Although the teaching-learning process has been shifted to the online mode, there has been no significant change in the course requirements and assessment system. Most tighter education institutions still continue with exams without caring much about issues related to plagiarism and academic integrity. I think it is high time to re-structure the assessment criteria of online studies. The online courses need to be task-based or project-based and there should be more individual assessments than routine exams to uphold values and ethical principles in education and to ensure a high standard in education and academic integrity.
Learning and evaluation are processes.
This way, evaluation must be a process too, not a simple moment in any part of course.
The biggest challenge is to fight & to try to eliminate cheating in online education in order to have fair "scientific" assessment. I have 2 wise quotes about the "crime" of cheating: 1) “Cheating in school is a form of self-deception. We go to school to learn. We cheat ourselves when we coast on the efforts and scholarship of someone else”. Quote from James E. Faust (American clergyman). 2) “The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one's self. All sin is easy after that”. Quote from Pearl Bailey (American actress)
You might like to look at our new report https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350887830_Rethinking_assessment_in_education_The_case_for_change_CSE_LEADING_EDUCATION_SERIES
and our web site
https://rethinkingassessment.com/assessment-around-the-world-ra/
There are many promising new pracities and things are chaning fast!
Bill
Empower yourself with the digital tools and utilize them in the best way possible for assessment. Also, rethink the traditional and explore authentic modes of assessment instead.
I think it's high time institutions leverage technology to aid the assessment process. In most universities, we are not sure whether the one taking an exam is a registered student. Is the student receiving help from someone else? So, how do we ensure the validity?
It is a major shift when assessmet is done online. While it is possible to assess students from vast geographical areas, it has its own challenges. Key amongest them is availability of proper infrastructure to facilitate this online assessment. Can all students being assessed access laptops?phone?internet or wifi? Are the students and asessors properly prepared on on line assessment. I saw a case where students couldn't type fast enough and were locked out by the system. What about the kind of Assessment that goes with emotion or body language? Can we vouch for the veracity of the online Assessment? Are we sure the student couldn't access answers? What about the cost? Can we all afford online Assessment? The Covid 19 pandemic has opened new and unforseen fronts in teaching and assessment methods. Lets embrace them despite the challenges they pose.
I think we often focus much of our attention on summative assessments and forget that formative assessments have tremendous value and reduce the need for cheating. Formative assessments prepare students and aid in the learning process; because they are typically not used as part of the grade, the need to cheat is reduced, and because students are prepared for the "final" assessment, there is less temptation to cheat.
If we base our entire course grade on a final "online" exam, then controlling for cheating is critical, but if we allow students to demonstrate understanding through individualized assignments/assessments and self-reflection, cheating is not only reduced but almost impossible. Maharaj gave great advice -- we need to explore different modes of assessment. For too many years we have relied on a written final exam as the method for assessing students' learning. Cleverson de Lima also shared a wise observation -- if the assessment is a process rather than one moment time, the ability to cheat is reduced.
The challenge for teachers is the increased amount of time it takes to develop and grade these types of assessments. However, if our goal is learning, it is worth the investment of time.
Online assessment is a too challenging process. Current possibilities are not enough in terms of fair, fit for purpose and acceptable evaluation.
We will never have perfect online assessment mechanisms, just as there are no perfect assessment mechanisms in face-to-face education. If we want the evaluation to be more fair, we must diversify the evaluation instruments, change the teaching and learning methodologies ... see the assessment as a means of gauging knowledge and not as a goal.
Kari Lamoreaux I agee.
As much as possible, assessing students throughout the academic year with grade-specific online multiple-choice tests, which are time-bound to eliminate cheating to its maximum extent, project tasks, activities based on concepts learned, writing topic papers could help gauge learning/knowledge in students.
The shift to a combination of formative and subjective assessments evaluating assignments submission on deadline dates, evaluating activities and the progress of the student will be better than exams, however, the volumes cannot be handled in such assessments. We might require assessors and internal verifiers on much higher scale to do this
In online assessment, one of the biggest challenge is to identify who has taken the exam. Like in person exam, if in online exam also, both teacher and students are present online and everyone's video is on, there will be less chance of cheating.
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