9 ways to deter students from cheating while taking online tests

Now that students are taking all classes online, teachers are struggling to find ways to test them. Many of my clients from across the country are not taking tests or final exams as the spring semester comes to a close. This may cause problems with accreditation companies that require comprehensive final exams. One of the reasons that schools have gone to pass/no pass grading during this shelter-in-place order is that they can’t find a testing format that prevents cheating. I did some research to look at ways teachers can test students to determine how well they’ve mastered the concepts taught in their classes. This is what I found:

1. No Copy-Paste
Don’t allow copy and pasting on the exam itself. Set this up by using programs like LockDown Browser, Blackboard and other programs. They can detect if students copy and paste during the exam. This eliminates students researching answers online and copying/pasting the answers.

2. Different Questions
Students often cheat by getting questions from other students who take the class during an earlier period. If a teacher has a 20-question test, then the teacher would create 100 questions and randomly select 20 for each of their five classes. That way, students who take tests later in the day don’t have an unfair advantage.

3. Timed Tests
Set a time limits for the tests that don’t give students time to go online to research the answers. By setting a tight deadline for completing the test, the students won’t have time to talk to friends, look at cheat sheets or google the question.

4. Problem-Solving Questions
Instead of asking questions that check memorization skills, teachers can ask questions that require critical thinking and problem-solving skills. By applying their knowledge about concepts taught in class, students will be graded on their ability to find viable solutions.

5. No Immediate Scores
Students will be less inclined to cheat if they don’t know how their accomplices did on a test. Rather than give immediate feedback on exams, give the tests back with scores after all students have taken the tests.

6. Disconnect Auto-Complete
If multiple students use the same computer to take the exam, disconnect the auto-complete feature so they don’t type in a few letters and get the previous test-taker’s complete answers.

7. Safe Exam Browser
By using https://safeexambrowser.org/, teachers can control what the students do while taking exams. They can make it difficult to do searches on browsers.

8. Monitored Online Programs
By using webcams and microphones, programs can monitor student activity and discussions while taking tests. There are several programs that offer these services: Online Exam, Online Video Test Proctoring, ProctorU, and Proctorio.

9. Trick Cheating Students
This is by far the most creative way to see if a student has cheated on an exam. A clever teacher wrote a difficult question that was impossible to answer, and then uploaded that question and INCORRECT answer to his lecture notes (or homework site). If students selected the “wrong” answer, they failed both the exam and the class.

Cheating has been a problem for all teachers, and now with online classes, it’s even more difficult to catch. Software companies are scrambling to offer solutions to cheating on tests now that millions of students have been and will probably continue to take online classes. As long as the teachers stay a few steps ahead of the students, the students will likely succumb to studying and preparing for exams. Getting an F on a test or failing a class is not worth the risk.