Thwarting Online Exam Cheating

Academic misconduct is playing a crucial part in our economy. It is an attempted action which degrades the full essence of learning. Maintaining the integrity has been the biggest priority since ages. Different places possess different rules and regulations for maintaining such misdeeds. It is really unfair to the individuals who follow the principles of academic integrity and show honesty in performing the tasks. The practise of academic misconduct should be highly abolished in the society particularly in the educational institutions. Students should be encouraged to be honest to them and also to appreciate and respect the hard-work put in by others. As a matter of fact, academic integrity is a measure of excellence.

Since due to the increasing risk of the ongoing pandemic that is “COVID – 19” across the globe most of the schools, colleges and universities have switched to remote online teaching. Almost all the academic activities are being conducted via online through various platforms such as zoom, discord, Skype, etc. This remote learning technique is actually turning out to be very positive for the students as their studies are not being compromised and they are very well coping up with the teachers acquiring knowledge in the comforts of their homes. But the question arises: Is conducting online exams really worth it?? Isn’t the integrity of the exams is being compromised as there is a greater liability of academic misconduct??

Promoting high level of technology for the students to write the final evaluations has a profound impact on the accessibility and the participation. Due to the increasing concerns about the ongoing pandemic crisis the institutions are not left with any alternative to just keep sticking what the government says and this is creating havoc in how academic misconduct can be prevented. Cause this time the teachers won’t be going to roam around the students the students to keep an eye on what they are doing while writing the examination.

This is totally an obnoxious situation for the institutions in such a complicated situation to maintain the integrity during the online examination as there is a greater risk of students using vast technology to write their exams because they have been granted permission by the authorities due to which there are greater risks for such issues to arise and that too at a very accelerating rate because the students are totally going to take a huge advantage of the situation. They can use numerous sites to write down the examinations, or they can sit together in a group of 2-3 people to write the exam, even though they can seek help from their parents or the books and the course material that has been posted online.

This is a matter of grave concern for the teachers on how to stop such illegal practices from occurring and also to save those students who are being loyal. The need of hour is to implement various methods for conducting the examinations so that such situations should never arise and even people should never dare to opt for these kinds of illegal ways so that honest ones can get a sigh of relief. Using the online exam control procedures can prove to be very effective for stop such misconducts while the exam procedure is being processed.

Procedure – I

Online exams must be computer accessible for only an abrupt span of time, feasibly 15 minutes or so. If the examinee would have just 15 minutes to sign into the evaluations than he/she will just be involved in answer rather than cheating in the exam.

Procedure – II

Randomising the number of questions for each and every student. This means if the individuals try to collaborate during the exams then the questions numbers and the answers options will be totally different from one another. In short the sequential order of the questions and the answer choices would be totally different. The scrambling process will complicate the cheating efforts.

Procedure – III

Prohibiting the students from answering multiple questions at a time. By doing this the students will only be permitted to answer one question at a time without retracing to the previous one by doing so they won’t be allowed to change their answers.

Procedure – IV 

Examinees must be permitted to access the evaluation just one time without giving any more chances and should be encouraged to use proper wireless internet connection while sitting for the exam. This practise is mostly discouraged because there are always multiple excuses regarding the not getting the access or losing the access to the internet.

Procedure – V

This procedure requires students to use Blackboard’s Respondus Lockdown Browser (RLB) to access the exam. It is a special kind of browser in which the students gets “locked” into the exam. They are unable to exit/return, cut/paste, or electronically manipulate the system but it doesn’t freeze them so that after completion they can submit their exam and leave the site securely.

Verifying Student ID

Verifying the identity of each and every student before and after the exam to ensure that the right individual is opting for the exam has become really imperative. There are a plethora of ways to ensure the identity. For example, Using thumb print technology or cornea scan can prove to be really effective by totally prohibiting the students from performing such pathetic deeds. ProctorU, a fast growing corporation has gained a huge success in a short span of time by ensuring the security during online tests.

According to the Company’s President and CEO Don Kassner and also the inventor of the company “Most transactions are anonymous, so there’s a lot of opportunity on the internet for fraud. But adding a human element will boost the level of the security up exponentially.” So he designed ProctorU to demolish such threats and secure the online examinations for the betterment of the community. ProctorU requires the students to connect with live proctors, either in person or through webcams. ProctorU uses the three step process by verifying the test takers identities and then monitoring their computer activity using customer support software to ensure there’s no cheating. Hence, there are plenty of ways in which we can totally terminate the chances of getting exposed to such threats.

Honour Code

It is also an ethical approach positioned on asseveration to perpetuate pedantic veracity. It is an ethical approach hinged on proposes and institutions with such a code have stunted level of deception. In a Nutshell Due the ongoing crisis because of the Pandemic the situation demands greater attention on how we can resolve such conflicts arising to save the reputation of the institutions as well as to the protect the integrity of those students as well who are loyal in giving the examinations. While it is impossible to eradicate student cheating completely, it can decelerate if both the faculty and administration work together. At the commencement of each course, it is incumbent upon the faculty to make students aware that cheating in general and plagiarism in particular will not be endured. As a deterrent, it might be worthwhile to let the students know that the internet can be used as a tool to combat plagiarism by doing searches in reverse. For its part, the administration must make the school's position on plagiarism very clear through the catalog, student handbook, and during student orientations.

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