LSBR Blog
Online Learning and the Authenticity of Student Assessment
One prevalent challenge online learning institutes have been faced with is the question of “How to stop students from cheating in an online exams” and with the current demand for online education, they are right to be concerned. Online Learning and the Authenticity of Student Assessment For over a month now following the coronavirus outbreak case, higher education, as well as a large section of the US workforce, have been forced to work remotely. And as this spill over to May, it is expected that the focus of many colleges and universities classrooms will be geared towards sourcing for effective and authentic means to assess students learning online as opposed to merely conducting a virtual class. Over the past few weeks, Abhishek Chaudhary, Dean, London School of Business and Research, UK, has conducted dozens of webinars and consultations with education industry colleagues most of whom were seeking counsel, support, and resources. The most recurring question from these consultations was related to assessment security and specifically “How best to prevent cheating by students who are taking online exams”. This persisting concern hints that online education doesn’t have the depth and incorruptibility of typical person-to-person instruction – in essence, it is very easy to cheat. However, this assumption is contrary to research and far from the truth, it also runs the risk of damning all students as cheats. Even more so, it shifts the learning institutes’ focus from learning and development teaching to an obsession with punishments and looses the opportunity for a more thoughtful methodology to online assignment and assignment design. While there are several great practices and techniques for administering assessment securely online, no assessment is uncheatable. And looking past the obvious strategy, the most effective educational response to the question of academic integrity and security of online assessments is hinged on some elementary principles and concepts. Primarily, online education is a unique learning system purposefully designed for remote learning, teaching, and assessment with the aid of technological tools decisively employed for engagement and outcomes. And what’s more, online education is complemented by various services that offer assistance to students all through their learning cycle. In light of these, not all remote learning is online education but all online education is a form of virtual learning.
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