2020: Detecting and addressing contract cheating in online assessment

Session completed! Please view the session recording and slides at http://taw.fi/29A2020

Presenter: A/Prof Phillip Dawson, Deakin University, Australia

The rapid pivot to online learning due to the COVID19 pandemic is seeing a significant shift in the mix of assessment modalities. Due to the needs of physical distancing, scalability and the state of our technological infrastructure, this has led to decisions to greatly reduce the use of large scale invigilated assessments such as practical and written examinations. As a consequence we are also seeing a large increase in the proportion of online non-supervised assessments to replace them. The shift in the mix of assessment provides different opportunities for cheating, especially the use of commercial contract cheating sites. While a wholistic approach to academic integrity is advocated it is likely gaps in the toolkit of support and detection measures will emerge. In the past text matching tools have served us well however such tools are of little use in detecting custom written work produced via contract cheating activity. Technology tools that would enable automated detection are not yet in widespread use, and there is limited evidence so far about effectiveness and accuracy. The job of addressing contract cheating largely falls on front line academic staff – but can they actually detect contract cheating?

This session will explore research conducted into the practical steps that can be taken in up-skilling academic staff in detecting and addressing contract cheating in unsupervised assessment tasks.

Phill is the Associate Director of the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning at Deakin University, Australia.

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Sessions are hosted by Professor Geoffrey Crisp, DVC Academic, University of Canberra and Dr Mathew Hillier, Australia.

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