Here we are preparing for final exams for Fall already! If you are teaching an on-line operations management course, Faculty Focus (Dec. 2, 2013) points out that assessments that worked perfectly fine in a face-to-face classroom may need to be tweaked or even replaced for the online version. Why? Because cheating is easier to do (and harder to detect) online. While it’s not clear whether online students do, in fact, cheat more than face-to-face students, the truth is that it is more difficult to monitor who’s taking a test and how they’re taking it online than it is in a classroom. Faculty Focus’ 5 strategies for adapting assessments for online delivery include:
- Timed/open book tests. Online, every test is an open book test (except those that are proctored). To minimize read-as-you-go test-taking, reduce the amount of time students have to take the test so that only those students familiar with the material can answer the questions in the time allotted. Alternatively, replace selected response tests (such as multiple choice and T/F) with short-answer or essay questions that require students to apply textbook facts to novel scenarios.
- Randomized test questions. Shuffling questions helps reduce the likelihood that 2 students sitting in adjacent library carrels can take the same test together, one answering the “odds” and the other answering the “evens.” Selecting questions randomly from our large 2,000+ question test bank takes this idea one step further, providing each student with a similar (but not identical) assessment.
- Frequent low-stakes tests, such as short quizzes or self-check activities worth no more than a few points each, help make cheating more trouble than it’s worth.
- Coordinated tests. Instructors who teach multiple sections of the same class may want to coordinate tests so that all students take the same test at the same time. (Staggering tests increases the likelihood that the first students to take the test can pass on question details to their colleagues.)
- Proctoring. Requiring students to take proctored exams takes cheating off the table—or, at least, returns it to the same level as a face-to-face class.