How To Prevent Student Cheating On Online Exams
Online exams have become an increasingly popular way of administering courses. Unfortunately, cheating remains a serious problem on numerous testing platforms – test-takers using sophisticated tactics to cheat during their exams.
Gone are the days when students passed notes during an exam; now, students use tools like Google Docs or texting to share answers between themselves.
Limiting the number of questions
Cheating during online exams is one of the major obstacles educators must contend with, with students continuously finding ways to cheat – from traditional techniques like writing down mathematical formulae on palms, to more modern apps used by groups, cheating is a serious threat that should be managed appropriately in order to prevent consequences that can have serious repercussions. Understanding how students cheat will enable educators to create better test questions and enhance assessment strategies more effectively.
Numerous online exam tools allow instructors to restrict the number of questions on an exam. This feature can be especially beneficial when creating multiple choice or true/false questions; it can also be beneficial when restricting open-ended inquiries. These features can help prevent students from cheating by making it more difficult to compare answers online or find questions online.
Limiting the number of allowed devices can also help mitigate cheating risk. Students often utilize additional hardware during exams – including smart watches, Google Glasses, laptops and smartphones to store notes and cheat sheets or redirect or disable webcam and microphone in their device to hide their cheating activities – in order to attempt cheating activities that proctoring software may miss detecting. Administrators should remain vigilant.
Making exams more challenging by demanding that students use higher-order thinking skills is also crucial, and educators can achieve this by asking students questions that require analysis, synthesis and evaluation as well as non-multiple choice/closed end questions that encourage critical thinking and the expression of original ideas.
Along with restricting the number of questions, it is also crucial that an online exam be limited in length. Otherwise, students could become distracted during an overly long test by discussing questions and answer choices with each other, potentially becoming disqualified in high-stakes professions such as nursing and medicine. It would also be advisable to provide more practice tests or quizzes so students become acquainted with material before sitting a real test.
Randomizing the questions and question responses
As higher education moves increasingly online, protecting exam results becomes ever more vital. Luckily, there are multiple strategies available to combat cheating during online assessments: remote invigilation, multiple types of hardware and software as well as restricting how many questions students can answer at one time are effective ways of stopping cheating during assessments. Another proven tactic involves randomizing question formats as well as question/answer responses to ensure accuracy of results.
Cheating in an online test can lead to unfair evaluation of students. Cheating can damage an institution’s reputation and have serious repercussions in some professions; for instance, cheating by doctors could result in mistakes that cause irreparable harm or death to their patients. Cheating also undermines trust between students and teachers – therefore building stronger relationships between the two is necessary in order to stop cheating from taking place.
One method to reduce cheating is creating a bank of questions and randomly selecting them during an online quiz or exam, making it harder for students to share answers because they won’t all get the same questions. Another approach is prohibiting backtracking which forces students to focus on one question at a time and submit an answer directly – this helps deter googling answers or consulting course materials as answers may already be there!
Other methods for preventing cheating during an online assessment include having students sign an academic integrity contract outlining what the institution considers violations of its academic integrity policies. Teachers can post videos reminding their students about these policies prior to beginning the exam; and then have students electronically sign the contract prior to taking it.
While there are a number of tools that can be used to detect cheating during an online exam, most are only partially effective. For instance, internet-blocking software cannot stop students from using phones or other electronic devices to gain access to online groups during an exam; face tracking programs provide data on student movements; however their utility remains questionable.
Requiring students to sign an academic integrity contract
Cheating students may use any number of reasons as justification for cheating online tests, including feeling disengaged from school work, lack of study time and peer pressure. Understanding why they cheat helps educators create effective strategies to combat it and stop it happening again.
One effective strategy to curb student cheating is requiring students to sign an academic integrity contract before taking exams. This ensures they understand the consequences of cheating as well as providing an incentive to act honestly, which can either be done electronically or printed out and given out physically.
As well as requiring students to sign an academic integrity contract, educators may also limit access to certain D2L and computer functions during exams, including disabling D2L pager functionality and disabling mouse shortcuts that direct students away from certain websites. Another alternative would be installing browser lockdown software.
One effective method for preventing cheating during online assessments is varying the questions and formats, either within a class period or even in just one, creating different versions of tests per student period or class period – this makes it harder for students to share answers via text or chat, making cheating more likely. Another technique for combatting this behavior involves voice detection software which monitors for specific keywords like “Hey Siri” and “OK Google,” alerting a live proctor immediately for intervention if detected.
Finally, instructors can minimize cheating by ensuring students take their assessments in an isolated environment such as requiring students to sit together in one room, using a testing center, or employing remote proctoring services. Furthermore, instructors should walk around during assessments looking out for any suspicious activities.
Students should be informed that if they are caught cheating, disciplinary measures will be taken against them by their instructor in order to discourage further misconduct and ensure all students receive equal treatment.
Reminding students of academic integrity policies
Online exams provide both flexibility and convenience for educators; however, they also pose the potential risk of cheating. Therefore, instructors must take measures to prevent students from engaging in dishonest behaviour during online assessments; there are various strategies they can employ such as limiting question count or providing clear academic integrity guidelines.
Integrating an academic integrity policy into the course syllabus is an effective way of reminding students what to expect during online assessments, helping reduce temptation to cheat by making clear expectations and consequences of dishonesty for everyone involved. Remind students of academic integrity policies creatively by producing and sharing videos explaining exam guidelines or reviewing an institution’s academic integrity policy and consequences that appear on a course syllabus. There may even be psychological benefits from seeing or hearing their instructor discuss academic integrity right before an exam starts, potentially discouraging cheating behavior.
Content leakage can also pose a challenge when administering online exams, with students sharing exam information with others outside the examination environment – something instructors may find hard to detect due to this practice being often done unknowingly by students.
At an online exam, it is imperative that students do not gain access to unapproved materials and equipment, including cell phones, tablets and graphing calculators. A good idea would be requiring that these items are left at a designated area prior to starting or they are taken out of sight during examination time.
Students often resort to cheating online exams when they feel pressure to perform well and secure admission into a top university or graduate with honors for employment or advancement of career goals. Unfortunately, this type of pressure can often lead to stress, depression and anxiety which in turn could erode student health in general – including lower test scores and lack of trust in oneself and their abilities. Cheating may have lasting negative repercussions that decrease confidence as well as decrease test scores over time.