Creating honest and fair remote introductory Physics assessments

Author / Creator

PERC SM21 (2021)

Conferences

PERC SM21 Poster Session 2C (2021)

Available as

Online

Summary

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities have had to transition to online instruction. For large-enrollment introductory physics classes, this situation raises questions of ensuring academic...

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities have had to transition to online instruction. For large-enrollment introductory physics classes, this situation raises questions of ensuring academic honesty and fairness in assessments. Short, low-stakes quizzes have been suggested as an alternative to traditional exams, in order to minimize opportunity for students to engage in academic dishonesty by way of unauthorized online resources that can be problematic for longer online exams, and to reduce the pressure students feel that may tempt them to cheat on high-stakes exams. However, short quizzes could still be vulnerable to academic dishonesty by way of student sharing of assessment content with each other through various means that may be difficult to detect. Moreover, students may not perceive that short quizzes are meant to be low-stakes. In this investigation, the prevalence of academic dishonesty via unauthorized information sharing was explored in two remote large-enrollment introductory physics courses. In addition, student perception of assessments was investigated. It was found that students learning remotely had a preference for less-frequent, longer assessments, compared to frequent, short quizzes. It was also found that evidence for academic dishonesty was reduced when students perceived the assessments as fair, even if the online format was perceived as more difficult than an in-class experience.

Show More