by Chris Kenniburg & Troy Patterson
Students who cheat on tests should be VERY worried!
Whether it is opening up a new tab and searching for an answer or logging out and logging back in with a different account ( or any number of creative ways students cheat), in K-12 circles it seems to be a never ending fight to prevent students from cheating. This is especially true when using most online testing websites.
We are creating a secure testing environment for students by utilizing a combination of a Chromebook App and a new Secure iLearn Quiz Module.
This process is tightly integrated with iLearn and Chromebooks. This process will now allow you to eliminate cheating (at least by preventing students from opening additional tabs or windows – they could still write out answers on their hand) and focus on building good assessments to better gauge student learning.
Our Chromebook App is launched by the student before actually logging into the Chromebook (the student never logs into Chrome, but will log into iLearn – which is the only page accessible in the App). An audible “Chime” noise is produced so that the teacher knows the student has entered the testing application. This provides the teacher with an audible alert know if a student leaves the testing environment during the testing period.
Once logged in, the App enters into testing mode in which there is no going back. Absolutely. No. Going. Back. Once a student clicks a link to open a quiz, they can only go forward until they complete the quiz. (A student may go back to previous questions or pages within the quiz but they are blocked from leaving the quiz module.) They cannot use navigation buttons to leave the quiz module. Following completion of the quiz, they must shutdown the Chromebook in order to logout. There is no logout or ability to leave a quiz.
Oh… we didn’t mention the new Moodle Secure Quiz Module (in development now) which looks to make sure the student is using the using the Chromebook Testing App! This effectively eliminates the ability of the student to login and take the test in any other way other than within our controlled and secure testing app on a chromebook controlled by the school district.