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The fight of the universities against cheaters

Then he was lazing around again, dear student. But that’s not so wild during the lockdown, the exams take place online. A hard-working colleague sends the student the answers via WhatsApp. And what your colleague doesn’t know can be found on the Internet.

Scenarios like this give some professors a stomachache. “The opportunities to cheat on written exams seem to me to be quite high,” says criminal lawyer Alexander Tipold from the University of Vienna. “If a few friends have passed the exam beforehand, they can all sit in the room and do some group work.”

There have been a few cheating in online exams, but it’s not a mass phenomenon. This was the result of a survey by the “Wiener Zeitung” among professors, university assistants, the Vienna University of Economics and Business and the University of Vienna.

Both universities are currently closed to online exams. At the end of November, WU completed its major exam week exclusively online. At the University of Vienna there are only exceptional cases of face-to-face exams, for example practical tests in the laboratory.

The oral online exams via video are rated as unproblematic. Lecturers like the political scientist Reinhard Heinisch from the University of Salzburg report that the exams went smoothly. Student representative Dora Bertrandt, Chair of the Law Faculty Representation at the University of Vienna, also says: “The oral online exams are well received.” Often these would reduce the pressure on the students – for example, because they don’t have to wait for hours at the university on the day of the exams for their turn.

Unpopular written tests

The lecturers have not come across cheating in oral exams. “First of all, you can see from the look and the speed of the answers when someone is cheating,” says constitutional lawyer Bettina Perthold, head of the law degree program at the University of Vienna. Second, you can ask questions that make a student think and argue: “You can’t read the answers.”

The written exams, on the other hand, are less popular. “You have to assume that people are trying to cheat here,” says constitutional lawyer Karl Stöger from the University of Vienna.

Normally he is a “feared examiner” who is avoided by students, according to Tipold. In January 2020, 62 students took his written exam, which still took place as a face-to-face exam: “There are at least twice as many of the other examiners.” But now 142 candidates were registered for his December date, says Tipold. He also attributes this to better opportunities for cheating.

A higher number of examinees “may be due to the fact that students are currently speculative and hope to somehow get through,” says Bertrandt. According to the student representative, the written exams are “less popular”: “They are either longer and harder or just harder than usual.”

Massive attempts at cheating were not uncovered at the WU and University of Vienna. The results also suggest that there was probably no large-scale manipulation. According to the teachers, they have largely remained the same. “The grade average has not changed compared to the exam weeks before Corona,” said a spokeswoman for WU.

The trick with the groups

Individual cases, however, have been exposed. “It is evident that there individual WhatsApp and Facebook groups are formed to cheat,” said one examiner. A university assistant tells of a Facebook group in which students summarized the solutions to old exam questions in a PDF document. Using the search function, the document could be searched for solutions during the check in order to gain an unfair advantage. The university assistant, however, infiltrated the publicly accessible group: “We formulated all the questions in such a way that there is no overlap.”

His institute, like many other faculties, relies on several groups with minimal differences in the examination information. “If group A is about item A and group B is about item B: Then the cheating was evident when group A was writing about item B.” With well over 100 participants, there were four suspected cases, of which “two were clear,” said the assistant. Tipold also went into the net. “Once someone wrote something that only occurs in another group. Two of them came up with the same wrong solution, which can only be explained through cooperation.”

WU relies on video control

At the Vienna University of Economics and Business, the exam can be declared null and void in the event of cheating. However, it is counted towards the number of permitted exam attempts, and the student is banned from the exam for four months. The University of Vienna can revoke the exam and enter a cheat note on the student’s transcript.

When it comes to anti-cheating prophylaxis, the universities use various measures. WU lecturers can introduce “automated online supervision” for written exams. The test object is recorded in picture and sound by the webcam, and the activities on his computer are also recorded. The records are deleted six weeks after the exam.

This control is often used at the Vienna University of Economics and Business: It took place in 22 of 29 exams in the large exam week at the end of November. Such applications are also used at the University of Salzburg, says political scientist Heinisch: “You can see, for example, whether the student gets the information on the Internet.” If possible, try not to use the programs because of the organizational effort and possible technical problems.

“During the first lockdown there were a few technical starting problems,” says Maximilian Ölinger, chairman of the ÖH WU. In the meantime, however, IT has got this under control. The students are already used to the modalities: “Even if that is not ideal for anyone. But for the current situation it is accepted.”

Time as an important factor

Such video and sound controls are currently not used at the University of Vienna. “We recommend focusing on problem solving and application and asking less pure knowledge questions,” said a spokeswoman for the University of Vienna. This is especially true for exams where students are allowed to use their textbooks during the exam.

In addition to the use of plagiarism software, a plausibility check can also take place at the University of Vienna up to four weeks after the test. The students are called by examiners or employees and asked about the examination.

The tight allocation of time is also an important factor. The students should come under time pressure if they rely too much on leafing through textbooks or cheating. “Anyone who has written such an exam can testify that you don’t have time to look up something in the textbook,” says Bertrandt.

According to Tipold, some anti-cheating measures are difficult to apply to large single-case exams. He remains skeptical about the number of uncovered cheats: “Criminologists would perhaps speak of a high number of unreported cases.”

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