Are your exams motivating students to succeed or to cheat?

Academic integrity has long been a necessary consideration for educators, but last year’s abrupt move to online learning intensified questions about just how much students may take advantage of outside help. If you’ve been concerned with maintaining academic integrity while teaching online, there is good news: Research shows that academic dishonesty in online classes is no more pervasive than in traditional classrooms.

Whether in person or online, then, what can educators do to minimize cheating in the first place? As we near the end of the year, we’re sharing ways you can adjust your assessment approach to better support students and give them the confidence to succeed.

Assessment Tips for Ensuring Academic Integrity

by Cindy Decker Raynak and Cheryl Farren Tkacs (December 6, 2021)

While there will always be a few students who plan to cheat no matter what, many students are driven to do so by panic. The solution, therefore, is not to amp up your cheating-detection skills—instead, research suggests that educators can reduce students’ inclination to cheat in the first place by better engaging them in class and giving them more opportunities to confidently showcase their knowledge.

Here are some strategies educators can use to reduce academic dishonesty and assess student learning more effectively. Some of these tips are foundational but important reminders as we head into another exam season.

4 ways to adjust your exams to discourage cheating

1. Give students more assessment opportunities throughout the semester by breaking up larger exams into smaller unit-, chapter-, or topic-specific tests.
2. Create a large bank of test questions and mix them up on your exams—if each student receives a different set of questions, they will be unable to share answers.
3. Use authentic forms of assessments—with problems or questions that ask students to explain, analyze, and infer—to prompt unique and genuine student responses.
4. Use problem- or project-based assessments instead of multiple-choice testing.

3 tips for boosting students’ test-taking confidence

1. Allow students time to practice meshing their own test-taking skills with your exam style. Provide practice questions so students can learn what their strengths and weaknesses are before the pressure of a real exam.
2. Help students monitor their own progress by using low-stakes quizzes, the muddiest-point approach, or one-minute paper questions immediately following the introduction of new material to give them the practice they need to retrieve and rehearse information.
3. Offer students the opportunity to self-correct their answers after a quiz rather than directly giving them immediate feedback. This sets the tone that quizzes are learning opportunities, not tools to deflate students’ confidence.

Keep the end goal in mind

Ultimately, as instructors, we want to prepare students to demonstrate and retain knowledge through exams, not heighten their panic levels or increase their proclivity to cheat. It’s important, then, that we’re thoughtful and intentional about what types of questions we include on our exams. Consider the purpose that each question serves toward the course objectives outlined in the syllabus—our exams should help students fully understand certain concepts and analyze ideas on their own.

Educators should ensure students know how they are being evaluated and give them ample opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and thought processes. In doing so, we’ll reduce their instinct to cheat, increase their knowledge retention, and set them up for long-term success.