An online testing design choice typology towards cheating threat minimisation

Abstract

Online testing is a popular practice for tertiary educators, largely owing to efficiency in automation, scalability, and capability to add depth and breadth to subject offerings. As with all assessments, designs need to consider whether student cheating may be inadvertently made easier and more difficult to detect. Cheating can jeopardise the validity of inference drawn from the measurements produced by online tests, leading to inaccurate signals and misperceptions about what students know and can do. This paper extends theoretical understanding about cheating behaviours to link online test design choices and their influence on a student’s capability and willingness to cheat. This research reviews the literature on cheating theories and a typology construction methodology to relate common online test design choices to their cheating threat consequence. In doing so, the typology offers educators designing online tests general normative guidance aimed at reducing threats to assessment inference validity, and academic integrity in general, brought about by student cheating. While we admit that cheating cannot be completely eliminated in online testing, the guidance provided by the typology can assist educators to structure online tests to minimise cheating.

Responding to the COVID-19 emergency: student and academic staff perceptions of academic integrity in the transition to online exams at three Australian universities

“…As digital examinations were new at the universities involved in this study there were no 'current practices' or set standards in relation to deterrence and detection of breaches of academic misconduct in the online exam context. Research indicates that making students aware of detection approaches is a deterrent to cheating (Eaton et al 2020;Munoz and Mackay 2019).…”

Lecturers’ Reflections on Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning at a University in South Africa During COVID-19 Lockdown

“…44 Assessment in online learning is considered a challenge for institutions that operates face-to-face learning, as the control shift towards the students makes it hardly possible to ensure that students are not cheating. 45 In this regard, the adoption of an online approach for the learning of modules with practical components is not considered useful according to TAM, since its usage for the learning of practical modules is not completely possible. 46…”

"How Do You Work Out This Zoom Classroom?": Pre-service English Teachers� Challenges and Expectations During Transition to Online Teaching Practicum

“…This problem seems to be multiplied by the pre-service teachers" anxiety on whether students cheat during the online tests or not. This concern may be justified because online tests tend to be more susceptible than offline tests (Harmon & Lambrinos 2008;Munoz & Mackay, 2019).…”

“…These problems may have been resolved by the educators" strategies in creating test designs which minimize cheating. For example, educators wish to reduce cheating during online tests must include at least three categories to avoid this practice: giving students warnings, limiting the time of each of the test items and evaluating the whole process of the test (Munoz & Mackay, 2019). However, this strategy does not come easily, it requires experience, expertise and support from the school environment and it is highly-driven by the teachers" practice.…”