Proctored Versus Unproctored Online Exams: Studying the Impact of Exam Environment on Student Performance

Increasing numbers of universities are offering courses in online and hybrid formats. One challenge in online assessment is the maintenance of academic integrity. We present a thorough statistical analysis to uncover differences in student performance when online exams are administered in a proctored environment (i.e., in class) versus an unproctored environment (i.e., offsite). Controlling for student grade point average (GPA), no significant differences in mean overall course performance or exam performance between the two groups were found, nor were there any differences in the mean vectors of individual exam scores. The study reveals that the group taking online exams in the unproctored environment has significantly more variation in their performance results. In examining potential causes of the greater variation, analyses were performed to assess whether an increased level of possible cheating behavior could be observed from performance results for students in the unproctored section. No evidence of cheating behavior was found.     

The Impact of Online Assessment on Grades in Community College Distance Education Mathematics Courses

Abstract

This study compared the impact of proctoring on the final course grades of community college students enrolled in distance education mathematics courses. The goal was to determine whether distance education students who are evaluated entirely online, in environments that are not proctored, receive grades that differ from distance education students who take proctored exams. In an analysis of 850 grades from a variety of distance education mathematics courses, 406 were given to students who were evaluated in a proctored environment, and the remaining 444 were a result of assessment that was conducted entirely in the online setting and was not proctored. Statistical analysis revealed no significant difference between the grades that were earned in any of the individual courses. Also, no significant difference was found when the grades of the 406 students who took exams in person were compared with the 444 who were assessed entirely in an unsupervised online environment.     

Examining the Role of Advanced Placement® Exam Participation in 4‐Year College Enrollment

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between Advanced Placement (AP) exam participation and enrollment in a 4‐year postsecondary institution. A positive relationship was expected given that the primary purpose of offering AP courses is to allow students to engage in college‐level academic work while in high school, and potentially receive college credit by earning qualifying scores on the corresponding AP exam. Therefore, college preparation and planning is an implicit and explicit part of AP participation. Analyzing a national sample of over 1.5 million students, the current study found that AP participation was related to college enrollment, even after controlling for student demographic and ability characteristics and high school level predictors. For example, the odds of attending a 4‐year postsecondary institution increased by at least 171% for all three AP participation groups (taking either one AP exam, two or three AP exams, or four or more AP exams) as compared to students who took no AP exams. Given the current political environment and the renewed interest in readying high school students for college, these results may help inform and shape educational initiatives targeted at the school, district, state, or even national level.     

高职院校学生考试作弊情况的回归分析——以徐州工业职业技术学院为例

考风建设历来是高职院校教学管理中的一项重要内容。本文以考试作弊次数为自变量,以学生基本情况、中学时考试作弊情况加上计划行为理论提出的作弊道德观、作弊态度、作弊收益与代价估计、感受压力、学校政策共7个模块20个项目的因变量进行回归分析,并根据回归结果提出相应的建议。     

Circumstances surrounding cheating: A questionnaire study of college students

A questionnaire assessing beliefs and behaviors associated with cheating was administered to 365 college students. Circumstances rated most likely to increase cheating were low instructor vigilance, unfair exams, an instructor who does not care about cheating, and dependence of financial support and long-term goals on good grades. Circumstances rated most likely to decrease cheating were high instructor vigilance, fair exams, high punishment for getting caught, essay exams, widely spaced exam seating, and valuable course material. Principal components analyses revealed several factors underlying planned cheating: difficulty/negative consequences of cheating, pressures, instructor personality, social norms, and interest in the course. These factors relate to the determinants of behavior specified by the theory of planned behavior. Self-reports indicated that 83 percent of respondents cheated in college and that the two most common types of cheating were giving (58 percent) and getting (49 percent) exam questions to and from other students before an exam. Acts of helping someone else cheat were more commonly reported than corresponding acts of cheating for oneself. Students with high cheating scores tended to be male rather than female, to have a low goal grade-point average, and to believe that the prevalence of cheating in college is high.Both authors contributed equally to this research.A version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Ontario, August 1993.     

A Systematic Replication Comparing Interteaching and Lecture in the Community College Classroom

Researchers demonstrated the effectiveness of interteaching relative to lecture in 4-year university classrooms, but exploration in other settings is deficient. This systematic replication examines the extent to which interteaching leads to increased exam scores compared to traditional lecture in the community college classroom. Participants in two introductory psychology sections took identical exams following counterbalanced alternating lecture and interteaching conditions. Most student exam scores following interteaching were slightly higher than exams following the lecture condition, with statistically significant differences in two of the six exams. Students in both sections correctly answered more interteaching-based than lecture-based questions on the cumulative final exam, although these differences were not significant. During interteaching, students earned significantly more points throughout the semester compared to the lecture condition. Also, more students reportedly preferred interteaching relative to lecture. The results of this study comparing interteaching to lecture in a community college setting are consistent with the results in the original study within a 4-year university classroom. Students’ exam score gains and significant cumulative point differences suggest interteaching may be an effective alternative to traditional lecture, potentially producing meaningful differences in student performance within the community college setting.     

An exploration of instructors' perceptions about online proctoring and its value in ensuring academic integrity

As universities moved to remotely taught courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of maintaining academic integrity in online environments intensified. In response, this study explores instructors' perceptions about the role of online proctoring as a tool for their courses with the intent of enhancing the understanding of online proctoring's usefulness in ensuring academic integrity and the factors that may be swaying instructors' adoption decisions. An online survey was completed by 158 instructors at a variety of higher education institutions with 118 responding to an open-ended question that allowed respondents to share any additional thoughts about or experiences with using online proctoring. A thematic review of the qualitative comments illustrates the multifaceted impact of online proctoring on instructors and students. Results identified instructors' perceived benefits and challenges of online proctoring to them, their students and the learning process. In addition, instructors voiced numerous legal, ethical and social concerns about the use of online proctoring, including concerns related to students' privacy. Despite these concerns, some instructors identified strong use cases for online proctoring while others provided alternative strategies for ensuring academic integrity in online courses. As institutions consider the role of online proctoring in ensuring academic integrity, a holistic approach that balances instructional design best practices, student-friendly policies and proctoring tools is recommended to serve the complex needs and concerns of instructors, students and their institutions.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Prior research findings are mixed as to whether proctoring is valuable for ensuring academic integrity in online courses.
• Studies investigating grade performance in proctored versus unproctored exam settings have conflicting results; however, studies have found that students completing proctored formative exams perform better on summative exams than students completing non-proctored formative exams.

What this paper adds

• Qualitative data were collected to provide an overview of instructors' perceptions about and experiences with online proctoring.
• Analysis suggests that online proctoring is beneficial to some instructors, students and the overall learning process. At the same time, its use is also concerning to other instructors and students. Among the issues raised by instructors are concerns for student privacy, increases in student test anxiety and discriminatory proctoring practices.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Institutions must be proactive in ensuring that the use of online proctoring aligns with their institutional values and the changing legal landscape.
• Institutional policies should strive to find a balance between ensuring academic integrity and promoting a positive experience for students and instructors. Since there are strong use cases for online proctoring, these policies should include flexibility whenever possible.

     

高校学生考试作弊分析与对策

大学生的考试作弊违纪现象不容忽视,分析了大学生作弊原因、形式。提出了加强诚信教育、改进教学和考试方式、营造公平竞争环境、提高学生心理素质等防范考试作弊行为的教育对策。     

Detecting probable cheating during online assessments based on time delay and head pose

This study investigated the ability of test takers’ behaviors during online assessments to detect probable cheating incidents. Specifically, this study focused on the role of time delay and head pose for detection of cheating incidences in a lab-based online testing session. The analysis of a test taker’s behavior indicated that not only time delay but also the variation of a student’s head pose relative to computer screen had significant statistical relation to cheating behaviors. Additionally, time delay and head-pose variation relative to a computer screen were predictors in a logit model of cheating prediction with an average accuracy of 75.6%. The current algorithm could automatically flag suspicious student behavior for proctors in large-scale online courses during remotely administered exams.     

Undergraduate Students’ Preferences for Constructed Versus Multiple-Choice Assessment of Learning

Students (N = 161) in seven sections of an undergraduate educational psychology course rated ten performance-assessment options in collegiate courses. They rated in-class essay exams as their most preferred assessment and multiple-choice exams (in-class and out-of-class) as their least preferred. Also, student ratings of multiple papers and a term paper did not differ significantly from the rating for in-class essay exams. Overall, students preferred constructed forms of assessment over more objective assessment. With minor exceptions, student ratings of assessment preferences were generally consistent across gender and academic levels. In the main, student ratings of assessment options did not significantly correlate with exam performance in the course.     

Speech Education in West German Universities

ABSTRACT

Academic dishonesty has evolved to keep pace with changes in higher education. Websites now advertise the service of taking online courses for students. This study examined one such online company. Representatives from the company were professional and delivered the advertised services. Two experienced faculty members who co-taught the course used in this study were unable to identify the cheating company. The cheating company earned an “A” for the student. This article discusses the process by which the company was initially identified as well as provides an account of the interactions with the company that resulted in the student earning an “A.”     

Generational Differences among Community College Students in their Evaluation of Academic Cheating

This study examined how community college students (n = 650) vary by generation and other characteristics in their evaluation of academic activities as cheating. A Likert-type instrument was developed based on the literature, pilot tested, and subjected to factor analysis. Results of MANOVA found no difference by generation in the evaluation of cheating related to exams/papers. However, significant differences did exist among generations in the evaluation of activities of fabrication, taking shortcuts, and making excuses, with Millennials rating activities less strongly as cheating than others. Perceptions of cheating did not vary as a function of other student characteristics. Implications for practice include the provision of clear definitions of allowed and disallowed activities in each course and the stimulation of interdisciplinary dialogue regarding the enhancement of academic integrity.     

关于遏制高校学生考试作弊现象的研究

高校学生考试作弊的方式和原因较多,管理中应着重从加强对学生的教育引导,努力打造他们诚信、自立的人品;实施教考分离,建立合理的考试模式;加强考务管理,严抓考场纪律等方面入手,最大限度地遏制考试作弊现象,提高考试的信度和效度,让考试发挥应有的作用。     

Timed Online Tests: Do Students Perform Better With More Time?

This article focuses on timed tests and specifically on whether increased time enhances test performance. Three courses during the Winter 2015 term (quizzes n = 573) and three courses over the Spring 2015 term (quizzes n = 600) comprised this sample. Students were given the same tests, but the experimental group (Spring 2015) was given 50% more time than the control group. The results indicate that more time on tests did not enhance student performance in terms of higher scores.

Much attention has been given to student assessment of learning in the online classroom. One such method of measurement is online tests, quizzes, and exams. The focus of this research is to determine whether test scores would improve if students were allowed more time on tests.     

Even after thirteen class exams,students are still overconfident: the role of memory for past exam performance in student predictions

Students often are overconfident when they predict their performance on classroom examinations, and their accuracy often does not improve across exams. One contributor to overconfidence may be that students did not have enough experience, and another is that students may under-use their knowledge of prior exam performance to predict performance on their upcoming exams. To evaluate the former, we examined student prediction accuracy across 13 exams in an introductory course on educational psychology. For the latter, we computed measures that estimate the extent to which students use the prior exam score when predicting performance and whether students should use the prior exam scores. Several outcomes are noteworthy. First, students were overconfident, and contrary to expectations, this overconfidence did not decline across exams. Second, students’ prior exam scores were not related to subsequent predictions, even though prior exam performance showed little bias with respect to predicting future performance. Thus, students appear to under-use prior performance despite its utility for improving prediction accuracy about future exam performance.     

高校结课考试作弊心理及对策的新视角分析

当前高校结课考试中的作弊现象十分普遍,本文从一种新角度对该问题进行分析。首先将考试分为选拔性考试和通过性考试,将学生分为绩优学生和绩差学生。在分析不同考试背景下两类学生作弊心理基础上,提出重点监考绩差学生,采用开卷考试和提高试卷质量,监考教师认真监考,作弊处罚落到实处共4项应对考试作弊的对策。     

Online versus face‐to‐face learning: looking at modes of instruction in Master’s‐level courses

This study examined performance of Master’s‐level students in an online course in Cognition, Learning and Assessment and compared it with the performance of students in a face‐to‐face classroom setting of the same course (N = 70). Data were collected from six sections of the course over a two‐year period. The same professor taught all sections. Identical final exams plus two common assignments were used to determine whether there were differences in performance. An analysis of covariance, with graduate record exam scores as the covariate, was applied using each of the dependent variables. Students in the face‐to‐face class scored significantly higher on two out of the three measures.     

College students' ratings of student effort,student ability and teacher input as correlates of student performance on multiple-choice exams

In the class session following feedback regarding their scores on multiple-choice exams, undergraduate students in a large human development course rated the strength of possible contributors to their exam performance. Students rated items related to their personal effort in preparing for the exam (identified as student effort in the paper), their ability to perform well on the exams (identified as student ability), and teacher input that might have affected their exam performance. Students rated most student effort items higher than teacher input and student ability items. Notwithstanding, across all exams, ratings of student ability and teacher input correlated more strongly with exam performance than did student effort ratings. High and low performers on the exams differed significantly on ratings of student ability and teacher input, but were more similar on ratings of student effort.