Cheating as disengagement: What can we do?

Synopsis

COVID-19 triggered a rapid international shift toward online assessment, which has been accompanied by concerns about student cheating. If we aren’t physically with students, how can we be sure they are completing tasks in the circumstances we require – and how can we verify their identity? Add into the mix the range of new technology tools that are being used to cheat and unprecedented resource constraints, and it seems that assessment has become much more challenging over the pandemic period.

This presentation explores cheating as a type of disengagement, and what educators are doing to address it. The argument is made that addressing cheating will require an uneasy balance between positive ‘academic integrity’ and adversarial ‘assessment security’ approaches. Examples are provided from a range of disciplines, connected to research into their effectiveness at addressing cheating.

Professor Phillip (Phill) Dawson