“I would prefer even to fail with honour than win by cheating”
Sophocles
In the current phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world moved to an online platform.
The education sector is also not aside from the pandemic and transforms the activities in terms of education and assessment on an online platform.
There are so many platforms are in practice some of which include Microsoft team, blackboard, Zoom, etc.
Besides the unquestionable usefulness of online platforms, it also has some critical challenges and uses an extensive percentage on online assessments (Allen & Segman, 2017).
The most common challenge is facing the online platform is to reduce the probability of cheating during exams, but on the other hand, the use of online proctoring as keeping eye on students may impact negatively on their success in the exam (Lieberman, 2018).
The instructor also worried about why the students are not effectively using their lecturing videos and how - to bring seriousness to students in practice. However, some of the instructors I know them in person, they use to make their lecturing voiceovers and share with the students, but before it, they also explain them in lecturing session.
But still, the main issue related to the reduction in cheating probability during the exam is not addressed.
There are some efforts put into that in terms of open camera invigilation with the quizzes question of algorithm type, but still need more focus to it.
Instructors cannot eliminate the probability of cheating during the online exams, but they may reduce it to an acceptable lower level.
Some online platforms provide the proctoring features and some of the publishers added this proctoring feature in their software. Some of the instructors use open-book exams especially in engineering courses as their problems based on practical, but also in this case as reported that students are more inclined towards cheating when they feel stress.
IDEAS
There are some ideas which we can apply to reduce the cheating probability, but which one is suitable it depends on the practicality of the subjects and prevailing condition in the given institutional environment.
- We can increase the number of assessments with low weightage, this will increase student involvement and have a better chance to analyze their understanding of the topic.
- Develop case base questions that need more thinking process and must be identical.
- Do not confine only one type of question structure, use variety like multiple choice, multiple answers, matching, etc.
- Display one question at a time on the students’ screens.
- Enable the software feature to keep changing the sequence of the questions and shuffle the options.
- Limit the test options and windows in terms of the number of attempts and time·
- Do not display the results immediately after the exam finish.
- Try to avoid taking questions from test to exam banks already develop by publishers, if you are intended to use them so make sure those should be in access with students.
- Try to use software that restricts the browsing capability once the exam starts.
- We must have a dedicated team who hold the responsibility of managing and arranging online proctoring by using given tools.
- It is very crucial to educate the ethical concerns to the student in cheating issues.
- Keeping reminding the students about academic integrity for them.
Perhaps the style of developing the exam in an online environment will be different in comparison with the traditional way of setting the exam in physical classroom cases when physical invigilation (Fontanillas, Carbonell & Catasus, 2016), a regardless instructor have the autonomy to use their ideas to set up the exam which gives them more confidence in securing the online assessment from cheating in their respective environment and constraints.
We have so many good software options available in the market, even they capture the room structure in terms of sensing the eye movements as well as the unusual movement in the room also like; Mettle online examination platform, Mettle remote proctoring solution, Oxagile, ProctorU, RPnow, Disamina, Proctorio, Talkie, AiProctor, Eklavvya, Examity, Exam monitor, HonorLock, Merittrac, MobileProctor, OnVUE, ProctorExam, ProctorFree, ProctorTrack, Prov Enterprise, PSI Bridge, Questionmark, Respondus Monitor, SmarterProctoring, SpeedExam, Surpass assessment platform, TAO testing, TestReach, Think Exam, Wheebox, and Wise proctor.
Finally, it is concluded that cheating in the case during the exam especially in the online system is not acceptable and we need to establish some procedures to reduce the probability of cheating in the online examination system.
We have a different option available off the shelf as well as tailor-made, but which one is suitable depends on the specific limitation of the institution.
We also need to consider ethical issues like privacy in terms of open camera or system access to apply the strategy related to control cheating in the online exam. The instructor also needs to be trained enough to apply the integrity policy and assess the students on their overall course learning base. Therefore, I am concluding her with the quote.
“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively”
Bob Marley