Rather than “catching” cheating, the ideology of academic integrity is always to prevent cheating from taking place. There are several ways to protect against academic dishonesty, from tools to check submitted assignments, to best practices for online exams, to tips on how to protect your own work from being published, and more. While nothing is foolproof, the resources here can increase students’ adherence to academic integrity standards in your class.
Concern | Technology Assistance | Other Options |
|---|---|---|
Students will look up answers on their computers during the test. | Apply Respondus Lockdown Browser in UB Learns so students cannot open anything else on their computer. | Design higher-level questions that ask for application or judgment and cannot easily be “looked up.” |
Students will look up answers elsewhere (textbooks, phones, etc.). | Apply UB Learns options: 1. Set time limits for each question, 2. Set time limit for exam.
Apply Respondus Monitor in conjunction with Respondus Lockdown Browser. Students are both monitored by artificial intelligence and cannot navigate elsewhere on their testing computer. | Design higher-level questions that ask for application or judgment and cannot easily be “looked up.”
Design the test to be open- book and time it so that students still must be prepared to complete. |
Students will talk to each other during test administration. | Develop question “pools” in UB Learns so that no two students have the same exam.
Apply randomized questions and randomized answers so that even common questions will be in a different order, and options will not have the same order.
Set time limits.
Apply Respondus Monitor.
Use Zoom to observe students’ test behaviors. | Design questions that have a personal edge (i.e., relate it to their personal experiences, their academic major, a specific event, etc.). |
Students will get help from family members or friends in their specific location. | Apply Respondus Monitor.
Set time limits. | Remind students about the importance of academic integrity standards before you get to a test. Be frank with your students about integrity within your discipline. |
Concern | Technology Assistance | Other Options |
|---|---|---|
Students will copy portions of assignments straight off a website. | Use SafeAssign which is built into UB Learns. This compares student work to a large repository of documents. Let students know you will be doing this. | Use peer readers to check for issues with voice and general flow of the assignment. |
Students will buy assignments that may be “original” (i.e., not on Google or in SafeAssign repositories). | Use SafeAssign since some of these vendors promise originality but don’t supply it. | Have students turn in drafts and revisions of assignments along the way. Ask students to reflect on their essay/project’s development. |
Students will collaborate inappropriately on assignments. | Use SafeAssign because it compares work against all submissions, including other students’ assignments. | Develop a rubric that clearly shows the expectations in terms of collaboration. Also, clearly express the limitations of collaboration when giving an assignment.
|
