Online Exams How To Prevent Cheating
Online Exams How To Prevent Cheating is an ongoing issue that plagues all kinds of courses online and presents numerous ways for cheating to occur.
Browser locks can help prevent students from accessing other websites and tools during exams, and may help discourage cheating by restricting returning to previously seen questions.
Limit the number of questions
Online exams are an invaluable way to assess student learning, but they can be challenging to administer. Cheating must not occur, while other issues need to be taken into consideration, including content leakage which occurs when exam questions are shared outside of a course and potentially compromise its integrity and decrease its value.
To avoid this scenario, online exams must be administered with a proctor present to verify the identity of each candidate taking an examination remotely with a proctor overseeing them remotely. Specialized software exists which facilitates this arrangement; however, its setup and cost may be prohibitive for smaller institutions.
One way of upholding the integrity of an online exam is limiting the number of questions that can be asked. This can be achieved by presenting each question randomly and not permitting students to switch back and forth from question to question, making it harder for students to collaborate or share answers.
Finally, webcam-based proctors can be employed to monitor students taking online exams. Although it can be challenging to implement, particularly without an on-campus location where proctors can monitor students, this method has proven successful at reducing instances of cheating.
Education students about academic integrity policies is another effective way to combat cheating during online exams. A video that details these policies and consequences of plagiarism may help ensure they understand what constitutes academic dishonesty, while adding your institution’s academic integrity policy into your course syllabus may also prove helpful.
Instructors can prevent cheating in online exams by restricting the number and length of questions, prohibiting students from using mobile devices during an exam and mandating that students use only secure browsers that don’t support mobile applications or sites unrelated to the exam. Furthermore, instructors may set time restrictions or allow access only during certain intervals such as when their computer crashes.
Set a time limit
Online exams provide flexibility, convenience and more secure testing environments than paper-based tests. Yet despite these advantages, students still find ways to cheat; an instructor or institution must implement multiple forms of online exam security to prevent this.
One technique is limiting the testing window. For instance, if an exam starts at 9 AM and begins taking 90 minutes to complete it will deter students from cheating by not providing time for switching back and forth between browser tabs during test taking.
Another way to prevent cheating is limiting the number of questions allowed. Or you could add a countdown timer so students know how much time is remaining until their results become available – perhaps using bars or graphs that indicate this timeframe.
Addition of a timer to an online exam makes it harder for students to cheat by using phones or tablets to record answers or looking at notes, and also prevents them from repeating answers or seeking assistance from third parties. A further way is creating multiple versions of the same exam with different start times so no two students encounter identical questions simultaneously.
Make it clear that cheating is unacceptable and has serious repercussions by creating a video outlining the academic integrity policy and its repercussions. Furthermore, require students to view this video prior to taking an online exam.
Many online test-taking strategies involve forbidden materials, like sticky notes or cheat sheets. This technique can even be utilized when an exam spans multiple time zones and dates; impersonation is another popular test taking method where a student asks another individual to take their exam on their behalf.
Make the test open book
To prevent cheating in online exams, students should be allowed to use notes and resources during testing sessions. Furthermore, exam questions should be randomized with limited time limit in order to prevent one student from finishing an exam and coaching other students during it. Finally, documents pertaining to tests should self-destruct within a short timeframe to prevent unauthorised access or distribution, with only one question displayed at a time in order to encourage focussed answering of each question completely and avoid backtracking.
Tutors should consider using coursework-style questions during open book exams that test understanding and skills rather than recall. This will prevent students from memorizing answers they’ve already seen before recycling information they already learned; particularly useful when answering essay style questions. Furthermore, tutors must ensure assessment criteria are tailored specifically for open book situations and communicate this to their students before the test takes place.
One way to prevent cheating during an online exam is with browser lock software. This tool can restrict new tabs, disable second monitors and screen sharing as well as detect suspicious activities and notify a remote proctor in real-time of any suspicious behaviors detected – it can even detect when students try using voice recognition programs such as Siri or OK Google to gain an unfair edge in exams.
As part of your open book exam preparation, one important aspect is organizing all your notes, books and materials. For maximum efficiency in study time and exam day success, create a dedicated study area equipped with extra tools such as spare pens, pencils and erasers – and make sure everything you need for the test including relevant textbooks, notes and resources (please see UCL guidance on this matter).
Be sure your exam computer is ready by activating background updates and restarting as necessary, preventing problems like slow internet from spoiling the experience of taking an exam. Furthermore, lock screens or screen saver features should be enabled so as to limit distractions from external websites or social media platforms.
Create multiple versions of the test
Online exam software features several features to combat cheating, such as multistep authentication processes, anti-cheat software and noise detection. Many tools also offer options to block students’ browsers so it is more difficult for them to leave or return to a test, copy information from it or manipulate any way whatsoever the system. Furthermore, certain tools automatically terminate tests when time runs out or when students exit; this feature prevents students from leaving or exiting before it has concluded.
Another strategy for combatting cheating is creating multiple versions of an exam, so that if multiple students take it simultaneously online they won’t receive duplicate questions – this practice is commonly seen with GRE and GMAT exams.
Other methods to counter cheating during an online exam include providing students with low stakes practice opportunities before administering high-stakes exams and limiting how long students can take it for. Also ensuring they can retake it will help mitigate issues with unreliable internet connectivity.
One of the greatest obstacles in preventing cheating during an online exam is students’ ease of sharing test content on social media and braindump websites, making it hard to prevent cheaters. Therefore, it is crucial that test questions and answers do not circulate before an exam starts and should be randomly distributed so as to decrease chances that two examinees receive identical questions in sequential order.
Methods for preventing cheating during an online examination include setting a tight testing window and time limit, to make it harder for students to collaborate together on exams. Furthermore, students should use only one device during their exams (i.e. phones, tablets or Google Glass).