in place to prevent cheating during remote exams; some even require room scans and live proctors to monitor them!
The use of remotely proctored exams during the pandemic received its initial legal challenge this week when a federal judge found Cleveland State University’s use of remote proctoring illegal. They required Aaron Ogletree to show their bedroom before taking an online test; according to the court this constituted an unreasonable search and seizure.
Students may attempt to bring in an accomplice during an online exam by assigning someone from outside to log into their computer, providing the exam questions and answers, then signaling for help using nondetectable sign language such as body movements, pencil dropping, coughing or fidgeting that cannot be detected by an actual proctor.
Sharing Exam Content
Online college exam proctors cannot travel to every student’s home in order to observe them take exams, so they design assignments so that they are cheat-proof. For instance, instructors might include short answer questions instead of essay style ones to make it harder to search the web for answers quickly and find them.
But, despite instructors and proctors best efforts, some students still cheat on online exams. Cheating rates have reached unprecedented heights according to proctoring companies; although cheating itself might not seem serious enough for employers to trust that degrees were earned legitimately.
One of the most prevalent forms of cheating during online tests is sharing exam content. Students will often share answers or photos via chat applications or social media during an exam; this can include WhatsApp groups or TikTok videos used for communication between friends. Furthermore, students could use their phones to screenshot or record their test and then post results onto Instagram or Facebook for others to see.
Students have also been known to use file-sharing websites like DropBox or WeTransfer to distribute exam material. While these platforms may seem user-friendly, some students use them illegally by sharing exam answers or photos – this form of cheating is known as contract cheating.
Shared exam content has made it easier for students to cheat on online exams, such as Quizlet (a popular app allowing users to create flash cards and quizzes online) as it has also been used by students sharing exam questions for cheating purposes.
To address this problem, colleges should implement additional security measures for online exams and make it clear to students that using any cheating device or software during a test will result in penalties. In addition, colleges should encourage them to prepare by taking practice tests and organizing study groups prior to an online test taking place.