The Spectre Of Cheating In Exams And Collusion With Other Assessment Items

The Spectre Of Cheating In Exams And Collusion With Other Assessment Items
By Richard D Boyce

We all know that cheating and/or collusion between students will always be a concern where exams and other assessments are done. Teachers need to develop a process on how it is to be handled, particularly if there is no school protocol.

Below are actions to consider when cheating is discovered during an examination:

• When you discover cheating during an exam, note the time and place in 'red' ink on the actual exam paper. Separate the individuals involved if possible. Allow them to complete the exam. You must also remove any 'cheat' page used to cheat and include it with the final exam paper when it is collected so this will be used in judging the appropriate penalties.


• Indicate on the front page of the exam what has happened and who else was involved.


• Report the incident to your up-line supervisor and the student's teachers if it is not your student.


• Follow your school's protocol on penalties in the marking of the assessment task. Here your up-line supervisor will be your guide.

When an assessment task is done outside school time, there is opportunity for collusion to take place between students or students can get others, e.g. tutors, to do the task for them. The best ways to detect if this is occurring include:

Mark one section of every student's work at a time. This will make finding the direct copying of others' work easier. Look for common and sometimes unusual errors, diagrams, spelling mistakes and setting out.

After looking at the suspect students' academic records, you may be able to conclude who copied or cheated. Both students need to be interviewed and penalised if both were involved, based on the school protocol. Sometimes a student copies the other's work without their knowledge.

1. Another scenario occurs when a student does exceptional work beyond his/her normal results. This is a cause for concern and needs to be investigated. Your first course of action is to interview the student, asking questions to test the student's knowledge of the topic to see if it reflects the student's results. If it does not, further investigation is necessary to determine if the work is from the student's own efforts. (Sometimes in non-traditional assessment, students do perform at a higher level). If there is a real doubt as to the integrity of the assessment task, ask more direct questions on how it was done, who might have helped and so on. You may get a 'confession'.


2. If you get a 'confession', follow school protocol in relation to marks, redoing the work and so on.


3. If you do not get a 'confession' and you are sure something is amiss, pass the issue on to your supervisor to deal with.


4. Document all your actions in regard to this issue. I would record it in your diary and with your student records (in pencil only so it can be removed if it proves an unwarranted assertion).


5. Mark the assessment task as you would normally and record the results until the issue is resolved one way or the other.

In these days of 'political correctness', you need to be very careful about what you say to students about these issues. Therefore, document what you say and do with the students and their work and keep your supervisor informed of what has transpired. Finally, ensure you follow exactly the school protocol.

The website http://www.realteachingsolutions.com provides an eBook that looks at all aspects of examinations and other types of assessment. The eBook is "The Exam Book". Our author, during the last 16 years of his teaching career was the Head of a Mathematics Department where he was responsible for the assessment program. He offers practical advice that works on aspects as diverse as running a class exam up to how best to mark alternative assessment tasks.

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