Authentic Project-Based Learning in Times of Crisis

The shift to an online learning environment during the Covid-19 outbreak has not been conducive enough for either active learning or fair assessment procedures that yield valid results. Accordingly, this research paper aims to investigate the extent to which Authentic Project-Based Learning engages students and hence provides a valid assessment of students’ genuine performance and proficiency during online learning in EFL communication and Intensive English courses. Using a mixed-methods design, the researchers employed the self-completion questionnaires and focus group interviews to collect their data from their 100-purposively –selected participants. The findings showed promising results in terms of engaging students in the learning process, curbing online cheating, and ensuring reliable and valid assessments of students’ performance. These results are significant in providing a pedagogical approach to be adopted by EFL educators during and after the pandemic.

The design, implementation and pilot application of an intelligent online proctoring system for online exams

Purpose The purpose of this study is to design and implement an intelligent online proctoring system (IOPS) by using the advantage of artificial intelligence technology in order to monitor the online exam, which is urgently needed in online learning settings worldwide. As a pilot application, the authors used this system in an authentic university online exam and checked the proctoring result. Design/methodology/approach The IOPS adopts the B/S (Browser/Server) architecture. The server side is implemented with programming language C and Python and stores the identification data of all examinees and their important behavior change status, including facial expression, eye and mouth movement and speech. The browser side collects and analyzes multimodal data of the examinee writing the online test locally and transfers the examinee’s most important behavior status change data to the server. Real-time face recognition and voice detection are implemented with the support of open-source software. Findings The system was integrated into a Web-based intelligent tutoring system for school mathematics education. As a pilot application, the system was also used for online proctored exam in an undergraduate seminar in Peking University during the epidemic period in 2020. The recorded log data show that all students concentrated themselves on the exam and did not leave the camera and did not speak. Originality/value During the epidemic period of the novel coronavirus outbreak, almost all educational institutions in the world use online learning as the best way to maintain the teaching and learning schedule for all students. However, current online instruction platforms lack the function to prevent the learners from cheating in online exams and cannot guarantee the integrity and equality for all examinees as in traditional classroom exams. The literature review shows that the online proctoring system should become an important component of online exams to tackle the growing online cheating problem. Although such proctoring systems have been developed and put on the market, the practical usage of such systems in authentic exams and its effect have not been reported. Those systems are heavyweight and commercial product and cannot be freely used in education. The light-weight IOPS developed by the authors could meet the need for online exam as a stable and practical approach and could contribute to the growing online learning and distance learning.

Examining Online Cheating in Higher Education Using Traditional Classroom Cheating as a Guide

Academic dishonesty in higher education is a perverse problem affecting institutions of learning in many countries across the globe. More alarmingly, numerous studies have pointed to increasing rates of cheating and plagiarism over the past few decades offering a wide array of explanations and theories for this trend. A relatively new feature of both higher education and the discussion of academic dishonesty involves the growing market for online education. Within the last decade, online education has become a permanent fixture increasing its reach in education markets throughout the world. The trend of online education is seen as bringing with it a new set of opportunities and challenges related to academic dishonesty. With high rates of cheating already a well‑documented problem in the traditional (face‑to‑face) learning environment, it is important to analyze how online education factors into this scenario. The goal of this paper is to provide the reader with a critical analysis of the current literature on academic dishonesty in online education and to propose areas for future research where gaps in the literature exist.