Cheating Through Collaboration
By Steven B. Just

Because of the nature of our client population most Pedagogue exams are given in unproctored environments. While we would like to think that cheating never occurs, we know better. We take as many reasonable precautions as we can to prevent obvious methods of cheating:

• Hiding the browser controls
• Disabling print
• Disabling copy, cut, paste, etc
• Providing the option for tests to be timed by the question rather than by the test as a whole
• Permitting exam passwords to be assigned so exams cannot be taken until passwords are distributed
• Randomizing questions and choices
• Limiting feedback and review based on time and number of views
• Having test takers read and sign an online “honor statement” that clearly spells out the penalties for cheating, as a prerequisite for taking an exam

But in an unproctored environment it is very difficult to prevent collaboration from occurring either in person or via the phone. If questions and choices are randomized two people cannot easily collaborate while simultaneously taking a test but they can collaborate sequentially (person A takes the test and person B helps, then person B takes the test and person A helps). We’ve heard of entire sales districts getting together (10 or so people) to take a test. (You might think that sales managers could prevent this, but in our experience managers are sometimes enablers of this activity -- they want their districts to do well.)

And that’s why it is sometimes easy to detect cheating: If people are going to collaborate they tend to do so with their immediate colleagues. We won’t give away all of our secrets here but patterns do reveal themselves and that’s how we detect most instances of cheating through collaboration. You can’t always prove that cheating has occurred but you can confront the suspected cheaters and let them know they are being watched.

If you use the Pedagogue® Assessment Management System and want more information on how to use the Report Writer to look for patterns in test results e-mail us at ps.info@pedagogue.com.