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Tips for minimizing cheating in online exams

Online examinations or tests are a great solution for the modern trainer. It saves time and money as well as improving accuracy in grading.It also makes it possible for people from different places to take exams at the same time. However, one challenge online examinations have is the problem of students cheating.

In the past, hard copied (or proctored) examinations where the norm. Then, preventing cheating was solely the responsibility of the invigilator (or proctor). However, once examinations go online, trainers must adopt strategies to minimize cheating in a different way.

Here are some tips on how best you can minimize cheating in your online examinations:

Randomize questions

When taking tests, users are often getting asked questions in the same sequence. This makes it easier for participants to cheat on their exams. This is obviously not what you want to happen. In order to prevent this, you can randomize your questions. So, let's shuffle those questions! Students are not very likely to get the questions in the same sequence when taking the test.

Set Timer

Cheating can take some time. When students are adequately prepared for their exams, it’s not necessary think a long time to fill in the right answer. Unprepared (cheating!) students can take up some time to finish their exam. A solution is to set a timer. So hurry up, the time is ticking away! No time for cheating.

Use problem-solving questions

The answers for these questions require some thinking and cannot easily be found in a textbook or on the Internet.

Submission view

Showing answers might be good for students, so they know what they did wrong. But they could give that information to other students. The best option might be hide all the answers.