Designing Online Exams to Reduce

Cheating

Carol Rentas and Marcia Firmani

Lunch and LearnJanuary 14, 2015

Cheating During Exams: It Happens

more than we all care to think

Cheating Methods

Key Factors in Prevention of Cheating

• Consistency

• Environment

• Policies o clearly defined

• Consequenceso immediate and substantive penalties (even on

smaller assessments)

• Learningo students are learning over time through formative

assessments

Consistency

Test Environment

Most effective way to reduce/induce cheating = modify the environment of the task• Environment includes:

o Curriculum requirementso Course designo Classroom designo Classroom practiceso Administration of assignments and assessmentso Student relationship with instructor

Blackboard – Steps Before Exam

1. Clearly define academic dishonesty in syllabus as it relates to your course

2. Promote early and consistent learning

3. Openly endorse practices which promote academic integrity

Clearly define academic dishonesty in syllabus

1. Describe academic dishonesty

2. Outline possible consequences of cheating

3. Define permissible and non-permissible collaboration

4. Include expected time for coursework

5. Include late work policies

6. Include missed test and test retake policy

7. Include any dropped quiz or test policy

Promote early and consistent learning

• Use smaller, frequent, formative quizzes to increase learning before high-stakes exams

• Provide students with a map of objectives

• Use a discussion board to field questions before and after an exam

Openly endorse practices which promote academic integrity

• Post a letter in your course to:o Discuss how you will support student learning to avoid

academic dishonestyo State your commitment to ensuring fairness and

integrity

• Create an assignment which allows for discussion on issues of academic integrity

Blackboard – Steps in Exam Setup

1. Blackboard exam settings

2. Exam Questions

3. Exam Environment

• Clarify academic dishonesty policy in exam instructions

• Randomize questions and answers• Test availability

o Recommend one day

• One attempt only• Timed exam

o Making timing very stringent. For MC questions, rule of thumb is 45 seconds per question

• Forced Completion

Blackboard Exam Settings

• Include constructed response questions in addition to MCQs

• Include higher levels of difficulty• Use a large pool of questions• Use different questions on different exams

each semester• Use random pools to create different exams

with different questions for different students

Exam Questions

1. Pools allow for a wider selection of questions each time an exam is created

2. Pools can be used to randomize questions for different students on the same exam

3. Random Blocks or Question Sets allow questions to be randomly selected from a batch of questions and/or presented to test-takers in random order.

Creating an Exam From Pools

Randomizing Questions From Pools

1. Random Blocks – Questions..• Can only come from one pool• Are selected based on the format of the questions

(multiple choice, short answer,…)

2. Question Sets – Questions…• Can be gathered from multiple sources• Are selected based on question format or metadata

tags, such as category or level of difficulty.

• Prevent internet/browser surfingo Utilize programs that lock down

computer/browser• Proctor Exam

• Use remote proctoring utilities to ensure exam integrity

Exam Environment

Show less feedback to discourage cheating

High-Stakes Test Settings

ONE ATTEMPT

TIMED EXAM/SUBMIT

SHORT TIME FRAME

High-Stakes Test SettingsTIMED EXAM/SCORE

ONLY

ONE AT A TIME / RANDOMIZE QUESTIONS

Blackboard – Steps After Exam

1. Do not share answers with students on high-stakes exam

2. To review exams with students: Face to face: Have students review exam in class or in

office hours and not allow pen/paper and make them turn exam back in

Online: Perform an item analysis and only do a review of the questions that students had trouble with or have a telephone meeting with student to review ONLY the questions or areas that they had difficulties

Scenario and MethodPossible Mode of Cheating and the Methods available to reduce it

(these are on printed handout)

Students obtain old exams Do not send out electronic files of the exam Change your exams regularly

Students obtain answers to the exams before taking the exam

Do not post the answers to the exam until the exam deadline is over

Students copy the exam while they are taking it (copy and paste into a word doc or make a screenshot) and then distribute to others in class

Do not keep your exams available or open for extended periods of time so that students don’t have time to look up answers to questions before they take the exam.

Present exam questions one at a time as opposed to having all questions posted. This makes it more difficult to make a screenshot. Students would still be able to copy and paste each question into a word doc or screenshot every question individually.

Students have a web browser open in another page and look up answers to questions while taking an exam

Do not allow students that much time. The exam should be timed and only allow enough time for students who know the material to answer the questions without looking up answers online or in notes.

Do not allow backtracking so that students cannot quickly go through the exam and then go back and start looking up the answers to all of the questions.

Students have all of their notes open in another window and do a search (i.e. find) in their notes to look up answers as they are taking the exam

Time the exam more stringently. Only keep the exam open long enough for students who know the material to answer the questions based on what they know and not by looking up answers.

Students who are friends can be taking the exam together either at the same time in the same room or on the phone together or one takes it while another looks up answers and then the other takes it

Randomize the questions and answers Have a pool (i.e. question bank) of exam

questions so that students will not have the exact same exam

Stringent time limits so that students don’t have enough time to look up answers

Students consistently have “computer issues” and ask for you to re-open their examination after they either spent 20 minutes in the exam reviewing every question or they submitted the exam and then received all of the answers to each question (if you have it set up where they get the correct answer when the exam is submitted)

Make suggestions in the syllabus that students should not use wireless internet connections to take their exams

Suggest that students take the exam at a local or university library

Have a rule stated in the syllabus that you will not re-open exams

Live Demo