18 November 2020: Defending assessment against e-Cheating: design and standards

Presenter: A/Prof Phillip Dawson (Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University, Australia)

This session was part of a double bill jointly presented by Transforming Assessment and CRADLE Deakin University on 18 and 19 November 2020.

Acknowledgement: This session served as the launch of the book "Defending Assessment Security in a Digital World: Preventing E-Cheating and Supporting Academic Integrity in Higher Education" sole authored by Phill (published by Routledge). One lucky attendee won a free copy of the book! Everyone can get the first chapter "e-Cheating" for free (find the 'Preview PDF' button on this page).

Assessment in the digital world gives rise to concerns around e-cheating risks and the need for remedies to ensure academic integrity is upheld. This has been particularly relevant as many universities around the world have dramatically increased their use of online delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have turned to assessment design as one way to secure their assessment, and there is some evidence that particular assessment design decisions make cheating more difficult, and/or easier to detect. But how secure does assessment actually need to be - and what are the risks if we take anti-cheating approaches too far? This session reviewed the evidence on the use of assessment design as an anti-cheating measure, and proposed a set of minimum standards for assessment security. It also included practical steps that can be taken by educators and course teams to secure their assessment from an individual task through to an entire degree.

Further information:

Session Recording

Blackboard Collaborate archive version.