While conducting online exams, many institutes are concerned about the risk of negligence due to lack of human oversight. A sad truth about education and exams today is that students acquire the creative skills to cheat in exams, whether online or offline.

One of the advantages of conducting an online exam is that it provides n-number verification and balance to prevent cheating. Perhaps these checks and balances will help eradicate negligence by making online exams safer and more efficient. Offline exams still pose a risk of human error - this can be a complete non-issue for online exams.

People generally assume that online exams promote cheating. How can I prevent cheating and plagiarism in online exam? It seems impossible to completely prevent participant cheating with all the advanced technologies. However, here are some tips and tricks to help you avoid cheating. You can even make online tests more cheat-free than the traditional paper based tests conducted in classrooms!

How participants cheat in online exams

Typically, participants cheat while taking online tests by keeping the test open in the main tab and searching for answers in other tabs. They can copy and paste question into search engines to find answers.

Another way participants cheat is by texting. They can share the test questions with other participants and ask them for answers. They can send a text message, screenshot, or part of a test picture taken with their smartphone camera.

 

10 tips and tricks to avoid cheating in online exams

 

1.       Remote Proctoring

Proctoring is the process of monitoring students. Remote proctoring is a supervisory process that does not require physical proctor in the room where the online exam is held.

In remote proctoring exams, candidates are monitored during the exam through a webcam, microphone, and access to the candidate's device screen.

 

2.       Remote Candidate Authentication

Candidate authentication is one of the most basic steps in an online exam. When transitioning to online exams, in many organizations, the primary concern is verifying the identity of the candidate.

Identity cheating is a major forms of negligence in online and offline exams.

The first step in the proctored online exam is to verify the candidate's identity.

 

3.       Secure Browser

Security is an important aspect of the exam. During the online examination process, this feature prevents the browser from opening other windows or tabs.

Secure browser technology prevents users from opening other windows during the online examination process. Users can only access the inspection window.

Access to keyboard shortcuts for copy, paste and screen capture is completely blocked.

When the candidate tries to open a new window, a notification flashes asking the candidate to return to the exam window.

 

4.       Randomize questions

In online exams, questions often appear in the same order. To avoid this, you can randomize your questions.

How does it actually work? First you need to add a lot of questions to your online exam. Then, for each candidate who is taking the test, you can set up the test to select only some of these questions. In this way, participants are asked a variety of questions. Or you can create a test and select an option to render the questions in random order for the participants. This way the candidates get the same questions but in a different order each time.

 

5.       Copy-paste blocking

Choose an online exam tool that does not allow participants to copy and paste text on the page. This makes it harder for them to copy answers from other tabs.

 

6.       Timer setting

You can set a timer for the entire test.

Deception can take time. When participants are properly prepared for the exam, they don't have to think long about the correct answer. Unprepared (cheat!) candidates need more time to complete the exam. The solution is to set a timer. You can set a timer for the entire exam or you can set a timer for each question. So hurry up, the clock is ticking! There is no time to cheat.

 

7.       Problem solving questions

Problem solving does not rely solely on memorizing basic information. They need an understanding of the processes and relationships between them. These answers are not easily found in textbooks or on the Internet. For example, you can use a free text question to do this on an exam.

 

8.       Hide Results

Showing the answer can be useful to the participant, so the participant knows what they did wrong, but there are also downsides. They can pass that information on to others. The best way to prevent this is to hide all answers (don't show them the test results page) until all candidates are done with the test and the test window is closed.

 

9.       Identification

Cheating can also occur when a participant asks someone to take the test. One solution is to ask a few questions to verify the participant's identity before taking the exam.

 

10.   Disable autocomplete

You can disable autocomplete in regular browsers, so you won't be able to see answers previously entered by someone else (if participants use the same device in different rounds).