Detecting contract cheating: examining the role of assessment type

Harper, Rowena; Bretag, Tracey; Rundle, Kiata

doi:10.1080/07294360.2020.1724899

Cited by 68 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The literature has indicated that the assessment assistance provided by the contract cheating websites, their friends and relatives tends to be unable to address the specific assessment requirements, leading to the highly irrelevant answers. 5 , 13 , 17 Each question of the assessments required the students to determine the imaging modalities and techniques such as contrast phases for all given images with justification. Also, they needed to identify abnormalities shown on the given images and suggest a diagnosis based on both imaging findings and given patients’ clinical information (e.g.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…T-test was employed to compare mean scores between the two assessments in this year (2020), between the two assessments in the last year (2019), between the two mid-semester assessments in 2019 and 2020, and between this and last years' end of semester assessments. 4 , 17 , 18 , 19 Forty-seven students were enrolled in this radiologic pathology unit in 2019. GraphPad InStat 3.06 (GraphPad Software Inc, CA, USA) was used for the statistical analysis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluation of academic integrity of online open book assessments implemented in an undergraduate medical radiation science course during COVID-19 pandemic

2020

Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences

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Introduction Online open book assessment has been a common alternative to a traditional invigilated test or examination during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, its unsupervised nature increases ease of cheating, which is an academic integrity concern. This study's purpose was to evaluate the integrity of two online open book assessments with different formats (1. Tightly time restricted - 50 min for mid-semester and 2. Take home - any 4 h within a 24-h window for end of semester) implemented in a radiologic pathology unit of a Bachelor of Science (Medical Radiation Science) course during the pandemic. Methods This was a retrospective study involving a review and analysis of existing information related to the integrity of the two radiologic pathology assessments. Three integrity evaluation approaches were employed. The first approach was to review all the Turnitin plagiarism detection software reports with use of ‘seven-words-in-a-row’ criterion to identify any potential collusion. The second approach was to search for highly irrelevant assessment answers during marking for detection of other cheating types. Examples of highly irrelevant answers included those not addressing question requirements and stating patients' clinical information not from given patient histories. The third approach was an assessment score statistical analysis through descriptive and inferential statistics to identify any abnormal patterns that might suggest cheating occurred. An abnormal pattern example was high assessment scores. The descriptive statistics used were minimum, maximum, range, first quartile, median, third quartile, interquartile range, mean, standard deviation, fail and full mark rates. T-test was employed to compare mean scores between the two assessments in this year (2020), between the two assessments in the last year (2019), between the two mid-semester assessments in 2019 and 2020, and between this and last years' end of semester assessments. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results No cheating evidence was found in all Turnitin reports and assessment answers. The mean scores of the end of semester assessments in 2019 (88.2%) and 2020 (90.9%) were similar (p = 0.098). However, the mean score of the online open book mid-semester assessment in 2020 (62.8%) was statistically significantly lower than that of the traditional invigilated mid-semester assessment in 2019 (71.8%) with p < 0.0001. Conclusion This study shows the use of the online open book assessments with tight time restrictions and the take home formats in the radiologic pathology unit did not have any academic integrity issues. Apparently, the strict assessment time limit played an important role in maintaining their integrity.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of academic integrity of online open book assessments implemented in an undergraduate medical radiation science course during COVID-19 pandemic

2020

Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences

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“…• the oral presentation is made in their own voice, so while they might have help in, for instance, constructing a script they must take ownership of the final product. And evidence also support that oral assessments discourage cheating [HBR20].…”

Section: Ensuring Representative Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…• Oral exams are plagiarism resistant [HBR20], [HCW10] as students convey their understanding using their own words.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most mathematics subjects involved a substantial online exam component, and in many cases direct attempts to cheat were found (e.g., questions posted on Chegg within an hour of the start of the exam). Tracey Bretag, perhaps Australia's foremost expert on academic integrity, also claims that more cheating goes on even in traditional invigilated exams than we would expect [HBR20] -contract cheating is pernicious and hard to detect.…”

Section: Ensuring Representative Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Video Assessment Tasks in Tertiary Education: Practice and Experience in STEM

Roughan¹

2020

Preprint

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The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic mandated many changes in delivery and assessment in the first half of 2020. This paper describes one tool for assessment that might never have been trialled without this impetus – video creation – that proved to be a valuable and interesting approach with many advantages over traditional assessment methods. Used in conjunction with traditional assessments I believe this will enhance both quality of assessment and student engagement.

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Academic Cheating: How Can We Detect and Discourage It?

McLachlan

Penier

2022

Methods in Physiology

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Detecting contract cheating: examining the role of assessment type

Cited by 68 publications

References 22 publications

Evaluation of academic integrity of online open book assessments implemented in an undergraduate medical radiation science course during COVID-19 pandemic

Evaluation of academic integrity of online open book assessments implemented in an undergraduate medical radiation science course during COVID-19 pandemic

Video Assessment Tasks in Tertiary Education: Practice and Experience in STEM

Academic Cheating: How Can We Detect and Discourage It?

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