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Stop the Cheating! Best Practices to

Minimize Security Risks on ExamsDr. Aimee Strang, Assistant Dean for Curricular Assessment, Albany College of

Pharmacy and Health Sciences

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Stop the Cheating!

Best Practices to Minimize Security Risks

Aimee Strang, Pharm.D., MSHPEd, BCPS

Assistant Dean of Curricular Assessment

Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

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Objectives

• Identify ways students can cheat in ExamSoft

• Describe what to do (or not do) when creating and posting exams

• Discuss exam day practices to limit cheating

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Who Cheats?

• Self-reports suggest >50% of university students cheat 1

• Nursing: >50% (n=336) reported cheating in classroom or clinical settings 2

• Pharmacy: 11.8% (n=331) admitted to cheating 3

• Self-reported prevalence progressively decreased from junior high (33%)

• 55% were aware of cheating at their institutions

• Physiology department scanned 3620 midterms across 11 courses 4

• Prevalence of cheating was 2.2% ; 17.4% of tests submitted for regrading

• High-achieving students - 60% of offenders earned >80%

1. Christensen Hughes JM, McCabe DL. Understanding Academic Misconduct.Can J High Educ 36: 49-63, 2006

2. 1. Krueger L. Academic dishonesty among nursing students. J Nurs Educ. 2014 Feb;53(2):77-87.

3. Ip EJ, Nguyen K, Shah BM, Doroudgar S, Bidwal MK. Motivations and Predictors of Cheating in Pharmacy School. Am J Pharm Educ. 2016 Oct 25;80(8):133.

4. Ottaway K, Murrant C, Ritchie K. Cheating after the test: who does it and how often? Adv Physiol Educ. 2017 Sep 1;41(3):368-374

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Why do students cheat?

• Culture: Students get accustomed to taking academically deceitful actions 1

• Behaviors become acceptable and normal over time

• Time management (procrastination) 2, 3

• Perceived seriousness 2

• Social influence: perceived acceptance of (1) friends and (2) family 2, 4

• Need to do well and fear of failure 2, 3

• Perceived ease of cheating 4

1. Macale L, Ghezzi V, Rocco G, Fida R, Vellone E, Alvaro R. Academic dishonesty among Italian nursing students: A longitudinal study. Nurse Educ Today. 2017

Mar;50:57-61

2. Henning MA, Ram S, Malpas P, Sisley R, Thompson A, Hawken SJ. Reasons for academic honesty and dishonesty with solutions: a study of pharmacy and medical

students in New Zealand. J Med Ethics. 2014 Oct;40(10):702-9.

3. Ip EJ, Nguyen K, Shah BM, Doroudgar S, Bidwal MK. Motivations and Predictors of Cheating in Pharmacy School. Am J Pharm Educ. 2016 Oct 25;80(8):133.

4. Lonsdale D. Intentions to Cheat: Ajzen's Planned Behavior and Goal-Related Personality Facets. J Psychol. 2017 Feb 17;151(2):113-129.

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Implications

• Students appreciate a code of academic integrity and want to earn their

degree without cheating 1

• Multifactorial approach

• Character of student population

• Ethical culture of institution

• Testing procedures

• Curriculum

• Implications of assessments (student risk)

• Prevention programs

1. VanDeGrift T, Dillon H, Camp L.Changing the Engineering Student Culture with Respect to Academic Integrity and Ethics. Sci Eng Ethics. 2017 Aug;23(4):1159-1182

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Influence of ExamSoft

• Students

• Harder to cheating

• Increased risk of getting caught

• Institution

• Increased awareness

• Decreased tolerance

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Item Writing

• Use straightforward, unadorned language

• Re-use identical answer sets with different questions

• Use identical images more than once

• No extraneous visual information

• Create new questions each time

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Item Writing

• Create items that can be randomized

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Item Writing

• Don’t group questions unless they are part of a case

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Exam Creation

• Use pre-assessment notice for honor code

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Exam Creation

• Use secure exams

• Randomize question AND choices

• No backward navigation

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Posting the Assessment

• Use a good password

• NOT Bioexam1

• NOT A5gTu85

• welove10hippos

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Posting the Assessment

• Use remote deletion

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Posting the Assessment

• Use ping and release

• Need internet

• If there is no internet, need

universal resume code

• “System indicates you have already

taken this exam before. This exam will

be logged for auditing purposes.”

• The server ping also checks for

remote exam deletion

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Secure Review

• Use different password than

exam password

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Secure Review

Immediate Review

• Students will have answers while

others are still taking the exam

• Use a time limit

• Display incorrect questions only

• *Caution* tiered lecture halls

Delayed review

• Set start time after exam ends

• Maintain exam conditions during

delayed exam reviews

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Exam Day

• Assigned seating

• Available 1 hour prior to exam

• Changes with each exam

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Exam Day

• Use proctors

• Student proctors

• 2-3 per exam

• Walk around, stand at top of lecture hall

• Look for large font sizes

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Exam Day

• Use colored scrap paper

• Paper honor code – attendance list

• Print student’s name in scrap paper or honor code

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Exam Day

• Use screen protectors if possible

• May not work in tiered lecture halls

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Exam Day

• Ensure correct

exam name

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Exam Day

• View student’s upload prior to exiting the exam

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Exam Day

• View students who have not uploaded after exam is over

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Exam Day

• Review student

start and finish

times

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Suspected Cheating

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Suspected Cheating

• Use the log file

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Exam Day

• No phones, smart watches, smart rings

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Questions?