10 Ways to Cheat on Online Exams (and 9 Ways to Prevent It)
by Talha Omer, M.Eng., Cornell Grad
*Disclaimer: This article is only for educational purposes. Cheating in any exam is grave misconduct and a punishable offense. We discourage students from adopting Cheating and encourage them to embrace academic honesty.
Since the pandemic, the reported numbers of Cheating in online exams have increased massively. According to some reports, nearly 20% of the students were caught cheating in online examinations.
Moreover, it is widely believed that the number of cheating students is nearly twice as much as the number reported.
This data shows that Cheating is possible on online exams even in highly advanced and sophisticated proctoring platforms like ProctorU and ProctorIO .
ProctorU has said that out of the 3 million tests they proctored in 2020, they found Cheating in over 200,000 tests.
Despite the fact that online proctoring companies utilize a remote proctor to record video and audio of test-takers, none of this has prevented test-takers from coming up with even more clever ways to cheat and game the system.
Related Articles: Can You Cheat on Online Proctored Exams like ProctorU and ProctorIO? ProctorIO: 44 Things You Should Know
In fact, what is more alarming is that the rates of Cheating are so high even though students know they are being monitored and recorded by a proctor.
In this Article
1) Using Forbidden Materials
2) accessing questions before the exam, 3) impersonation, 4) teamwork/collaboration, 5) remote desktop control (rdc) and screen sharing (ss), 6) interrupt the exam to get more time, 7) make use of multiple technology devices, 8) fidgeting with the webcam, 9) using virtual machines (vm), 10) making use of chegg, course hero, 1) continuous id validation, 2) human or automated proctoring, 3) capture random screen shots, 4) use deep learning & artificial intelligence, 5) use wearcam, 6) use ip tracking, 7) exam design, 8) lock skipping questions or going backwards, 9) think-aloud or oral questions, 10 ways students cheat on online exams.
Here are some ways test-takers are using to cheat on online exams.
A lot of test-takers secretly use forbidden materials such as books, formulas, notes, and cheat sheets during their exam. Some clever students will paste a sticky note onto their laptop screen or write all the formulas using an erasable marker onto their monitors .
One can easily use forbidden materials such as sticky notes even when a person proctors the online exam via a webcam.
This method works well in exams conducted in different time zones or dates. For example, standardized exams such as the GMAT and the GRE occur at different times worldwide. In addition, if you have a friend or a peer group who took the exam before you, you can easily know the questions before your exam.
Related Article: Ways that Students are Using to Cheat on the GRE
Once you have all the exam questions, you can try solving them independently. Then, if you have problems solving them, “you can chegg it.”
Impersonation is a common cheating tactic whereby you ask (or pay) someone to take your exam.
Students successfully use this method by deploying fake identity matching, such as making a fake passport. The fake passport contains the real applicants’ details but the impersonator’s photo.
It is much easier for invigilators to authenticate students during an in-person exam. But it is the opposite when the exams are conducted online.
Even if a proctor checks an examinee’s ID via webcam, they can have an impersonator show the rigged ID, which is nearly impossible to authenticate virtually.
Students can bypass the authentication mechanisms even if a biometric system is used.
Just as banks have masterkeys that can unlock any locker (in case your keys get misplaced), fingerprint scanners have “masterprints.” Masterprints contain all the standard features found on everyone’s fingers, and impersonators can use them to get into anyone’s exam and take it on their behalf.
Students can get help from a collaborator while they take their exams. For instance, test-takers could have a helper sneak into their workspace, completely hidden from the webcam’s field of view.
The student could then use help by signaling the collaborator in sign language such as body movements, pencil dropping, coughing, fidgeting, etc.
When the College Board, which administers SAT exams, moved the exams online, a group of students collaborated to assist one another with answers.
Some examinees used private messaging apps to get help, while others got assistance from their peers in the workspace but could not be detected by the proctor via the webcam.
Test-takers use these RDC and SS to share questions with others.
Team Viewer is one of the popular RDC software. It allows you to remote control computers located anywhere in the world and uses them as though you were there.
Students use Team Viewer (or similar RDC software) to give up control of their computer to another person who does the exam on the student’s behalf.
Similarly, it doesn’t take much for a test-taker to do screen sharing during online exams. But, again, because the exams are conducted remotely, the student can share their screen with a friend (who can happen to be in the next room) who can then solve the questions and share the answers with the examinee via cell phone or sign language.
Proctoring software such as ProctorU and ProctorIO have anti-SS and anti-RDC features built into their platform. However, students can use hardware such as HDMI cables to share screens, which the proctoring software cannot detect.
Sometimes test-takers will attempt to gain time to solve questions by buying more time.
For instance, the student may fake an error in the system or feign a drop in internet connection to convince the proctor to pause the exam session. This will enable the examinee to borrow more time to solve the questions.
Test-takers may also ask for unscheduled toilet breaks to circumvent the exam process, postpone the exam, and get more time. The student can then leave their workspace and prepare the exam question they just saw.
Examinees also use multiple hardware to answer the questions. They will try to use a secondary device to cheat.
These devices could include smart watches, Google glasses, laptops, computers, smartphones to store notes and formulas, and sometimes an earpiece for remote voice support during the exam.
Students can also hide additional devices under the table or within their clothes or other wearables.
Students sometimes redirect or disable the webcam or microphone to hide stuff to facilitate Cheating.
A Virtual Machine (VM) is simply a computer inside your computer. For instance, if you have a MacBook running Mac OS, you could make a virtual machine for Windows 11 OS within your MacBook.
So, you can now connect your online exam (proctored or not) on your macOS and use the VM you created for Windows 11 to google/search anything. You can even pass your questions to anyone using the Windows 11 VM.
You will now be sitting in front of your MacBook, where your proctor can see you (via webcam) and your Mac OS screen, but you can be typing away your questions on the VM.
Simple enough, you can use this technique to hide the activities done on the Windows 11 OS VM from the proctoring software or the human proctoring the primary operating system.
Online exams are a massive business for companies like Chegg that sell test answers. Students pay anywhere from $10-$25 per month to get instant answers to any questions that appear on their exams.
The questions are uploaded by the examines, and “tutors” at Chegg provide instant answers, including a step-by-step solution.
Examinees can use such services to cheat on their online exams blatantly. For example, they can send the questions via cell phones (if the exam is not proctored) or via screen sharing, remote connection, or virtual machine (if the exam is proctored) to the tutors at Chegg and get instant answers to cheat on their online tests.
9 Ways to Prevent Cheating
There are various ways that test organizers can use to decrease Cheating during online examinations. Here are some of them:
As we discussed, impersonation is the primary type of Cheating in online examinations. Therefore, verifying student identity at the start of the exam is of utmost importance.
In addition, continuous validation of student identification during the exam is equally important.
For example, the system can continuously verify the examinee’s identity during the exam by comparing the continuous images to the image from the exam registration process.
Test organizers can use human or automated proctoring to monitor the examinee during the exam continuously. Since human proctoring is expensive, automated proctoring can be used to record the test taker and flag any unwarranted behavior.
Various studies have shown a massive decline in cheating rates where the exam was proctored versus where the exam was not proctored.
The test organizer can identify any forbidden material on the student’s computer by capturing random screenshots of the examinee’s screen during the exam.
Using AI and deep learning, one can use head-pose variation and eye tracking to detect suspicious behavior. Afterward, a human proctor could use the evidence to confirm whether a student has cheated.
For example, ProctorU deploys deep learning to track the face and eyes of the student. If the face moves out of the frame or the eye moves abnormally, the test will automatically flag the candidate, and the administrator will receive a notification.
Wearcam is a great way to see what the student sees. It helps to detect any virtual machines, remote connections, screen sharing, forbidden materials, or devices in the testing room.
This technology monitors the IP address of the examinee and alerts the administrator if a student changes their device location. It can also block any attempts to access the testing platform simultaneously.
A “cheat-resistant” exam design is the cheapest way to discourage online exam cheating. One way of the cheat-resistant exam is by developing personalized exams for each examinee.
Standardized exams like the GRE and GMAT do this to some extent. They use data banks with a large pool of questions to select questions and implement adaptive algorithms to tweak the difficulty level of the exam based on the examinee’s performance.
Test organizers can even conduct open-book exams that test students’ critical reasoning and analytical thinking skills.
Test organizers can prevent Cheating by not showing all the questions at once and restricting going backward or skipping forward. This is because the student cannot share all the questions easily, and if the exam is time-based, then the student will not have enough time to handle Cheating.
In this method, the test organizer can design a few questions that appear randomly during the test, requiring the student to respond orally. An AI algorithm can then be used to process the voice to identify any impersonation or other forms of Cheating.
In this article, we discussed some of the clever ways that students use to cheat in online exams. We also discussed how to test organizers could improve their online testing systems and prevent Cheating from achieving high standards of academic integrity.
While an online proctored system is a great solution to discourage much Cheating, proctoring solutions can be expensive and have loopholes that students exploit to cheat.
Online learning has taken the world by storm, and nearly all schools and colleges are using it in some capacity. Millions of students are now enrolled in online courses, and the demand for online testing has hit the roof.
Moreover, the pandemic has fueled growth in online learning. As a result, universities and institutions are trying to serve the increasing number of test takers enrolled in online courses.
To summarize, the exponential increase in online testing and lack of cheating-proof platforms has made cheating a lot easier in online exams. However, if test organizers know the clever ways an examinee uses to cheat, they can create an air-tight system that prevents fraud, thereby maintaining the integrity of online exams.
Read Next: Can You Cheat on Online Proctored Exams like ProctorU and ProctorIO? ProctorIO: 44 Things You Should Know Ways that Students are Using to Cheat on the GRE Cheating is Rampant on GRE exam
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