How do you prevent cheating in online/distance/remote/Zoom classes? What's the best way to prevent the cheating (which research indicated, even before the pandemic, that 98% of college students engaged in at least sometimes)? Or do you just blissfully let yourself believe that there is no cheating going on? Or do you accept that lots of cheating happens, but simply justify tolerating it because the administrators themselves haven't seemed to care or equip you to deal with it?
This semester was a dumpster fire. Same as the next one. Don;t worry about what you can't change.
ReplyDeleteThis.
DeleteSome people where I am use Proctorio. It tracks the kids by the camera and flags it if they move away. I hate to tell a kid they can't leave for a minute to use the restroom. I'm just holding my nose and looking forward to a few Zoomless weeks.
Depends. I mentioned to one student that her phone had a bad connection and she blew up about me "saying her phone was cheap" on Zoom (not what I said). Then she started submitting essays which she didn't write. I left that one alone. It'd only create problems for me. She can create her own problems just fine.
ReplyDeleteIn a previous iteration I was a Testing Center Coordinator, so I've heard many cheating stories and many prevention techniques. That said, it can take a pound of prevention for and ounce of cure.
ReplyDeleteThings I heard about:
Restrictive time limits- If an examinee does't know the answer or how to work out the answer (for STEM), a tight window won't give them time to look it up. From my experience, in proctored settings most students use about half the allotted time; if an exam has a one hour time limit the vast majority of students will complete the exam in 30 minutes. Set the time limit for 40 minutes and be up front about it. They'll either study and know it or they won't.
Watch for time anomalies- Along the lines of time limits, if examinees who were taking a reasonable or longer amount of time on early exams suddenly cut their time in half or less and significantly increase their scores, they're probably getting help. Usually this happens when is an exam is open for a longer window. One student takes the exam early in the window and tells their friends the questions and/or answers so when the friend logs on they blow through it.
Proctorio, ProctorU, Examity, et. al.- Some track students "live" and note abnormalities. Others use AI to monitor and flag unusual behaviors then send it to the instructor for review and a decision. The "live" proctors, from my experience, can be extremely fastidious and will stop an exam at the drop of a pin (or pen). I heard tales of exams being stopped because toddlers and/or pets entered the room.
Respondus and other "lockdown" browsers- Security Theater! Look around you right now. Is the computer/device you are on the only one in the room? I didn't think so.
TL/DR: We can try to make exams cheat-proof, but if students really want to cheat they'll find a way. How much effort do you want to put in so you can sleep at night or for your own plausible deniability?
You can’t. Education is totally fucked.
ReplyDeleteYou can’t. Educations is completely, totally, buggered.
ReplyDeleteYou can’t. Education and anything resembling it are utterly, definitively, amazingly sexually intercoursed.
ReplyDeleteWith a cattle prod.
ReplyDeleteOr a really big medieval mace.
ReplyDelete