Reducing Cheating Online
How do you prevent students from cheating in the online environment? In this webinar we look at some good alternatives and strategies that will help you maintain academic integrity in your course assignments and tests. See below for the presentation slides, a video of the presentation, a list of resources, plus questions and comments from webinar participants.
The Presentation
To access the presentation below, you can scroll down on each column or to the right to see more columns. Clicking on the “open in new window icon” will take you to the full site of the presentation board.
Thanks to the following instructors for providing examples: Brian Forrest, Keith Delaney, Steve Furino, Robert Case, Paul Wehr, Jennifer Harris, Tamara Maciel, Julia Williams, Umair Shah, Olivia Mesta, Mark Seasons, Jessica Thompson, Sharon Roberts.
The Video
Resources
Academic Integrity Office, University of Waterloo https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-integrity/
Keep Learning with Integrity https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-integrity/keep-learning-integrity
Encouraging Academic Integrity Online https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/planning-courses/course-design/encouraging-academic-integrity-online
Fourteen Simple Strategies to Reduce Cheating on Online Examinations https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/educational-assessment/fourteen-simple-strategies-to-reduce-cheating-on-online-examinations/
How do I stop online students from cheating? https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/learnteachtech/2018/05/31/how-do-i-stop-online-students-from-cheating/
Online Education and Authentic Assessment https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/04/29/how-discourage-student-cheating-online-exams-opinion
Tips for Preventing Cheating (a site geared to a specific university, but with some good general suggestions)
https://www.niu.edu/blackboard/guides/tips-for-preventing-cheating.shtml
How to Avoid Plagiarism (from Crossplag, a commercial plagiarism checking tool)
https://crossplag.com/how-to-avoid-plagiarism/
Teaching Tips: Creating a positive learning environment
https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-tips/by-category/120
Teaching Tips: Inclusive Instructional Practices
https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-tips/by-category/188
Universal Design For Learning Guidelines http://udlguidelines.cast.org/
A Guide for Academics: Open Book Exams
https://www.newcastle.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/268980/Open-Book-Exams.pdf
Making the Transition to Open Book Exams https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/teaching-tips-planning-courses-and-assignments/making-transition-take-home-exams
Alternatives to Traditional Testing
https://teaching.berkeley.edu/resources/improve/alternatives-traditional-testing
Remote Exams and Assessments (good advice for STEM courses)
https://sasoue.rutgers.edu/teaching-learning/remote-exams-assessment#special-advice-for-open-book-assessment-in-quantitative-courses
Online Assessment for STEM (Dalhousie University, FOCUS on University Teaching and Learning)
https://focus.clt.dal.ca/blog/online-assessment-for-stem
Assessment Strategies for Online Learning
https://www.aupress.ca/books/120279-assessment-strategies-for-online-learning/
Best Practices in Alternative Assessments (Learning and Teaching Office, Ryerson University)
https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/learning-teaching/teaching-resources/assessment/alternative-assessments.pdf
Online Assessment in Higher Education (Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary)
https://taylorinstitute.ucalgary.ca/sites/default/files/TI%20Guides/Online%20Assessment%20Guide-2019-10-24.pdf
Questions and Comments
You have mentioned a lot about cheating as a result of student anxiety about grades, as well as obviously being a “crime of opportunity.” Is there research showing that (grade) anxiety/worry is a main reason undergrads cheat?
Almost anything you read from university offices of academic integrity will mention anxiety as one of the causes of cheating, but the term is used generally and is not necessarily referring to the specific context of grade anxiety. Grade anxiety has been identified as affecting student academic performance (Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117-148), and studies on cheating will refer to anxiety as one issue among many affecting student propensity to cheat (here’s just one example: Tina L. Freiburger, Danielle M. Romain, Blake M. Randol & Catherine D. Marcum (2017) Cheating Behaviors among Undergraduate College Students: Results from a Factorial Survey, Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 28:2, 222-247, DOI: 10.1080/10511253.2016.1203010). In Max Eckstein’s Combating Academic Fraud: Towards a Culture of Integrity, anxiety is listed as the first cause for academic misconduct (https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000133038), while a specific study on testing (Gharib, Afshin; Phillips, William; Mathew, Noelle (2012). Cheat Sheet or Open-Book? A Comparison of the Effects of Exam Types on Performance, Retention, and Anxiety. Psychology Research v2 n8 p469-478) argues that open book exams reduced student anxiety. In Canada, University of Calgary education professor Sarah Eaton is known for work on academic integrity, but I’m not sure if she examines this particular issue.
Exams are high stakes situations, and it is thought that the anxiety around them increases the chances of cheating, especially if the students don’t have a good grasp of academic integrity, or, when an opportunity to cheat presents itself, the students perceive that the ramifications for doing so (on the instructor and/or university levels) are inconsequential.
The Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon University has assembled a very interesting website in which enumerates different reasons students cheat, and then provides strategies for combatting the cheating in that instance. You can check it out here: https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/solveproblem/strat-cheating/index.html#:~:text=Some%20students%20might%20cheat%20because,of%20ability%20or%20test%20anxiety.
The bulk of examples seem most easily applied to smaller courses; can you guide us toward resources for what you referred to as “technical interventions,” which seem more practical for larger courses?
The technical interventions are more practical for any-sized course that makes use of tests. Tests and exams lend themselves to technical interventions, for example: randomizing the questions that students received (which questions, the order of questions, and the order of responses); limiting student “movement in a test” (e.g. providing only one question at a time, preventing students from going back to a previously answered question); computer “lockdowns” preventing the use of browsers when taking an online test; online proctoring that records keystrokes, browser activity, etc; remote proctoring that uses webcams to watch the test taker.
Technical interventions are dependent on the type of testing software and learning management system you use at your institution, so it’s probably best to consult with the appropriate people on your campus about how to implement them. Our approach in the webinar is to get away from the technical interventions; they can be very stressful in the online environment because they can be glitchy and heighten the stress that students are already facing when in an exam situation. In addition, the surveillance and data collection features of some of the interventions just go too far, in my opinion.
[Participant comment] I’ve had a lot of feedback from fellow students online right now that are overwhelmed by these regular smaller micro assignments (i.e. discussion board posts) since all of their courses have similar regular demands. This is probably just exaggerated because there is a major learning curve for students who are now self-directing a lot of their learning online for the first time. Something to keep in mind if you’re leaning towards smaller weekly/biweekly assignments.
The move to multiple lower stakes assessments is supposed to help manage final exam anxiety as it makes the final exam worth less. However when each course the student is enrolled in increasing the number of small assessments in the course the student's workload is increased. How do we balance this?
It’s impossible to control what’s going on in other courses, and coordination of workload expectations beyond a particular program or department is next to impossible. Our feeling is that if you think a particular approach to student learning best fits your goals for the course, you should implement it and see how it works. Do a mid-term check-in with your students to measure their reactions to that approach, and as part of that check-in ask them whether they’re seeing similar approaches being used in their other courses. You then have some useful information to consider the next time you offer the course, or even to adjust your current course.
Remember that the lower stakes assessments aren’t meant to be extra work; they’re learning exercises and as such part of the learning process, not add-on assessments to the learning process. Moreover, in the asynchronous online environment, students will have two to three extra hours per week they can devote to studying and learning. Frequent lower stakes assessments keep the students engaged in and connected to the course, and help them manager their time.
Do we have anecdotal evidence of publisher question databases falling in the hands of students?
[Participant comment] To see if you publisher's question database has fallen into the hands of students do a Google search with the question in quotes for some of the questions in the database. Ideally a question with a few rare terms.
We have more than anecdotal evidence – we have hard news! https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/brandon-university-says-pirated-test-bank-led-to-compromised-nursing-exam-1.4794535?cache=%3FclipId%3D89830
And if you wish to see how these things work, go to a site like testbank.org and buy a testbank for yourself.
I’ve heard of one prof who allows students to submit a second (revised) document to improve their Turnitin score. Would you recommend this?
Yes, we would. Turnitin provides students with an “originality score” that helps them identify duplicate content, indicating the need for a citation. In effect the service is giving students hints at how they can revise their essays, and revision – rewriting – is a key strategy in writing pedagogy.
How can collaboration problems be eased for students from a course design perspective? (In my experience as a student collaborating in an online student has been problematic due to poor communication.)
It’s very important for instructors to provide not only clear rules about how group work is to be conducted and graded, but also suggestions about how to collaborate well. Clear communication among group members, especially about expectations and difficulties, is essential, and instructors can help by providing good models of practice for the groups, and also by checking in on the groups to provide support and guidance. Some instructors ask students to agree to group contracts to manage group activities.
I think the big issue is timing the collaborative work, which will only become more because students might be dispersed through time zones. I've had students who had trouble with the "response" element of a discussion because their peers don't post until the day is over in their time zone. Suggestions for getting around that?
One of the big problems with discussion forums is that students leave their responses to the last minute. (It turns out that students are human!) When time zones are part of the mix, that only complicates the issue. Deadlines (e.g. a first posting mid-way through the time allotted to the discussion forum) is one way of dealing with this.
Other comments from or prompted by webinar participants:
Another authentic assessment strategy to add to the toolbox is getting students to design a teaching resource to teach/illustrate a course concept to their peers. Students can provide peer evaluations and they double as a collaborative set of flash cards or study notes.
Be aware that in some countries, accessibility to some collaborative systems (e.g. Google Docs) is monitored or hindered. (See for example the Wikipedia page listing websites blocked in the People’s Republic of China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_mainland_China).
Online annotation tools suggested by participants: Perusall; Kritik; Hypothes.is.
The University of Waterloo created an academic integrity activity that students could complete and receive a badge. That app, Integrity Matters, is no longer available (despite having won an award from the International E-Learning Association – another example of sustainability problems with higher education technical innovations). The modules can be uploaded into various learning management systems and deployed at other institutions. Please contact academic.integrity@uwaterloo.ca for details.
I’ve taught an online course before with a group project. I assigned students to their groups randomly before term started and then asked students to tell me if there were time zone issues in the first week. I then spent an hour shifting some group members around. This worked well.
