Academic Honesty and Exam Security

In this time of remote learning, academic honesty is at the forefront of many (if not all) faculty members' minds. How do we ensure that our students are meeting their course outcomes? That they are honestly taking their own tests and not using increasingly sophisticated ways to cheat? Switching to remote teaching is hard enough without having increased worries about academic honesty. 

Are students actually cheating? The answer seems to be yes. The explosion of websites like Quizlet and CourseHero have led to students openly bragging about using Quizlet to cheat. In an article in Inside Higher Ed, in 2018 it was reported that 12 students at Texas Christian University were suspended for allegedly cheating using Quizlet. Students at other universities talked about academic dishonesty, like studying likely test questions (broken down by instructor and course) or by opening Quizlet in a separate window while they took their test online. (1) 

So what are instructors to do? There are two main methods for preventing academic dishonesty: creating increased exam security or identifying and switching to alternate assessments. 

How can we increase exam security in a time when it feels like everything is less secure? There are a few options built into Canvas that can be easily deployed, and then a few University-wide tools that you can use to promote academic honesty. 

• Randomize your questions. Using publisher test banks or creating Question Groups in Canvas will allow you to provide extra test questions for students to answer. Once you have extra questions, you can tell the exam to only pull a portion of them. This ensures that not all students will see all of the same questions.
• Randomize your answers. If you're giving a multiple choice test, using the checkbox on the Quiz Details page will randomize the answers to your randomized questions will eliminate even more opportunities for students to share answers between each other. 
• Use an exam access code. This lets you control who has access to the assessment.
• Only allow students to see one question at a time and limit backtracking. This keeps students from seeing the whole assessment and snapping a photo of it to share with others. 
• Put a time limit on your quizzes, tests, and exams. By using a time limit, students don't have time to look up each of the answers in their book, notes, or on Quizlet. But don't make the time too tight; leave students enough time to ponder their answer, especially if the question is short answer. A good rule of thumb is two minutes per question.  
• Use a lockdown browser. ESU provides Repondus Lockdown browser to all faculty during this time. What a lockdown browser does is open a new browser for students to take their tests in that won't let them navigate to other pages, print the exam, screen-cap it, exit without submitting the exam, etc. Respondus Lockdown browser integrates with Canvas. 
• Use Respondus Monitor. This is a step above the Lockdown browser. Monitor uses AI and a student's webcam to note any "irregularities" in the testing session (the student leaves the computer, picks up their phone, talks to someone, etc.) and flags it. It then makes these irregularities available to the faculty member for review. If you're interested in using Respondus Monitor, please contact Learning Technologies first, as it requires a few more steps for setup. 
• Do Zoom proctoring. Slightly lower tech than Respondus Monitor, but you can have students join a Zoom meeting and then take the assessment. This allows you to watch them. If you have a large class, however, this can be difficult to manage. 

What if you don't feel that any of these options will make your assessment truly secure? Firstly, consider that very few assessments are truly secure. Students are coming up with increasingly sophisticated ways to cheat. If you want to be 100% certain, however, consider changing the type of assessment you use from a quiz or exam to an alternative assessment. These alternative assessments provide students with a chance to demonstrate hands-on proficiency, rather than choosing the correct answer from a list of incorrect ones. Some alternative assessments to consider:

• Journals (using OneNote or Google Drive)
• Papers
• Video demonstrations or short lectures (using Flipgrid, Zoom, Adobe Spark, or Screencast-o-matic)
• Presentations (using PowerPoint, Canva, or Zoom)
• Visuals like posters, infographics, webpages (using Adobe Spark, Canva, or Infogram)
• Discussions (using Canvas Discussions or Flipgrid)
• Peer Reviews (using either Canvas Discussions or Assignments)

Ensuring that your students adhere to academic honesty is a difficult task, especially when teaching and learning is occurring remotely. With these suggestions in mind, however, you can increase your assessment security or change the type of assessment so that academic dishonesty is harder for your students to commit. 

As always, please contact Learning Technologies with any questions!

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1) McKenzie, Lindsay. "Learning Tool or Cheating Aid?" Inside Higher Ed, May 14, 2018. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/05/14/professors-warned-about-popular-learning-tool-used-students-cheat