Is It fair to Scholary Students?

    Did you think a virus would put academic integrity at risk? Do you think it is fair to cheat on online exams to get higher marks? Since schools went online due to Covid-19, it is hard for institutions to monitor the activities of their students while they are taking their online exams at their remote locations, and this online assessment leads to a rise in cheating among students. According to ProctorU, which is a company to supply online proctoring service, the cheating rate rose above 8 percent in online exams from April to June while it was fewer than 1 percent before the COVID-19 outbreak (Newton, 2020). The community of teachers is worried about the increase in cheating because this issue puts a heavy burden on teachers to evaluate students fairly. A rise in academic dishonesty among students is also a crucial issue to college and university communities since student’s academic performance accounts for a significant part of university admission. The increase in cheating on online exams lessens the admission chances of scholarly students into competitive universities.

  The academic students deliberately give priority to their studies and study diligently to get the highest grades in their academic courses that raise their chances of getting accepted in the selective colleges and universities. Unfortunately, since the schools moved online, cheating on online exams has been on the rise, and many high school students break the rules in these non-proctored exams to improve their grade point average. For example, as stated by The Hechinger Report, a national non-profit newsroom, “Students pay subscription fees to get answers to questions on tests or copies of entire tests with answers already provided. The tests are uploaded by other students who have already taken them, in exchange for credits, or answers are quickly provided by “tutors” who work for the sites” (Newton, 2020). Consequently, these scholarly students follow behind even academically when their peers always get perfect grades without any effort, and these peers unjustly become more qualified applicants for prestigious universities. So, is it fair to get a fraudulent test result to take advantage? Besides, most of the studious students are willing to participate in Advanced Placement tests to demonstrate their mastery of the contents and skills of a specific AP course to gain college credits. Getting a high score on the AP exams raises the chance of getting into competitive universities and may help the students to save some money by skipping some university courses. Due to Covid-19, The College Board administered 2020 AP exams online on May 12 without online proctoring. As reported to Teen Vogue, students collaborated on answers in a group during the exam by using private messaging apps (Schermele). In response to the student dishonesty Jaslee Carayol, College Board spokesperson, remarked, “we will cancel their AP exam registrations or invalidate their scores” (Goetting, 2020). As a result, if these exams will be canceled or lose their validity on university applications, the students who dedicate themselves to studying would lose the excellent opportunity that helps them to get into their desired universities just because of the selfish and immoral behavior of their peers. What if these students are not as strong as their peers in extracurricular activities that are also important for university admission? Many experts believe “the best [university] students spend between 50-60 hours of studying per week” (Jimmy, 2020). Honestly, this hour of studying is applicable for some high school students like me who are curious to know beyond the expectations, so we do not have much time to take part in various and unique extracurricular activities. Therefore, a rise in cheating on online exams raises doubt about the academic performance of all students to include scholarly ones, whose top priority is their education to bolster their chances of admission to a selective university.

  Now, what are the solutions to uphold academic integrity? Proctor Plus is an auto proctoring service that identifies any smartphones which test-takers use during online exams by using advanced image recognition technology. This software notices any activity of test-takers on any other devices that students try to log in to and ensures the integrity of assessments with a 95% accuracy in preventing cheating (Ten clever ways, 2020). Moreover, Online ID authentication prevents cheating by not allowing fake candidates to take the exam on behalf of the actual test-takers by verifying whether the candidate’s face matches with the candidate’s submitted ID or not during the entire exam (How to prevent cheating, 2020).

  In the end, all students should be in fair competition for acceptance in the competitive universities, but cheating breaks the rules. Students, who get mastery of the contents through hard work, hurt if they see other students are accepted based on their fake academic achievements. Is it fair to achieve what we do not deserve?

Bibliography:

Newton, D. (2020, August 10). Another problem with shifting education online: Cheating. Retrieved from https://hechingerreport.org/another-problem-with-shifting-education-online-cheating/

Schermele, Z. (n.d.). Students Describe Cheating Schemes for 2020 AP Exams. Retrieved from https://www.teenvogue.com/story/2020-ap-exams-cheating

Goetting, B. (2020, May 17). Google Search Trends Underscore A Cheating Problem As AP Exams Go Online Due To COVID-19. Retrieved from https://hothardware.com/news/ap-exams-go-online-hint-at-a-cheating-problem

Jimmy. (2020, June 26). How Many Hours per Day Should I Study? Retrieved from https://theproductiveengineer.net/how-many-hours-per-day-should-i-study/

Ten Clever Ways Students Cheat in Online Proctored Exams. (2020, December 10). Retrieved December 13, 2020, from https://blog.mettl.com/5-unique-ways-students-cheat-in-online-examination-and-how-to-prevent-it/

How to Prevent Cheating in Online Exams with 7 Proctoring Technologies. (2020, December 03). Retrieved from https://blog.mettl.com/7-technologies-that-can-prevent-cheating-in-online-examinations/