When a
college student takes an online exam for an online course, who’s really sitting
in the test-taker’s seat—the student who enrolled or someone else?
Potential
cheating has always been a concern for online college courses. New analytical
tools, according to a report in EdTech magazine, are helping institutions ensure that the person who gets credit for
the course actually does the work.
By
analyzing how thousands of honest students fill out an examination form,
researchers can determine if a dishonest student is trying to cheat or obtained
access to test questions in advance.
Other
schools are attempting to prevent cheating with online proctoring services.
Students must take the exam from a computer with a webcam that keeps an eye on
their work during the test. In case a student is tempted to substitute an
impersonator, figuring the school won’t know the difference, some services
verify the person’s identity with scanned photos.
On the
positive side, proctoring services also enable “the university to offer
students more flexible test times, an important factor for some nontraditional
students,” said the report.
