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Cheating on Exams

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Cheating on exams in online courses
Proctored exams are necessary in order to maintain the credibility and integrity of currently offered online degree programs.
There has been much written on the subject of cheating by students on the college level and studies conducted to support the conclusions. With the advent of the internet and the recent trend of colleges pressured to offer totally online degree programs the opportunity to cheat has expanded with the same exponent. “Academic integrity has been a perennial issue in higher education. Undoubtedly, the advent of the Internet and advances in user-friendly technological devices have spurred both concern on the part of faculty and research interest in the academic community regarding inappropriate and unethical behavior on the part of students. 73.6% of students in the sample held the perception that it is easier to cheat in an online versus traditional course.” (King, Guyette and Piotrowski 2009)
Internet based classes are experiencing a growth surge. With the recent employment crisis, and the increased weight on academic achievement, more adults are now able to enroll in online classes, and still maintain full time jobs and meet the demands of busy families. In a study conducted by Oskar Harmon and James Lambrinos they used a “model that predicts exam scores from independent variables of student characteristics. In one course, the final exam was proctored, and in the other course, the final exam was not proctored. In both courses, the first three exams were un-proctored. If no cheating took place, the authors expected the prediction model to have the same explanatory power for all exams, and conversely, if cheating occurred in the un-proctored exam, the explanatory power would be lower. Their findings are that both across and within class, variations in the R-squared statistic suggest that cheating was taking place when the exams were not proctored.” (Harmon and Lambrinos 2008)
A proctored final exam could be utilized to ensure the students were familiar with the material. In their article professors Eplion and Keefe offered, “We also require a cumulative final exam that is heavily weighted and is administered face-to-face. Because the cumulative final is worth so many points, students must know the material if they hope to successfully complete our course. If they have had someone else take the exams for them over the course of the semester, they will pay for it when taking the final.” (Eplion and Keefe 2007)
Writing based courses were the first to be offered online followed by Math and Fact based courses. Writing based tests and exams emphasize essays and term papers while Math and fact based exams focus on calculation and fact based assessments. In his paper focusing specifically on Math and Fact based online courses Trenholm concluded “Proctored assessments present the clearest and most intuitive means for educators to ensure that their students’ skill level reflects the grade they received and, particularly in Math and Fact based courses, effectively mitigate any real or potential concern about issues of academic honesty.” (Trenholm 2007)

References
King, C. G., Guyette Jr., R. W. & Piotrowski, C. (2009). Online Exams and Cheating: An Empirical Analysis of Business Students’ Views. The Journal of Educators Online, Volume 6, Number 1, January 2009 (1)
Harmon, O. R., Lambrinos, J. (2008). Are Online Exams an Invitation to Cheat? Journal of Economic Education Spring 2008 (116)
Eplion, D. M., Keefe, T. J. (2007). Practical Tips for Preventing Cheating on Online Exams. Online Cl@ssroom Ideas for Effective Online Instruction April 2007 (1-3)
Trenholm, S. (2007). A Review of Cheating in Fully Asynchronous Online Courses: A Math or Fact Based Course Perspective. J. Educational Technology Systems, Vol 35(3) 281-300, 2006-2007 (297)

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