The end of the academic term, of course, brings final exams and cumulative assessments to test students’ knowledge of OM course materials. With so many college students taking online courses (and that number expeditiously increasing) so will the need for administering exams within the online learning environment, writes Faculty Focus (May 11, 2020). Even without expensive virtual proctoring tools, there are many ways that instructors can leverage the inherent features within their institution’s Learning Management System (LMS) and within MyOMLab to decrease cheating during online examinations. Here are 6 ways to do so:
- Use varied question types. Refrain from having an exam with all multiple choice or true and false questions. Our MyOMLab’s algorithmic problems are a perfect complement to these questions.
- Creatively remind students of academic integrity policies. Create and post a video explaining the guidelines for the online exam and review the institution’s academic integrity policy and consequences that are listed in the course syllabus.
- Require students to sign an academic integrity contract. After reviewing the academic integrity reminder video, have students electronically sign a contract that lists what the university considers cheating.
- Restrict testing window. Similar to how on-campus final exams have a designated testing slot for each course, create the same online. Have every student start the exam around the same time and limit how long each student will have to take the exam. If you have students in different time zones, consider offering three sets of tests, at 3 different start times.
- Change test question sequence. In the test settings, have the order of test questions be different for each exam along with the order of answer choices for each test question.
- Delay score availability. Set a later date after the testing window ends for students to see their score and feedback and do not make the score available for immediate view after test completion. This way, one student who finishes early cannot see their score and then advise students who have not completed the test yet.
These are just a few ideas. Care to share your own tips with a comment below?
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