Let's face it; whether on paper tests or in digital format, some
students are going to try to cheat. But that does not mean you should let them
get away with it. Many quiz authoring applications, software, and learning
management systems have a number of options designed to quell online cheating.
While this post is based on the Moodle LMS (1.9), many of the same security
features are included in the various quiz authoring platforms.
- Timing: There are a lot
of things you can do with timing that make cheating more difficult. First
of all, be sure that the test opens and closes at a specified date and
time and is otherwise unavailable. Of even more impact is to include a
time limit. This will ensure that students do not have extra minutes that
could be used for copying, browsing the internet, or any other forms of
cheating.
- Shuffling: Shuffling
questions is a good general practice. Your quiz will be more challenging
if the questions have a random order rather than chronological or by
topic. Using this feature, students sitting next to each other will not be
able to make reference of questions. Be sure to also shuffle the answers
so students cannot simply memorize the order of answers in a multiple choice
test.
- Review
Options: While
it is generally good practice to give students feedback after a test, if
student have access to a set of questions that will be used again, they
may share the quiz. Therefore, limiting review options so that students
can only view responses and correct answers immediately after the test can
curb cheating and still provide a level of feedback.
- Secure
Window: Moodle
has an option to show a quiz in a secure window. This means the quiz will
be in a full screen mode without the option to easily browse the internet
and use certain mouse and keyboard functions. Be careful with this one, a
technically savvy student can get around it pretty easily.
- Password: When in doubt,
password protect your quiz. Not only will this make it secure until the
password is revealed, but students will hopefully get the point that you
expect your quiz to be secure.
- Network
Address: The
most advanced option of all is probably requiring a certain network or ip
address, or range of addresses. This will ensure that the test taker is
only using specified computers for the quiz and that someone is not
logging in remotely to take the test. Ask your system administrator for
help with this one.
Of course, the ultimate protection against cheating is sound
instructional design. Creating tests that require open-ended, essay type
answers using wikis, or more project-based evaluation can eliminate a lot of the
cheating that goes on with more traditional methods. Good Luck!
