One of the issues that you may need to consider while adopting a suitable online examination system is what features it has to restraint candidates from cheating on quizzes, competitive exams and tests. While full protection cannot be assured, there are things a good online examination system can do to restrict candidates from cheating online.
Online tests offer various advantages of saving time and are a necessary part of numerous courses. Regardless of the various advantages, instructors must face the fact that online tests are equally susceptible to cheating as offline examinations.
While a large majority of students will not resort to unfair means, but a few of the students will always attempt to cheat. With online tests the manner in which candidates cheat might not be the same as on a traditional test. It’s up to educators to visualize these newer approaches of cheating.
There are some strategies through which a good online examination system can adequately keep candidates from cheating while offering online assessments. Some of these options are listed here:
1. Make Question Banks:
The online examination system serves the assessment from a pool of questions by adopting robust question bank management. The more questions provided in the question bank, the better the security. Every student that takes the exam will get an alternate set of questions.
2. Randomize Question Sequence:
Random order helps in making copying difficult for two test takers sitting one next to the other as they would not get the same set of questions.
3. Time limit:
Limit the time for a test or exam so that candidates who are being examined have only enough time to read and answer the questions instantly. They should not have enough time to look into the other answer.
4. Shuffle The Answer Choices Within A Question:
While making questions that offer various choices, true/false, or check box alternatives, rearranging the appropriate answer choices within a question can keep students from copying answers from their neighbours — particularly in classrooms where students can see each other’s screen.
5. Capturing snapshots of test takers:
The online examination system can be configured to take periodic snapshots of the test taker using the installed Webcam.
6. Live virtual Proctoring:
It is also possible for modern online examination systems to take a complete live video of the test taker which is viewed by an online proctor remotely. This video feed could also be recorded and kept for further analytics.
These days Innovation is empowering exam administrators, educators, enrollment specialists to see the exam candidates sitting 1000’s of miles away.
Learning Spiral is enabling these test administrators, educators and recruiters with innovation to do likewise with our advanced online proctoring features.
For universities, colleges and institutions we manage complete exam cycles for their students, the most important task for us is to ensure that the students do not cheat, and instead get the results they truly deserve. Online examination systems have to work in a fair way, especially when the exam is conducted digitally. So we offer UCanAssess platform, where all that happens on the exam day is transparent and fair. Not just for the students, but for all educational parties involved in the examination process. UCanAssess also provides features for robust question bank management, question item authoring and analysis, reports, security and encryption, scalability during test taking, etc.
