Assessing students remotely raises a number of issues, with concerns about academic integrity at the top of many instructors’ list. This is particularly true when assessment is conducted with a series of high-stakes exams. Leaving aside the many ways that students can (and do) successfully cheat in face-to-face settings, it’s impossible to replicate a face-to-face exam environment without imposing serious financial, privacy, and bias-related costs on our students.

Below are a set of strategies to help with any assessment strategies, including high-stakes exams.

Effective approaches

Openly discuss academic integrity

Start with a discussion about Highline’s Academic Integrity policy and Student Conduct Codes. Text and links to both are in your Canvas course in the Highline Policies and Procedures documents. Clearly identify what you mean by integrity, with examples. Make it part of a class discussion and an activity, not just some language buried in the syllabus.

Although academic dishonesty is intensely frustrating, keep in mind that it is often only a few students who attract most of our attention. Approach this as a supportive, not punitive practice. Be positive, be supportive, and be clear.

Encourage students to be honest

Yes, this really does help. Research data reveal that people are less likely to cheat if they are prompted to think about themselves and their own integrity. For students from collectivist backgrounds, prompting students to think of someone who sees them as a person of integrity probably doesn’t hurt, although we have not found any research evidence to back this up (yet).

You can prompt students to think about integrity with these sample questions.

Use quizzes that mimic a work environment

In a work environment, when employees encounter a problem, we don't just throw up our hands and say, "I don't know that." Or at least the employees who wish to stay employed don't do that. Instead, we turn to our coworkers, and we dive into whatever written material we can find. You can use your quizzes to prompt the same behavior of your students.

These questions can be more difficult - think application questions rather than definition questions. Students have to take what they have learned and apply it in a brand new situation. Or you can give students a problem, and students have to identify the additional information that they would need or the steps they would need to go through to solve the problem.

Applied questions--questions where students have to apply the information they learned in the course to a novel situation--are stronger open-book questions than, say, questions about definitions.

Contact ET for a conversation about creating these questions.
See the questions in Sue's Write-to-Learn assignment

Use other means of assessment

Assessment using something other than a quiz or exam brings a number of benefits:

They serve to reinforce knowledge, where quizzes test recall.
Some research has shown that they are a better measure of learning for students from marginalized backgrounds.
They often work better for students with disabilities.
It’s more difficult to cheat them.

Consider some of the resources shared by your colleagues, and contact us to work some ideas.

Closed-book test strategies

If you are going to do a closed-book test, there are a number of strategies you can employ to make cheating more challenging.

Learn more about test design strategies

What about lock-down browsers?

Highline does not contract for lock-down browsers or other exam surveillance software, for several reasons. We did pilot a tool during spring quarter 2020. However, it wasn’t well used; only 5 faculty requested access, and three of those decided not to continue with it.

A lock-down browser by itself doesn’t add much. They’re costly, they only work on certain kinds of computers, and they’re very easy to defeat by students who can afford more than one device (e.g. a tablet or cell phone).

That means you also need to employ surveillance tools. Those are also costly and only work on certain computers. They are also biased against students with dark skin or disabilities, and are very invasive into student’s homes.

Learn more about concerns with lock-down browsers and exam surveillance.

What do I do if I catch a student cheating?

Please report violations of academic honesty to Highline's Office of Student Conduct. That office now meets with a student on the first report of an alleged academic integrity violation. This meeting may only result in a verbal warning, but ensures that the student has a clear idea of academic integrity and understands that they will be held accountable for their actions.