Western Carolina University strives to achieve the highest standards of scholarship and integrity and endeavors continuously to improve the quality of its students’ education. Academic integrity is the moral code of academia that requires a commitment to and demonstration of honest behavior. Violations of academic integrity undermine the value of one’s education, interfere with the basic mission of education, and tarnish the reputation of the individual and the institution.
SOME SEMESTER EXAM STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
BEFORE EXAM/PREPARE
Add short answer/essay questions, which require instructor grading.
Administer different tests on the same content.
Administer tests in residential sections face-to-face, not through the LMS.
Be aware of and monitor “study sites” for your materials, exams, and assignments, and issue a takedown notice if /when you find these things online. Such sites include but are not limited to: CourseHero, Quizlet, Studylib, and StudySoup. Contact the Coulter Faculty Commons for a template of a takedown notice if you would like one.
Break exam into two parts – Part A:; Part B: with
Part A: Multiple choice/Matching questions – Limit the time per question.
Part B: Short answer/Essay questions –Allow more time, for reflection and composition.
Ensure that different versions of an exam do not use the same grading scheme. For example, if Form A’s key is A-B-B-A-C-D, Form B’s key should be different.
Focus exam questions on the application and analysis of information. Write exam questions that require students to connect facts and concepts, where answers cannot be found in the book, online, or from another student.
If a multiple-choice or short answer quiz is to be used, show only one question at a time.
Limit the time during which a student can complete an online assessment to something that is reasonable, yet prevents their looking up answers.
Make each question one that requires the understanding/application of an essential course concept. For example:
Requires no Understanding/Application
Requires Understanding/Application
Freud’s description of self includes which of the following: A. Inner self, outer self, secret self B. Id, ego, superego C. Ego, alternate ego, secret ego
If Johnny takes all the toys and refuses to share even one with Bobby, which of Freud’s descriptions of self is illustrated in Johnny at that moment ? A. Ego B. Id C. Superego D. Secret ego
Mandate a signed acknowledgement that students understand academic integrity and have not committed any infractions.
Modify test bank questions even slightly to lessen the ease of searching for the questions.
Present questions and multiple choice answers randomly.
Provide detailed instructions so that students understand expectations.
Scramble questions and vary exams between semesters and sections.
Treat every online or take-home exam as if it were an open-book test (because it really is).
Use the same format on the larger tests as on the smaller quizzes. Students who become familiar with one format are less likely to cheat.
Utilize test blueprinting (question sets) to produce fair exam question pools that test the same idea. These are mini-pools of questions within an assessment.
This reduces the likelihood that two students will get the same 50 questions.
The more questions per set, or the more question sets your create, the more one-of-a-kind each Coulter Faculty Commons 2018-2019 student’s assessment will be.
Randomize as much as possible to give each student a unique assessment.
Randomize the order of the possible responses for each question.
Randomize the order of the questions shown on the entire assessment.
Method I:
Take a look at the objectives you want to measure.
Put those objectives in a grid format as rows.
Add topics or subjects to the rows as needed.
List the levels of Bloom’s taxonomy in the grid as columns.
Disperse the number of questions for each objective at each level of thetaxonomy.
You are now ready to write the questions for each topic at each level ofknowledge.
Method II:
In an assessment in which you want the students to answer 50 questions:
Build five (5) questions sets of 20 questions each.
Have only 10 questions from each set randomly displayed to the student.
DURING EXAM/DELIVER
Require that students place phones face down on tops of desks so that it’s clear if a student picks uphis/her phone and looks at it during an assessment.
Walk around–a lot! Proximity is an easy way to discourage cheating during exams. If you have TAs,each should walk around a “zone” of the lecture hall to monitor the students in all areas of the classroom.
AFTER EXAM/TAKE STOCK
Check the “study sites” again for your materials, exams, and assignments, and issue a takedownnotice if find things online.
Check assessments for students that
Have the same score
Miss the same questions
Start and finish at the same time
If you suspect that cheating has occurred on an online exam, contact the Coulter Faculty Commons to request information. They can see all of the students’ activities in the learning management system. This information can be used to verify what may have occurred during the exam.
Pursue disciplinary action. Completing the paperwork for violations lets students know that they cannot violate academic integrity standards with impunity. Also, it establishes a central record, so that students are discouraged from repeating the same behavior in multiple classes during their academic career.
BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER EXAMS
Contact the Coulter Faculty Commons with any questions.
Contribute to a climate of academic integrity.
REFERENCES
The office of Academic Engagement & IT Governance
The Coulter Faculty Commons staff https://facdev.e-education.psu.edu/teach/preventingissues
McGill, S. (2008, July). Integrating Academic Integrity Education with the Business Law Course: Why and How? [Electronicversion]. Journal of Legal Studies Education, 25(2), 241-282 . doi:10.1207?s15327019EB1103_3
The WCU Academic Integrity task force
Faculty questions about student engagement are common across institutions and higher education. Educational researchers, cognitive scientists, and psychologists continue to learn new things about cognition, learning, and motivation, and some of those best resources and strategies can be found here.
Minimizing disruptive behaviors to facilitate student learning
by Jack Caldwell, John Hawes, and L. Scott Philyaw, PhD
Effective classroom management is rarely part of our formal training as faculty members. Yet, we are still expected to respond to a variety of external pressures impacting campus climates across the nation. Whether a student is passively disinterested or actively disruptive, their behaviors can impact the learning experience of the entire class.
The following tips are intended as a starting point to facilitate further conversation and consideration. In addition, we invite you to consult the CFC Educational Development team for further guidance.
Much disruptive behavior arises from students who feel alienated from the class. This can be minimized by creating a sense of community in the classroom. Know and use your students’ names. A professional classroom atmosphere also facilitates positive student learning.
Model the behavior you expect from students. For example, speak in a normal voice. Listen to student’s questions and comments and respond respectfully.
Have a contagious positive attitude. Treat every day as a new opportunity for success in your classroom. Don’t assume the worst of your students.
Boredom can contribute to disruptions. If your lessons are unclear, disorganized, or not engaging, students may shift their attention elsewhere.
Move around your classroom throughout the class period when you’re teaching and when students are doing group or individual work. Students notice when you’re engaged with their progress. Give hints and suggestions to students as they work on problems.
Prepare students for critical feedback by helping them to expect it–such as when the instructor announces that for this activity they will be the devil’s advocate in responding to students’ comments.
Not all disruptions are worthy of a response. If it is minor, ignore it. If needed, you might consider a nonverbal cue, such as a raised eyebrow, an inquisitive look, or walking toward the student. Alternatively, engage the student with questions about the topic at hand.
If you have concerns about negative changes in a student’s behavior or performance—such as a formerly engaged student who seems to be increasingly disinterested in the class and their studies, consider using the Issue Alert system.
Use appropriate interventions. Do not embarrass students in front of their peers. If you need to talk with a student about their behavior, do so in a way that is respectful and encourages more positive behavior. Consider talking to the student privately.
For more serious disruptions reiterate your expectations and consequences. Then follow through as warranted.
If needed, separate the disruptive student(s) from others. Invite them into the hallway for a private conversation.
If a student becomes a threat to themselves or others, your first priority is to keep the other students safe. If necessary, you may send another student to request assistance from a colleague or campus security.
In all cases, remain calm. Do not show negative or angry emotions. Remaining in control of your reactions helps maintain your authority in the classroom.
You should always document troublesome incidents and notify your department head.
Be clear about classroom norms and your expectations of appropriate behavior in a university environment.
Avoid use of verbs such as, “demonstrate”, “know”, “recognize”, “value”, “appreciate”, etc.
Use only a single action verb per Student Learning Outcome (SLO). Use Bloom’s taxonomy for verb selection.
Three to five (3 – 5) outcomes for a normal 3-credit hour course.
Freshman and sophomore classes should have some (not likely mostly) higher order level outcomes.
Junior and Senior level should have mostly higher order level outcomes.
Components of Student Learning Outcomes
C = Conditions – context, setting and/or conditions under which the behavior will occur.
B = Behavior – the performance/what the student will be able to do, use an action verb from Bloom’s Taxonomy.
C = Criterion/criteria – defines the minimum acceptable level of performance.
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Use of action verbs from Bloom’s Taxonomy helps to ensure that a student learning outcome is measurable. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical way of thinking (action or performance verbs) that classifies learning or cognition into six levels; categorized from less to more complex.
The hierarchical structure indicates that action verbs found at lower levels of the taxonomy are inferred at the higher levels.
The hierarchical structure indicates that action verbs found at lower levels of the taxonomy are inferred at the higher levels.
EXAMPLES:
For more information on Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), please contact the Coulter Faculty Commons.
The SAI—student assessment instrument—is integral to how we are evaluated here at Western. It needs little introduction.
How can we look back on that SAI just handed to us by our chair or director, while looking ahead to a new term, with an eye toward making changes that produce stronger student ratings at the end of spring?
Let’s look at how you might address weaknesses with a look at each of the five main areas of the standard SAI course form.
Organization and Clarity
“Faculty preparation” is the way towards stronger course organization and clarity.
Some tips: Maximize Microsoft Outlook.
Create a recurring “busy” period in your Outlook calendar (not during your student office hour), then begin prompting your peers and colleagues to send you an appointment invite through Outlook, rather than saying “yes” to every informal or hallway meeting request. Then use that “busy” block in Outlook to do your class prep. Quit Outlook.
Yes, this may seem to contradict the above, but quitting the email altogether when doing the heavy lifting such as course prep can provide the focus you need. Your brain will thank you. The emails can wait. Paper, paper, LMS. The standard course form contains four questions that students respond to related to your organization and clarity, and each of them can be addressed with a lesson plan document that is, firstly, completed by you prior to class, and secondly, shared with students as class begins (or, if resources are tight, through an upload of said document to the course in the LMS). You can share the paper as class begins or share your screen…either way, you remind students for 16 weeks, multiple times, of what your aims are, and how they will achieve them.
Enthusiasm and Intellectual Stimulation. I’ll be honest. When I was teaching comp and lit, each term I found the consistent, regularly scheduled classes to be my Kryptonite. Don’t get me wrong—particular topics always found me jazzed from noon to Sunday. And students responded to those lessons in a positive way. But as midterm approached, in the second term of the academic year, I found myself mirroring their waning energy of my students. Some Tips:
Time-shift your best project. Lift your best project, the one you’re most energized about, and reposition it when you think you’ll lag.
Identify a guest speaker(s). Ask a colleague. Consider faculty outside the department. Remember Zoom (they need not be local at all…)
Rapport and Respect. Model this as early as possible. Discuss unusual classroom events that have happened before (and how you handled them). Talk specifically about these components of the SAI—being available to students, being impartial to different views, respecting different opinions—as they are all components of the evaluation they’ll take at the end of the term. Discussing these things early on in the term helps them see you as a person first, and a teacher second. And most importantly—it prompts further conversation.
Feedback and Accessibility. The first statement in this part of the SAI—“Assessment methods accurately assess what I have learned in this course” begs many questions for us as faculty. Were multiple assessment methods used? Did these methods assess what students learned? There is much to unpack here, but a CFC consultation could find a way forward. We can conduct a syllabus review for a balance of formative/summative assessment, discuss strategies for rubric development and use, and suggest alternative forms of assessment.
Student Perceptions of Learning. A single faculty practice can bring about improvement to SAI scores in this category—through the way exam results and graded and discussed with students.
Evaluate how you handle the entire exam process.
Tips:
Grade their work in class. True, use of a traditional m/c, t/f test means they will finish at different times, which creates a strange opportunity and differentiated possibility for us. They don’t expect us to grade work in class, but what if this barrier wasn’t present? What if the exam were, well, completely different? Let go of the traditional testing mechanism. Consider an interview exam (peer to peer), a check-off exam, or an exam with the same endpoint for everyone.
Return the exam the next class session. Can you close the grading window? Would you be tempted to grade it more quickly if you knew that they were most motivated to know how they did…and ultimately, to retain what you’ve taught them… is highest immediately following exam completion).
Change the conversation. What does your post-exam discussion look like? Many faculty may come to post-exam review as a routine endeavor—going over what was right and wrong. But this sends the wrong message—that the performance is what’s important, not the learning. So focus not just on right and wrong but how to arrive at the right answer…the process used. You could discuss prior lectures/labs/experiences, or call on students to identify the process they used to recall the information.
Review a group of SAIs. Do you have other SAIs to compare these to? It may be helpful to review a group of SAIs to gain a broader understanding. Consider grouping them by course, or with other SAIs provided by a former institution (if you recently came to Western). Do you see a pattern? One particular weak area? When I taught English comp, I often saw that one particular area held the lowest scores…consistently. This insight led me to talk with colleagues and others outside my department about how I might improve.
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