I heard many of my English Language instructors talking about an inflation in the grades of their students during the Covid-19 online teaching and assessing. Some of them think that their students might have get some help during the exam via whatsapp groups with other students or have someone else to take the exam on their behalf. I wonder if this is true or not. What do you think of this.
ASSUMPTION in the teaching profession is that students are acting in good faith. Good faith means honesty in fact. Teacher should not assume that their students cheats unless there is evidence to the contrary. If there is such evidence, university rules are quite specific what steps are to be taken on such matter.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY requires both students and teachers to act in good faith. When teachers suspects students or when students suspects teaching acting less than what is expected of him/her in the profession, such mutual mistrust is not conducive to the learning environment.
ONLINE LEARNING under Covid-19 pandemic requires both students and teachers to adapt to the new mode of learning. Most schools and teachers failed in preparing students for.onljne learning. In the traditional onsite schooling, students are alerted to their learning environment through orientation, but in online learning there is a complete lack of such mental preparation. Students and teachers are daily struggle to find means for motivation and common ground for holding the same objective. In some cases, teachers and students are on the same screen but harbor different mind set towards learning.
Every type of exam has a certain risk of cheating. So yes, there is a chance that some students may be having outside help taking their tests. However, other factors may also be influencing the inflation of these test results and I think that should be taken into account. One possibility that comes to mind is that students' anxiety levels, which normally can negatively affect them, may have been decreased by students being more comfortable taking the tests at home.
In summary, many factors can be related to this inflation in the results, and these should be listed and taken into consideration before any conclusions are reached.
OBE(Open Book Examination) should be conducted. The Question Paper should be designed in a way so that only analytical thinking is needed to attempt it. Moreover, it should be checked that no solved part is already there on internet. Not 100% reliable, still prove to be quite effective in tackling the issue.
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