Cheatproof Your Online Exams

When a university in Australia discovered that over 900 students had used AI to complete their assessments in a single semester, educators worldwide took notice. It’s hard to believe that we are five years down the line from the Covid-19 outbreak that became ‘the year that we all stayed home’—yet we’re still feeling the aftershocks. We’re no longer just battling traditional methods of academic dishonesty; we’re facing sophisticated digital cheating techniques that evolve faster than our policies can adapt.

During the pandemic, educators suddenly had to pivot to online learning platforms, virtual classroom management, and digital assessment tools, all while continuing to meet essential responsibilities such as curriculum delivery, administrative tasks, and providing emotional support to learners. This rapid shift has left a lasting legacy on how we approach academic integrity in the digital age.

Just as suddenly, we also had to contend with new ways to cheat in tests and exams. The subsequent arrival of AI tools has expanded the potential for dishonesty in online assessments even more.

Since almost all of us, whether we’re higher education institutions or public or private schools, have had to adapt to some form of hybrid content delivery, we must now face the challenge of preventing ‘e-cheating’ in all its variations.

There’s so much in favour of online assessments. They are convenient and flexible. Learners can take assessments anywhere, at flexible times, making them much more accessible for long distance learners or those studying part time.

🟢 The automated grading possibilities for certain types of questions mean that educators save a significant amount of time when marking. It also reduces the administrative workload (and costs) dramatically. Think of how much time and paper are used printing out exam papers.

🟢 Online is much more scalable than in-person testing, allowing large numbers of learners to write simultaneously without the need for large venues and other logistical considerations like chairs and tables.

🟢 Closely linked to scalability is cost-effectiveness – venues, printing and invigilators don’t come cheap. Less direct costs like travel and accommodation for both learners and examiners also add up to considerable amounts.

🟢 Accessibility is another feature. It’s much easier to make online exams accommodate learners with disabilities through screen readers, adjustable font sizes, and alternative question formats.

Obviously, there are many great reasons why you would want to use online assessments. Nonetheless, the perceived risks are often a real deterrent to embracing them wholeheartedly.

It’s inevitable that there will always be learners looking to cheat. There are historic records of cheating on the exams for the Chinese civil service which go back thousands of years. These days cheating is so expected that there is an entire billion-dollar industry built around monitoring and preventing it. It even has its own Wikipedia article.

We all accept that assessments must be credible and fair. When students take an exam, we expect that their results genuinely reflect their own knowledge and effort. But if the

assessment process is compromised it puts the value of those qualifications at risk. The result is a loss of trust from educators, employers, and accreditation bodies, ultimately affecting the credibility of the entire system. Everyone, including the learner loses.

We see the three main threats to assessment integrity as being active cheating, impersonation and unauthorised access.

🟢 Active cheating happens when students use prohibited resources or outside help during an assessment. This could mean looking up answers online, sharing responses with friends, or even using AI tools to generate answers.

🟢 Impersonation is when someone else takes the exam for a student, either by logging in with their details or using techniques to hide their real identity. This is a big issue, especially in online exams that don’t have strong identity checks.

🟢 Unauthorised access is when someone gets hold of exam content before or during the test—this could happen through hacking, leaked questions, or security gaps in the system.

These risks are why strong security measures are so important.