How To Prevent Cheating Online Exam
As online learning becomes an integral component of higher education, it’s more crucial than ever that tests administered by your institution are valid and cheating doesn’t pose a threat.
Digital cheating methods include browsing the web during exams, sharing answers via screen capture or Google Docs sharing platforms and editing web-based platforms to change grades or assignments submitted online.
Hiding the Questions
Academic cheating is an ongoing problem in education. Thanks to rapid technological development and widespread e-learning, students are finding ever more ways to cheat using digital proctoring tools and other digital means. Unfortunately for educators, however, preventing cheating in an online exam is no simple matter; effective teachers must employ multiple strategies simultaneously in order to protect students against cheating.
One way is to hide questions, making it more difficult for a student to share answers with his or her friends. Another strategy is limiting test times – making it more challenging for cheating students.
Educators can utilize voice detection software during an online exam to monitor student behavior and detect possible problems. This technology listens for specific keywords like “Hey Siri” or “OK Google” and alerts a live remote proctor in real-time to pop into an assessment session via chat-box to intervene, potentially saving a student from continuing their cheating activities and risking receiving low grades or expulsion from university.
One way to effectively prevent online exam cheating is with a browser lockdown tool that prevents students from accessing other websites and disables shortcuts and keyboard functions, particularly if mobile phones can be used during assessments. Combine this method with face-tracking or gaze detection software which flags students if they maintain looking at one spot (e.g. water bottle) throughout an exam period.
Prior to any exam, it’s also crucial that students are reminded of your academic integrity policy and its consequences. A short academic integrity reminder video may dissuade them from engaging in any cheating during remote testing sessions; similarly, having students sign an electronic contract outlining what constitutes cheating may further deter students.
Randomizing the Selections
One effective strategy for preventing cheating in online exams is making it more challenging for students to pass answers among themselves. One method for doing this would be altering questions and format of exams within each class or within each page to limit students from sharing answers easily, or randomly selecting questions from question pools during each page so students cannot identify patterns among what questions are asked of them.
One final option for creating an equal playing field for all candidates and to ensure grades reflect knowledge rather than memorized answers or access to unapproved materials is randomly rearranging questions and answers so it becomes harder for students to collaborate or use unauthorised materials during exams. This approach ensures grades reflect individual knowledge rather than memorization or accessing unauthorised materials.
Unfortunately, students have numerous ways to cheat during an online exam even when proctored or monitored by an instructor or student. Students could easily impersonate someone else during an exam by showing ID such as a fake driver’s license; and using personal devices with sticky notes or prohibited websites while taking an exam.
Teachers and administrators need to be mindful of all the ways students try to cheat during online exams and be prepared with strategies to counter them. With higher education increasingly moving online, valid tests from your institution must remain unhampered by any interference by cheaters. There are simple yet effective solutions available from Digify Document Security which can make cheating much harder during exams; take advantage of their free 7-day trial today to start!
Removing Backtracking
Re-visiting previously seen questions during an online exam using the “Back” button is an undisputed form of cheating and violates student privacy and academic integrity, taking up valuable study time. Universities should therefore eliminate this ability on online exams.
Many students resort to various methods for cheating during online examinations, such as using a second screen to display Google Docs with answers or sharing screen captures with friends or fellow students or altering grades on platforms submitted on. Cheating can distort true reflection of abilities in courses while giving other students unfair advantages over time. This poses serious problems for higher education because cheating tarnishes their reflection of abilities while giving other students unfair advantages over them.
Understanding student cheating attempts is crucial to finding effective solutions and protecting students’ privacy and ensuring tests they take are fair and accurate.
One effective method of discouraging students from cheating during online exams is requiring them to sign an academic integrity contract as part of the course syllabus or as pre-exam homework assignment. This contract could either form part of their test syllabus or act as an extra obligation before taking their exam.
Apart from an academic integrity contract, other measures may also be implemented to stop cheating during online exams. Such measures include browser lockdown software that disables new tabs during an exam and limits devices used. Furthermore, educators should deploy voice detection software that listens for keywords or phrases like “Hey Siri” during exams to notify live remote proctors in real-time of potential cheating incidents.
Teachers must also encourage students to come up with creative solutions for avoiding plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, in order to raise their awareness of its importance and prevent any questionable tactics being employed against academic honesty.
Limiting the Time
Online exams provide an effective and accessible means for assessing students’ learning abilities; however, they also present unique challenges – like cheating. Some of the more prevalent ways students cheat during online exams include sharing answers via screen capture or Google Docs with other test-takers; using third-party resources like Quizlet and Chegg to find solutions; reusing old assignments to pass their exams or altering web platforms to change their submitted work before turning it in; editing web platforms to alter submitted work after having already submitted it online.
Colleges are making strides toward eliminating cheating in online courses, including using retinal eye scanning and live video monitoring technologies to deter cheating in exams. While such solutions might not be practical for every institution, there are plenty of practical approaches available that could prevent cheating in exams conducted online.
Instructors can use online proctoring systems that employ remote proctors to monitor and record student exams. Such systems typically feature 360-degree room scans before starting the exam as well as diagonal views of candidates’ workspace during testing – making it harder for candidates to access their phones or text other classmates during this part of the test.
One option is limiting the number of times questions can be reviewed, giving students only limited time and providing only multiple attempts for answering each one. This ensures no one copies responses from others or uses previous questions as guides, while instructors could change traditional multiple choice and true/false questions into open-ended ones which require in-depth explanations so as to more accurately measure an individual’s subject understanding.
Some online proctoring systems use face-tracking technology to detect cheating by noting when candidates look away from their computer screen. Although this can be helpful, it must first be installed on each device used during an exam – and is not guaranteed against content leakage that could arise if not secured properly or monitored adequately.