Teaching and Learning Center

Pragmatic Testing Tips to Encourage Academic Honesty

Looking for some simple ways to make online exam cheating less easy?

Consider implementing some of these student-centered strategies in your exam administration process:

  • Create an exam from a “pool” of potential questions.
  • Select the shortest time frame possible for students to complete the exam.  Instead of 40 questions in 40 minutes, try 30 minutes. There will be no time to consult the textbook for answers. 
  • Select the option “show one question at a time”.  Copying and pasting one question at a time into Google will be too time-consuming.
  • Select “no back-tracking”.
  • Select “randomizing” the exam from a pool of questions.
  • Allow the exam to be taken for an entire week to reduce time pressure to cheat.
  • Create a larger number of shorter exams over the course of the semester. 
  • Assign a low point value for each exam.  5% of the grade is not worth cheating for!
  • Allow multiple attempts during the exam week with each new attempt generating a new set of randomized questions.
  • Create open-book tests. Bonus: You will write better questions and the students will need to think at a deeper level

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[Blog] Got a Minute? Pragmatic Testing Tips to Encourage Academic Honesty

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