This article was originally written in Spanish. Your browser can translate it automatically.
Why are my students cheating?
Dishonest practices during online assessments are a major problem, even affecting teachers who already have a proctoring system. What are the causes of this situation?
Many times, teachers share the same frustration: their students cheat on exams, even when they have a proctoring system in place. This situation undermines academic integrity and damages not only educational institutions, but online education in general, considering that it is a growing modality that seeks to establish its place.
Dishonest practices in assessments can take different forms, such as copying from a written paper or from another student's exam. Specifically in virtual education, this can happen by consulting the internet, bibliographic materials or other people present. It can also consist of plagiarizing a work or even identity replacement, meaning that someone other than the student is taking the evaluation.
Why do they resort to this easy and dishonest solution when demonstrating their learning?
In the first instance, it is due to lack of study and understanding of the topics covered in class, combined with pressure to pass. Secondly, sometimes there is insufficient awareness about the meaning of cheating and how it affects academic integrity, not only personally but also for the educational institution.
As for online education, it is undeniable that, while it has potential for learning, some students see it as a gateway to fraud and cheating. The use of technological tools for assessment, such as mobile phones and computers, facilitate quick access to information, which becomes a temptation difficult to avoid when, as already mentioned, there has been a lack of study and understanding.
This is compounded when exams contain questions that, on one hand, can be easily found on a search engine or in the bibliographic materials of the subject; and on the other hand, are closed-ended with instant verification.
Another cause of cheating practices is lack of supervision. In face-to-face evaluations, this control can be done with just a glance. However, in virtual education this becomes difficult, which is easily reversible if the teacher and educational institution has an online proctoring system, that is, remote supervision of online exams.
In recent years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more educational establishments are incorporating it to prevent fraudulent technological strategies in assessment instances. Some software of this type execute monitoring of each action in real time; others supervise the exam from beginning to end, verifying the student's identity through biometric data.
What happens if proctoring doesn't prevent students from cheating?
Sometimes, despite having this solution, teachers detect dishonest situations, which generates discomfort and frustration. This can have different causes; for example, it may happen that the format used is live: students have their camera and microphone constantly on, and a person monitors them in real time. In this case, if there are many students, the evaluator can be overwhelmed and not be able to observe everyone. Consequently, cheating is more viable. The same applies to the recording format, which requires, in addition to recording the student's screen and environment, observation by examiners.
Another case is the automated extension proctoring format, which, while supervising during the exam, does not prevent irregularities, such as browsing unauthorized sites. This enables dishonest actions and makes monitoring unreliable. With this, one might think that nothing prevents fraudulent practices in online education. However, just as virtuality enables good teaching in line with current times, it is a great ally for verifying the quality of assessment if you choose complete proctoring.
For this, automated proctoring with application is the best tool, as it supervises the entire exam. Before, it verifies the student's identity with biometric data. During the evaluation, it checks the environment to detect anomalies through artificial intelligence, recording escape attempts and keyboard shortcuts. In addition, it blocks the screen if students access unauthorized pages or applications. Once the assessment process is complete, it generates a report that specifies whether what was done should be reviewed due to suspicious situations. In this way, educational prestige is guaranteed.
That's why you shouldn't get discouraged. Nothing concludes that online teaching is more prone to cheating than traditional education. On the contrary, it enables the use of digital tools for supervision, one of the guarantees of learning and academic integrity. All you need is good proctoring that carries out complete and fair monitoring.
Find out why you should trust Klarway to guarantee the quality of your assessment instances.
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