In the lab report, I made a survey on google forms about online tests and sent it to the discord servers of three of my classes. Looking back I should of kept track of how much people were voting from each server as they had different testing methods, and more people voted form one, the results would be favored for that.

Evaluating the Prevalence of Cheating on online tests

Abstract

There has been a rise in cheating as online classes have been introduced. To test this a poll was created to find out the factors that may lead to student cheating. This was sent to the discord servers of three different classes, for any student to anonymously answer if they wish to do so. From the poll, it was discovered that most students are willing to cheat, even though it might be a challenge for them, and they are overall satisfied with the way tests are being taken. This may indicate that deterrents to cheating on online tests may not be working as effectively.

Introduction

After the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, to ensure the safety of students while maintaining their education, schools and colleges have moved towards distanced learning using online classes. As a result, tests and exams had to be taken online as well. Online examinations have presented their own difficulties to both students and teachers alike. Students must adapt to completely different testing environments than they’re used to and have learned to expect. Test formats for subjects had to be drastically altered to be taken online securely. Teachers must format their tests as such to deter students from cheating, which is much more difficult as cheating from the comforts of home is much more convenient and may prove tempting to most students. Here, just how readily students are willing and able to cheat on online exams was tested.

Materials and Methods

For this experiment, a poll was created with three questions using Google Forms, and a link to it was sent to the various discord servers of certain classes of college-level students, where anyone was free to answer anonymously. The first question was, “On a scale of 1 to 5, how inclined are you to cheat on an online test?” Where 1 was they didn’t feel the need to cheat, and 5 was that they absolutely need to cheat. This was disclosed to the participants. The second question was, “On a scale of 1 to 5, how easy would it be to cheat on an online exam?” Here 1 was that it would be trivial or easy and 5 was that it would be very difficult with their current resources. The third question was “On a scale of 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with how online tests are being taken?” Here 1 means dissatisfied, and 5 means satisfied. A total of 81 took part in the survey.

Results

Graph1 (1=didn’t feel the need to cheat, 5=absolutely need to cheat)

Graph 2 (1=trivial/easy, 5=very difficult with their current resources)

Graph 3 (1=dissatisfied, 5=satisfied)

For the first question, 5 students picked 1, 3 students picked 2, 7 students picked 3, 4 students picked 4, and 62 students picked 5. So, a good majority picked 5, that they absolutely need to cheat. For the second question, 3 students picked 1, 5 students picked 2, 6 students picked 3, 5 students picked 4 and 62 students picked 5. The majority went with 5, that it would be very difficult to cheat with the current resources available to them. For the last question, 5 students picked 1, 3 students picked 2, 8 students picked 3, 2 students picked 4, and 63 students picked 5. The majority picked 5, that they are satisfied with how tests are being taken.

Discussion

 From the results of the questions, we see that most of the students feel that they need to cheat, although it will be difficult for them with their current resources, but they are satisfied with the way they are being tested. This high inclination towards cheating is most likely due to the lack of an effective monitoring method to find out if students are cheating and hold them accountable. The difficulties that students face to cheat may be due to technical limitations, as some may not have good enough hardware or internet connection to making it difficult to attend classes and exams let alone while cheating. It may also be due to a lack of resource material from online lessons to cheat from. Even though students may face hurdles to cheat, judging by the poll, they are still willing to try and overcome them to cheat, and they believe it is worth it. This could also explain why most are satisfied with the way online tests are being taken. Then again, they may also believe this is the best outcome given the circumstances. We can assume from all of this that more students are possibly cheating more. If this is the case, then the methods used to stop cheating during online examinations may not be as effective.

However, the participants of the poll were only from three different classes – Calculus II, Physics 207, and EAS 106. The responses of all the students were taken together without a record of how many from which class. Each of these classes has different ways in which their exams are taken, and the results of the poll could be biased towards one type of exam if a greater number of students took part from one of the classes and less from the others. There could also have been questions regarding the circumstances of the students, technology-wise.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the various students of the EAS, Physics 207, and Calculus II discord servers, who took part in the poll and who shall remain anonymous, without which this paper would not be possible.

References

Newton D. Another problem with shifting education online: A rise in cheating. The Washington Post. 2020 Aug 10 [accessed 2020 Nov 9]. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/another-problem-with-shifting

Brown B. elearn Magazine: Online Testing, Is It Fair? eLearn Magazine, an ACM Publication. 2016 Feb [accessed 2020 Nov 9]. https://elearnmag.acm.org/featured.cfm?aid=2893355  

Cheating in Online Education: Myth vs. Reality. OnlineEducation.com. [accessed 2020 Nov 9]. https://www.onlineeducation.com/features/cheating-in-online-education