Ensuring Academic Integrity in Online Assessments: A Literature Review and Recommendations

During the recent COVID-19 outbreak, educational institutions have transitioned to online teaching for all students for most of the programs. Due to lack of in-person interactions and monitoring, assessments in online courses may be more susceptible to contract cheating, collusion, fabrication and other types of academic misconduct than the assessments in face-to-face courses. This situation has raised several research questions that need immediate attention, such as what are the best possible options for online assessments and how to administer online assessments so that academic integrity could be preserved. The authors have conducted a scoping study and carried out an extensive literature review on i) different types of assessments that are suitable for online courses, ii) strategies for ensuring academic integrity, and iii) methods, tools and technologies available for preventing academic misconduct in online assessments. It is evident from the literature review that there are a range of options available for designing assessment tasks to detect and prevent violations of academic integrity. However, no single method or design is enough to eliminate all sorts of academic integrity violations. After thorough research and analysis of existing literature, the authors have provided a comprehensive set of recommendations that could be adopted for ensuring academic integrity in online assessments.

The rise of contract cheating during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study through the eyes of academics in Kuwait

Contract cheating has gone rampant in higher education recently. When institutions switched to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of contract cheating students climbed to unprecedented levels. Essay mills saw the lack of face-to-face interaction and proctoring on campus as an opportunity and used aggressive marketing methods to attract students. This study asked the opinions of 20 faculty members working in the English departments of private higher education institutions in Kuwait regarding contract cheating through interviews. The data was analyzed with MAXQDA 2020. The findings show that all faculty members can recognize contract cheating easily. Most of them see contract cheating as a serious problem in the higher education system, a threat to the reliability of language assessment, triggered by laziness, the social pressure to graduate with a high GPA, and exacerbated by the cheating opportunities in online education. Academics have developed certain individual strategies in their courses to curb the number of contract cheating students; however, institutional measures differ, and in some, there are no measures or sanctions on contract cheating students.

An Investigation into Contract Cheating in Tertiary Education, and How to Combat the Problem in a United Arab Emirates Context

This review article investigated the pervasive problem that contract cheating presents in higher education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and aimed to discover whether a solution could be found to combat the growing use of essay mills among students in the region. This literature review aimed to answer the following research questions; why do students use essay mills? Is current university student academic support adequate to facilitate branch campus learning at a level equivalent to a home campus? What methods can international branch campuses in the UAE employ to discourage the use of essay mills? What type and levels of services can universities provide in the future that better support students and stop them from becoming potential essay mill users? The point of the research was to find a means by which students can be dissuaded from using contract cheating sites by becoming so well-supported, and so aware of the threat that contract cheating poses to the value of their degree, that essay mills become a much less attractive option. The study began with a look into the possible circumstances that lead a student to cheat, which includes exploring the fraud triangle theory, the peer behaviour theory, the planned behaviour theory, and the subsequent methodology used. The study found a variety of reasons students cheat, citing laziness, a lack of ability or adequate depth of academic vocabulary in a second language learner, peer pressure, that it is so easy and convenient to use such sites, and the fact that there is a promise of plagiarism free work with a click of a mouse and simple financial transaction (Clarke & Lancaster, 2013). Furthermore, online contract cheating presents a significant challenge for higher education institutes to keep a check on standards and quality assurance. Many teachers are either unaware of or simply afraid to follow up on instances of contract cheating for fear of recriminations in the form of poor feedback or possible student dropout rates.

Academic Integrity Policy Analysis of Publicly-Funded Universities in Ontario, Canada: A Focus on Contract Cheating

In this article we report findings from a review of universities’ academic integrity policies in Ontario, Canada. The research team systematically extracted, reviewed, and evaluated information from policy documents in an effort to understand how these documents described contract cheating in Ontario universities (n = 21). In all, 23 policies were examined for contract cheating language. The elements of access, approach, responsibility, detail, and support were examined and critiqued. Additionally, document type, document title and concept(s), specific contract cheating language, presence of contract cheating definitions and policy principles were reviewed. Findings revealed that none of the universities’ policies met all of the core elements of exemplary policy, were reviewed and revised with less frequency than their college counterparts, lacked language specific to contract cheating, and were more frequently focused on punitive rather than educative approaches. These findings confirm that there is further opportunity for policy development related to the promotion of academic integrity and the prevention of contract cheating.

International students’ knowledge and emotions related to academic integrity at Canadian postsecondary institutions

This study investigated the knowledge of academic integrity and associated emotions of a small sample of international students studying at Canadian postsecondary institutions (n = 60) using survey methodology. Depending on the survey item, 25–60 participants provided responses. Many respondents appeared knowledgeable about academic integrity and misconduct and reported that expectations in their home countries and in Canada were similar. There was, however, disagreement on the concept of duplicate submission/self-plagiarism, indicating an important gap in educating students about specific aspects of policy in postsecondary education in Canada. In addition, more than a third of respondents provided neutral responses to a situation involving contract cheating, suggesting a lack of certainty in how to respond when witnessing peers’ engagement in outsourcing academic work. Many respondents reported feeling confident upon reading the academic integrity and misconduct policies of their Canadian postsecondary institution, although nearly one third indicated feeling fearful, anxious, and/or confused. These negative feelings were associated with reduced knowledge of academic integrity and misconduct. Future research should further explore the experiences and emotions of international students related to academic integrity and misconduct to better understand the successes and challenges that they face in their postsecondary studies in Canada. Our findings have important implications for the delivery of academic integrity education, enhancing supports and resources, and refining academic integrity policies and procedures to improve the experience of students who come from abroad to study in Canada.