Academy Integrity Problems and Solutions in the Online Classroom by Adam Voyton

Academy Integrity Problems and Solutions in the Online Classroomby Adam Voyton

Faculty Perceptions What do you think about the following statements? • Does technology makes it easier to cheat, plagiarize and fabricate papers? • What are you currently doing to help ensure academic integrity in your online courses? • What are your concerns about academic integrity and preventing students from cheating? • What are some ways you know of that students cheat? • Do you think students cheat more or less in an online classroom instead of a traditional one?

Table of Contents WilmU’s Academic Integrity Policy and Resources Types of Violations Research on academic dishonesty Common cheating methods Uncommon cheating methods Non-technical instructional strategies to help promote academic integrity Virtual Proctoring for online exams – Respondus Monitor References

WilmU’s Academic Integrity Policy • To ensure the honesty and fairness of the intellectual environment at Wilmington University, students are expected to pursue learning with integrity, dignity, and responsibility towards others. Students are expected to be attentive to proper methods of documentation and acknowledgement in all academic work. Any situation involving a violation of academic integrity demeans the violator, degrades the learning process, deflates the meaning of grades, discredits the accomplishments of past and present students, and tarnishes the reputation of the university. Acts of academic dishonesty are serious offenses and are of major concern to the University. • When a student places his or her name on submitted work, the student certifies the originality of all work not otherwise identified by appropriate acknowledgement. A violation of any of the below listed items is a violation of academic integrity. • https://www.wilmu.edu/studentlife/acadintegrity.aspx

Resources for Upholding Academic Integrity • Plagiarism Detection Software: • Plagiarism detection software is offered through the Learning Management System (LMS) and is designed to aid in educating students about academic integrity, plagiarism and the proper citation of any borrowed content. Plagiarism detection software is a proactive tool for students and faculty to use together to review student work and to allow for students to have an opportunity to assess their efforts prior to submitting an assignment. Faculty may also use the University's plagiarism detection software as a tool to affirm the originality of assignments. • University Writing Centers and Tutors: • The Student Success Center is designed to provide students with the support and resources necessary to achieve their goals. The Student Success Center is committed to all Wilmington University students’ academic success by providing personalized tutoring, mentoring, writing and learning resources, as well as multiple workshops and seminars. In partnership with other University offices, the Student Success Center offers a broad set of programs and services, empowering students to achieve academic excellence. How to report an Academic Integrity issue • First Occurrence: • The faculty member shall confer with the student regarding the violation of the Academic Integrity Policy. • In consultation with the specific Program Chair of the college in which the course is offered, the faculty member is to select one or more of the following sanctions: • Require that the student repeat any work affected by the violation of the Academic Integrity Policy. • Assign the student a lower grade for the assignment. • Assign the student a failing grade for the course (this is not necessarily a grade of (0) zero). • After a sanction is selected, the Program Chair will inform the Dean of the College in which the course in question resides and what action was taken. Objective evidence of the violation must be submitted to the Dean. The Dean shall inform the Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs who will notify the student in writing that his or her continued enrollment at Wilmington University is provisional; the Assistant Vice President may require the student to complete the course ENG 365 (Academic Writing). The Vice President of Student Affairs will receive a copy of the letter. • Second Occurrence: • In the event of a second violation related to academic integrity, the Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs shall inform the Vice President of Student Affairs and submit materials related to any previous offenses. Depending on the nature of the violation, the Vice President of Student Affairs may temporarily suspend the student from university activities and convene a meeting of the Student Discipline Committee. • Learn more at: http://www.wilmu.edu/studentlife/acadintegrity.aspx Instructors: Please contact your Program Chair. Your Program Chair will request information from you, complete this form and send it to the necessary University personnel for review. The Academic Integrity Violations Reporting formis located in myWilmU

Scope and how they tend to cheat Frequency of Occurrence • Most cited survey of self-reported incidents of academic dishonest among undergraduate students is McCabe and Trevino (1993). • Sample was 6,096 students from 31 colleges and universities. • Similar studies report similar results. • Source: https://www.slideshare.net/editor_b/presentation-6778195

The issue is growing at other schools with large online programs

Overview of Contract Cheating – Paper Mills • There are a couple of reasons why they do that. One of them is the proliferation of marketing-savvy online commercial providers. Students have always engaged in outsourcing their work to some extent, but now it’s not just your friends and family that might help you, there are these incredible marketing-savvy online providers. And now students, particularly the second language international learners, who are struggling often in the western environment with the new learning requirements, are targeted by those unscrupulous cheat sites. They even infiltrate the universities systems, promoting their services through official email and social media sites.

Text syntax conversion software can mix up the words, so text matching tool can’t detect issues • Our next big challenge alongside contract cheating is a whole new technology around online paraphrasing and translation tools. For example, an article written in Chinese. You can, at a click of a button, translate that into English very well, and then you can click another button, using other software, which will paraphrase that text so that it doesn’t get picked up by text-matching software. These tools are so easy to use and very difficult for markers to detect.

The most common ways students cheat • Plagiarize - Submit without properly acknowledging sources • Someone else does the work for them (Submit others’ work as their own) • Sharing test answers • Copying and pasting the test question into Google and finding the same exact question verbatim on a site such as Quizzlet or Chegg

Reverse SafeAssign Problem: Spinners are a free web-tool that can be used to rewrite papers to trick plagiarism detection software • https://spinbot.com/ • https://www.prepostseo.com/free-online-article-rewriter • http://script4.prothemes.biz/ Solution: Read the paper! • While they often do not get caught by SafeAssign, as long as the instructor is doing their due diligence and actually reading the papers, then they’ll quickly realize it’s a spoofed essay. • It can be pretty entertaining to read a nonsense sentence constructed by a Spinner.

Examples of a real vs. essay written by a spinner Part of a real essay (by Adam Voyton) Rewritten by “Spinbot” all orange text was changed.Red indicates the new sentence doesn’t read well. Blue is an improvement Further, a school instruction gives an establishment of basic business abilities: That degree right away reveals to them that you can submit and finishessential assignments - without somebody investigating your shoulder guiding you. It's 2015. All of human learning is promptly accessible by Googling a couple of catchphrase around a subject. Course work in school isn't care for secondary school where understudies are required to remember certainties and information. School work expects understudy to figure out how to think basically and break down data. The Internet is a twofold edge sword. We live in a media immersed society with a considerable measure of deception. Likewise, the realities are frequently rehashed again and again in various ways. A school training causes you to slice through the drivel and really observe basic data. It encourages you to peruse something and a short time later have the capacity to state what new information, assuming any, you obtained from understanding it. My most established sister Jill is in school at the present time. She has a splendid personality. In secondary school, she was in the International Baccalaureate program at Mount Pleasant. She some of the time communicates that school isn't testing her enough. She made reference to that in a few classes, the teachers give data and anticipate that her will retain it for a test. This returns to the possibility that we can Google nearly anything. Learning is about the responses to questions that can't be Googled. I say to her, since you're not being tested, doesn't mean you can't provoke yourself. Utilize school as training for your vocation. Think about each paper you compose as an announcement of greatness. Envision if every one of the papers you composed would be perused by a future boss. When you begin working all day at an association, you're likely going to need to get advanced. A few people expect upward vocation versatilityin the wake of working some place for a couple of years. The thing is, nobody discloses to you that the most ideal approach to excel at work is by being phenomenal. Further, a college education provides a foundation of essential employment skills: That degree instantly tells them that you can commit and follow through with important tasks - without someone looking over your shoulder telling you what to do. It’s 2015. Almost all of human knowledge is readily available by Googling a few keyword around a subject. Course work in college isn’t like high school where students are required to memorize facts and data. College work requires student to learn how to think critically and analyze information. The Internet is a double edge sword. We live in a media saturated society with a lot of misinformation. Also, the facts are often repeated over and over again in different ways. A college education helps you to cut through the nonsense and actually see essential information. It teaches you to read something and afterwards be able to say what new knowledge, if any, you acquired from reading it. My oldest sister Jill is in college right now. She has a brilliant mind. In high school, she was in the International Baccalaureate program at Mount Pleasant. She sometimes expresses that college isn’t challenging her enough. She mentioned that in some classes, the professors give information and expect her to memorize it for a quiz. This goes back to the idea that we can Google almost anything. Knowledge is about the answers to questions that can’t be Googled. I say to her, just because you’re not being challenged, doesn’t mean you can’t challenge yourself. Use college as practice for your career. Think of each paper you write as a statement of excellence. Imagine if all the papers you wrote would be read by a future employer. Once you start working full time at an organization, you're probably going to want to get promoted. Some people expect upward career mobility after working somewhere for a few years. The thing is, no one tells you that the best way to get ahead at work is by being excellent.

SafeAssign gets better overtime because of our institutional database of student essays: Imagine a student completes a class with one instructor that did not use SafeAssign to have the essay added to the local institutional database. The students knowing gives another student the same paper to use in another class. Image source: https://libguides.eastfieldcollege.edu/academic-integrity

In 2018, is it cheating to Google an answer to a test question? • After a test has been published to a school for a while, the questions and answers eventually tend to get uploaded to websites designed as ‘study guides’. This is particularly true for test questions that come from textbooks. • Copying and pasting test question into Google will typically match the same exact question verbatim on a site such as Quizzlet or Chegg • Entire banks of test questions are commonly uploaded to these types of sites. But I don't think it's fair to point fingers at students for using these types of sites, we should also hold educators accountable for using high quality assessments. • What's your viewpoint? Are these services a form of academic integrity infringement or simply a supplemental study guide?

Like crime, we can’t fully prevent cheating. But we can limit the potential for academic dishonestyYou can make rules and implement measures to identify, detect, and reprimand those that violate the academic integrity policy.

Testing best practices promote a secure testing environment: • Random Blocks and Question Sets can be used to facilitate the delivery of multiple test versions. • Choose the one at a time option & Randomize Questions option. This will prohibit students from collaborating as each student’s exam attempt will look different. • This prevents students from taking a test and then emailing or phoning the answers to another student.

Limit Access to Tests with: Date/time access Test passwords

Devise a Test –Using Publisher’s Test Bank You can import a test bank provided by your textbook publisher. See publisher's instructions to use a test bank compatible with Blackboard http://www.eztestonline.com/mycourses.tpx Search test banks www.pearsonhighered.com Save the .zip, Import under Pools Then go to Tests and select the button Build Test, Reuse Question, Find Question Select Questions from the Pool Bank

The Doppelgänger Effect In the 1961 movie “The Parent Trap”, Teenage twin sisters swap places and scheme to reunite their divorced parents.

Problem: Use a term paper writing service There’s not a simple solution for this at this time. Example, if more than 1 student submits the same exact term paper, they likely purchased it from the same paper mill website.

Non-technical Tips to Reduce the Impact of Cheating in Online Assessments. Mainly, Teachers need authentic assessments! • “Although it may be difficult to prevent cheating entirely, faculty can implement steps to reduce its impact in the student learning assessment process for online courses. The following are some practical tips to prevent or reduce cheating for two common learning assessment activities, namely testing and homework assignments.” • “Teachers need to have real resources so that they have time and the support to develop engaging, authentic assessment which will not only promote learning, but will be less likely to be outsourced” • “In many cultures, educational institutions place a greater emphasis on exams rather than homework, written assignments and presentations.”

Create Group Projects. Adds a social component – students depend on each other and will get annoyed if others are doing their fair share • Create group assignments that require students to interact with group members regularly. • Groups can be made responsible for determining the functional roles for each member, establishing a mechanism for accountability (i.e., submitting weekly progress reports), and sharing drafts of individual progress on a group project. • For a project to be truly collaborative, each group member should be familiar with everyone else’s work, and be able to describe how every group members’ contribution supports the whole group assignment. • Have students evaluate each other for how much they contributed.

Use Collaborate and enable the webcamCreate Assignments that Require Presentations • Faculty with a Blackboard course can use the web conferencing tool, Blackboard Collaborate, to conduct a synchronous online session for class presentations • Schedule a time for students to ask questions in real time or post to a discussion board for others to watch on-demand and provide feedback. • Students who have developed the presentation should be comfortable answering a range of topic-related questions.

Examples of video assignments and discussion boards from MED 7809 – Instructional Design

Use Kaltura for online oral presentationsExample: In select health professions courses, students do a mock procedure and have to record and submit it

Include Academic Integrity Policy Statement in the Course Syllabus Maybe they simply don’t know: so educate them on proper source citation. Maybe have an assignment where they read and sign that they understand the academic integrity policy. Have students review the academic integrity policy on a routine basis “Faculty should consider including a policy statement regarding academic integrity in their course syllabus. In addition, faculty may want to reiterate academic policies to students taking an online course and clarifying guidelines for completing test and assignments so that students are not confused about what they can and cannot do. While this, in and of itself, may not be sufficient to change behavior, its acknowledged presence in the syllabus recognizes a commitment to honesty in the academic arena and establishes the clear expectation that academic integrity is an important principle to live by. Faculty may also choose to mention this policy using the ‘Announcements’ feature in Blackboard, or while conducting a live web conference session.”

Tips for Testing. Source: https://facdevblog.niu.edu/onlinecheating Purposefully Select Assessment Methods – Use online testing, particularly objective test (i.e., multiple choice, multiple answer, true/false) for lower stakes assessment of student learning. In assessing student mastery of course goals and objectives, objective tests should be only one option considered among a spectrum of methods considered. Each type of assessment method may be designed to measure different indicators of student learning based on course goals and objectives. While an objective test can measure a student’s ability to recall or organize information, other methods can be used to assess higher order/critical thinking skills including understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating (Krathwohl, 2001). Mix Objective and Subjective Questions – While online testing can include objective measures (multiple choice, multiple answer, true/false, fill in the blank, etc.), faculty can also include short answer or essay questions. This type of question is more subjective in nature and may demand a deeper understanding of the subject being tested. While mixing objective and subjective type questions may not discourage or stop sharing of information, it may limit the effect on the student’s final grade (Watson and Sottile, 2010). Use Question Pools – Rather than using a fixed number of items that remain unchanged for each administration of the test, consider creating a question pool. Questions can be grouped by any number of criteria, including topic, subject matter, question type or difficulty of question. A pool will generate an assessment with randomized questions selected by the faculty member. Pools can be created from new questions or questions in existing tests or pools. Pools are most effective when there are large numbers of questions in one group. For example, one might have a pool of true/false questions, another of multiple choice and a third for fill in the blank. The faculty member could then create an assessment drawing a specific number of questions from each of the question-type pools. Faculty can also add new questions to pools each time the course is taught to expand the variability of questions. Conversely, older questions can be removed. Check the Teaching with Blackboard Question Pools web page for more details. Randomize Questions – When creating a test in Blackboard, one test option allows faculty to randomize the selection of test questions as well as the order in which they appear. The result is that students are not likely to get the same questions in the same sequence when taking a test. This strategy can address the issue of students who take a test at the same time in order to share answers. This is also relevant if faculty allow students to repeat the test. Each time this occurs, a test will be made up of questions that are randomly selected and ordered. Limit Feedback – Limit what types of feedback is displayed to students upon completion of a test. Available test options include test ‘Score’, ‘Submitted Answers’, ‘Correct Answers’, and ‘Feedback’. Providing test scores is important feedback that indicates how well students have performed and should be made available. However, through a process of elimination, students may be able to determine the correct answer for each test question if their submitted answers are identified as incorrect, or if the correct answer is provided. Students could lose the incentive to both prepare for testing or to seek out correct answers by reviewing lecture notes, assigned readings, or through group discussion after completing tests. Thus, faculty might reconsider whether to include ‘Submitted Answers’ as an option to be displayed to students. This is especially relevant if faculty have allowed students to repeat tests. Each time a test was taken, students could attempt a different answer for a test question that was previously graded as incorrect. Correct answers to all test questions could eventually be accumulated and passed on to other students, or to students of future classes. Set Timer – Recognizing the fact that students taking an exam that is not proctored are free to use open book/notes, faculty may decide to use the ‘Set Timer’ feature in Blackboard. Students who adequately prepared for a test may be less likely to rely on open book/notes compared with students unprepared for testing. By setting a test with an expected completion time, unprepared students could have the most to lose as they spend time going over material, and risk not having sufficient time to respond to all the test questions. Display Questions One At A Time – If a test has more than 5 questions, do not choose the ‘All at Once’ option for displaying all the questions on the same screen. It is quite easy for students to take a screen capture of the displayed questions and share them with other students. While students can still screen capture pages with single questions, or even type them into a document, it is more time consuming and unwieldy.

Q: How does Respondus help to ensure academic integrity? A: Virtual proctoring holds the online student accountable in 3 ways: Method 1: Identity Verification Method 2: Prevents students from using unauthorized materials Method 3: Detect suspicious behavior that may constitute as cheating

Cheating Prevention Technique #1:Identity Verification • Check the student ID and verify it’s the same person in the Student Photo feature • Students will be prompted to take a photo of their face, as well as a form of photo ID. • By comparing these photos to the name in Blackboard, we can ensure that the person taking the exam is same student that’s registered for this course. • To maintain their reputation, many colleges are using virtual proctoring technology to prove the student that paid for the class is the one doing the work. A simple username and password simply doesn't suffice.

Similar to using your Office WU ID card to access a physical building

Cheating Prevention Technique #2: Prevents students from using unauthorized materials • Web cam recording allows instructors offer a closed-book exam in their online course. It also prevents students from looking up answers on Google. • While taking an exam in Lockdown Browser, you can’t: • Use other applications like Skype or Outlook that could be used to email other people for help on the test • Use other applications like PowerPoint • Print or screenshot the test questions • Google to search the Internet for answers • When users start Lockdown Browser, it prompt them to close all apps including Skype, Excel, and other web browsers like Google Chrome or Firefox

Cheating Prevention Technique #3: Detects suspicious behavior that may constitute as cheating • At the start of the exam, students must show the web cam their surrounding testing area, to verify unauthorized materials are no accessible • The web cam records the student during the exam

Learn More About Plagiarism Indiana University has created a comprehensive tutorial on the different types of plagiarism and provides techniques on how to avoid them. • Click on this link to open the Indiana University website. Review the tutorials (click the Learn Through Tutorials link) starting with your current level of knowledge on plagiarism. The tutorials are divided as follows: • Basic level - recognizes the difference between avoiding plagiarism and committing plagiarism • Novice level - recognize a proper quotation from an improper quotation • Intermediate level - recognize a proper paraphrase from an improper paraphrase • Advanced level - recognize various combinations of proper/improper paraphrasing and proper/improper quotations one 1 source is used • Expert level - recognized various combinations of proper/improper paraphrasing and proper/improper quotations when 2 or more sources are used

References • https://elearnmagazine.com/universities-against-plagiarism/ • https://www.slideshare.net/editor_b/presentation-6778195 Suggested Readings and Resources Grijalva, T., Nowell, C., & Kerkvliet, J. (2006). Academichonesty and online courses. College Student Journal, 40(1), 180-185. Hi-Tech Cheating: Cell Phones and Cheating in Schools – A National Poll. Common Sense Media. Retrieved from http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/PDFs/2010_PDFs/100202_CellPhoneSchoolCheating.pdf. Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. In L.W. Anderson & D.R. Krathwohl (Eds.), A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman. Lanier, M. (2006). Academic integrity and distance learning. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 17(2), 244-261. Luce, A. (2012, Sept. 17). How do I know students aren’t cheating? Instructional Design & Development Blog. Retrieved from http://www.iddblog.org/?p=1194 McNett, M. (2002). Curbing academic dishonesty in online courses. Pointers and Clickers: ION’s Technology Tip of the Month. Retrieved from http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/pointersclickers/2002_05/index.asp. Olt, M. R., (2002). Ethics and distance education: Strategies for minimizing academic dishonesty in online assessment. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 5(3), Fall 2002. Redmann, E. (n.d.) How Technology Is Raising the Stakes In Classroom Cheating. Edudemic. Retrieved from http://edudemic.com/2013/01/technology-classroom-cheating. Stuber-McEwen, D., Wiseley, P., & Hoggatt, S. (2009). Point, click, and cheat: Frequency and type of academic dishonesty in the virtual classroom. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 12(3), 1-10. Trenholm, S. (2006-2007). A review of cheating in fully asynchronous online courses: A math or fact-based course perspective. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 35(3), 281-300. Watson, G., & Sottile, J. (2010). Cheating in the digital age: Do students cheat more in online courses? Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring131/watson131.html?goback=%2Egde_52119_member_208797940.

Academy Integrity Problems and Solutions in the Online Classroom by Adam Voyton