What an amazing academic year, every student passed. Not only they passed but obtained good grades in online exams. The fact made teachers wonder about the possibility of every student passing with good grades. Teachers definitely suspect students of cheating or getting online exam assistance from some professional at the online exam help platform. Eventually, every teacher ponders over the question of how to prevent cheating in online exams.
Since the release of COVID-19 and the closure of educational institutes, education changed drastically, transforming into online learning. However, the transition was abnormal, both students and teachers struggled to adapt to the change. Previously, physical classrooms had invigilators in exams to watch students and ensure they do not cheat. On the contrary, an online exams invigilator is basically an instructor that guides and helps students with challenges faced during the online exam. So, there were no such measures to prevent students from cheating and getting online exam help from the experts.
The entire semester and a school year passed out with students getting exceptional grades in academics. As the year progressed, many online exams tools were created to address the cheating and exploitation in online exams. Later, hackers found a way to crack these tools and provide online exams assistance to students. Thus, technology and tools cannot be the solution to preventing students from cheating. Therefore, it is the play of teachers to prevent cheating during online exams.
Here are some tips to prevent students from cheating in online exams:
Universities were advised to not ask questions from textbooks or manuals because every answer or solution is already present on the internet. Yet, the teachers made questions out of it and it was easy for the students to answer. However, teachers should ask questions that make a student think, that are not available on the internet, and unavailability of the content means it is unique and new. Ask questions subjected to analysis, comparison, or case studies that involve the personal cognitive skills of students.
Often every exam consists of multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and it becomes very easy for the students to communicate their answers to get everything on point. However, spinning and making other variants of the same question will make a difference in the answer and minimize the chances of cheating. Undoubtedly, the process is time-consuming but creating varied questions will eliminate cheating as each student will have a different answer to the question.
Tip: Include reasoning to MCQs can also eliminate cheating in online exams.
I had my final year exams online and the university is one of the top engineering universities. The professors and instructors asked us to rotate 360-degree before starting the online exam. They ensure students got no company. Similarly, educators must ask students to rotate their cameras 360-degree to make sure they are alone and deprived of external help.
All the above strategies are of no use once students start hiring professional online exam takers. Consequently, ID verification is indispensable in online examination mode. Therefore, you can find multiple remote proctoring software to identify the true identity that matches the biometric profile of the student. Besides, these tools detect the use of mobile phones and the intervention of other humans for potential misconduct.
Similar to point 3, online exam proctor tools can scan the online exam taker room to ensure students have no external help. Besides, these tools with active webcam track students and monitor them during online exams.
Moreover, you can add the voices of each individual in your database so that the voice detection of proctoring tool can let the matched voices enter the online exam. Ask your students just to say “Hello World” and the tool will work its magic.
In addition, the tools have a feature to disable students from switching the exam screen and opening other tabs for online exam help. On hovering over the other tabs, the tool automatically kicks the student out of the exam. It is obvious why the student is requesting to rejoin.
Indeed, online classes are flexible but online learning opens the gate for exploiting education and cheating. Nowadays, students get homework, quiz, test, or online exam help. However, the transition was not even as simple and consequently, students opted for online class help. Students pay someone to do my online class was the effect of stress, pressure, and disinterest in online classes but they made it a norm. As a result, they are hindering education, the most significant necessity of life and to survive. Therefore, it is a must to prevent students from cheating and develop strategies for it.
