Excellence with Integrity
University of California, San Diego
A Preferred Practice Series for Faculty
Ensuring Integrity in Testing
Honestly and fairly assessing
cover what faculty can do to
student learning is one of the
help ensure integrity in the
key roles of faculty. Without
testing process. The
this fair and honest
philosophy behind these
•••
assessment, the University
preferred practices is that
At UC San Diego, we do not
cannot fulfill its promise to
people under stress and
simply want students to
society to provide meaningful
pressure (like in testing
“excel” (an achievement
and useful certifications of
situations) can make bad
often measured by GPAs,
graduates’ knowledge and
ethical decisions. By
time to degree completion,
abilities. Learning assessment
implementing these
awards, and honors). We
is the bedrock upon which the
practices, a faculty member
want them to excel with
can help create an ethical
their integrity intact.
“The best way to prevent a student from
undermining integrity during an exam is to assess
higher order thinking that cannot be easily and
quickly accessed via technology”
The Preferred
Practice Series
The Excellence with
Integrity Preferred Practice
Series for Faculty is an
initiative of the UC San
Diego Academic Integrity
Office to help faculty
knowledge economy is built.
Testing in the form of quizzes
and exams continues to be the
standard method for assessing
student learning across the
University. This could be why
test cheating also continues to
classroom as well as
minimize the risk and
opportunity for bad ethical
decision-making.
Preferred Practice #1:
Test Higher Order Thinking
be one of the most highly
I posited in 2008 that
occurring forms of academic
academic integrity is not a
integrity violations.
conduct issue, but a teaching
In this first edition of our
Preferred Practice Series, we
and learning issue because
technology (primarily the
internet) has changed our
implement practices and
strategies that will help
UCSD students excel with
integrity.
If you have ideas for a
future Preferred Practice
article, please send it along
to [email protected]
relationship with information
those standards. Put these
Join the Academic Integrity
and knowledge, yet we still
standards and consequences
Community in TritonED or
predominantly teach as we
in writing and distribute to
find the links at our website.
did in the pre-internet era. In
students before the exam as
other words, why do we
well as in the exam room itself.
continue to insist on testing
For example, what are the
memorization and
authorized aids (e.g., formula
regurgitation, when we can
sheet, calculator) allowed?
look up answers in 5 seconds
Preferred Practice #4:
Check Student IDs
It is an unfortunate truth that
some of our students will
If there are any behaviors that
arrange to have someone else
threaten integrity but cannot
take their quizzes or exams
The number one method for
always be considered cheating
for them. These “exam proxies”
ensuring excellence with
(e.g., talking during an exam
normally have a fake UCSD
integrity in our testing process
when you cannot determine
ID that will present the
is to test higher order thinking
what is being discussed; using
enrolled student’s name and
skills – applying, analyzing,
a cell phone when you can’t
PID, along with the photo of
evaluating and creating.
determine the purpose of use),
the test taker. Any faculty
These higher order skills can
state that these behaviors are
checking this ID against a
be tested in all types of exams
not allowed and anyone
name roster will thus not
(from multiple-choice to essay)
engaging in them will receive
detect the exam fraud.
and they can instantly reduce
a 0 on the exam. As a
the likelihood of cheating
professor, you are in your
because the students cannot
rights to establish classroom
easily and quickly look up the
rules to which you can hold
answers on their cell phones.
students accountable, without
The good news is that student
a report to a central
test scores can even increase!
administrative office (like the
or less on our cell phones?
For more help on writing test
questions that assess higher
order thinking, see the
resources section.
AI Office).
Preferred Practice #3:
Use Assigned Seating
At UC San Diego, we have the
Preferred Practice #2:
Make Exam Standards Clear
You can save yourself a lot of
work if you are simply clear
about what is, and isn’t
allowed, during your exams.
And be clear on the
consequences of violating
tools to help you assign your
students to seats, thereby
preventing students from
arranging to cheat off each
other and enabling you to
easily identify when there
might be an exam proxy in
your room.
To help ensure integrity in the
testing process, faculty should
check student IDs against the
photos on file with the
Registrar’s Office. To do this
you’ll need to pull up the
pictures associated with your
class list. You can print these
or just have them on your
computer at the exam for
comparison with the ID.
If the test taker’s photo does
not match that on file, we
suggest asking for an alternate
form of ID (i.e., driver’s
license), calling the police (to
indicate that there is a
trespasser in your exam)
and/or notating the fraudulent
exam so that you can at least
report the enrolled student to
If you cannot book a larger or
Consider asking students to
the AI Office.
second room for your exams,
submit, during the second
you should create alternate
week of the quarter, the
versions of the exam to reduce
number of blue books and/or
the temptation and success of
scantrons they’ll need for the
a student copying from a
entire quarter. You can then
neighbor. These exams should
distribute these with the
be comparable, so it may just
exams. This prevents students
be changing the order of the
from hiding notes within their
exam questions or changing
exam materials.
Preferred Practice #5:
Book a Sufficiently Sized Room
It is much easier to maintain
exam integrity if your room is
sufficiently sized to space
students with one empty seat
between them. This is much
more difficult to do, however,
during midterm time. If you
values within the exam
questions (the options really
Preferred Practice #8:
depend on your discipline).
Manage Bathroom Breaks
your midterm outside of
Eric Michelson, Physics,
If you are still concerned
normal class time and ask for
created a program to make it
about cheating during your
a larger room (you need to do
easy to create multiple
testing process, then you
this before the class schedules
versions of the exam. You can
might want to manage when
are posted for registration
find more information about
and how students are excused
purposes). You can also ask
that at
for “bathroom breaks”.
for a second room and divide
http://physics.ucsd.edu/~emic
the class into two rooms
hels/instructor_notes.pdf
plan ahead, you can book
(make sure you have
Our first preferred practice for
longer exams (i.e., finals) is to
We recommend printing the
divide the exam into 45
exams on different color
minute “chunks”, providing a
For finals, you can ask
paper so you can easily see
15 minute break in between
[email protected]
that alternate versions are
each chunk. Students would
for your exam to be held in
spread out as you intended
submit that portion of the
the REC GYM or a bigger
(because some students will
exam before getting a break,
classroom. The benefits of the
try to get the same version as
so any talking or cell phone
REC GYM is that you can
their neighbor). Alternatively,
access in the bathroom
easily check IDs while the
if you use assigned seating,
wouldn’t matter.
exam is going on (because of
you can know which student
the spacing of the tables and
is to receive which version
the chairs), and students are
and so you could have a rule
naturally spaced apart with
that if the student submits an
sufficient desk space to be
incorrect version, it won’t be
more comfortable while
graded
sufficient proctors to do this).
taking the exam.
Preferred Practice #6:
Use Alternate Versions of Exams
Preferred Practice #7:
Distribute Blue Books &
Scantrons
If breaking your test into
sections isn’t possible, then
we prefer that you:
1. Allow only one student to
the bathroom at a time
2. Require the student to sign
in and out of the exam
room
cheat because they couldn’t
incidents every year. When
(both because we want to be
you do, it is critical that you
educators and not police
identify the people who have
officers, but also because we
violated our integrity
need to prepare our students
standards and report them to
to make good ethical
the Academic Integrity Office
decisions even when they are
so that we can follow-up in a
It is important to remember
under stress and pressure),
way that leverages the
that the testing environment
we do want to create healthy
unethical moment for learning
is a naturally stress and
ethical environments in which
and allows us to help contain
pressure inducing situation.
students feel that the integrity
cheating so that no one is able
And, we know from years of
of their exams is protected
to graduate from UCSD by
social science research, that
against unfair practices.
having cheated their way
3. Require the student to leave
his/her exam and personal
belongings (including cell
phone) in the exam room
Final Thoughts
even “good people” can make
bad ethical decisions when
under stress and pressure. So,
although we do not want to
create a “police state” in
which our students do not
If you implement the
through.
preferred practices, you will
You can easily report any
help to make cheating the
integrity infractions you see
exception and integrity the
by going to:
norm, but you will still likely
detect a few cheating
academicintegrity.ucsd.edu
If you have questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] or 858-822-2163 or in person in
301 University Center.
Resources & Useful Readings
Bertram Gallant, T. (2008). Academic Integrity in the Twenty-First Century: A Teaching & Learning Imperative. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Cheesman, K.L. (2009). Writing/using multiple-choice questions to assess higher order thinking. In T.R. Lord, D.P. French, &
L.W. Crow’s (EDs) College Science Teachers Guide to Assessment (pp. 35-42). Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers
Association. Retrieved July 20th 2015 from http://static.nsta.org/files/PB231Xweb.pdf
Morrison, S., & Walsh Free, K. (2001). Writing multiple-choice test items that promote and measure critical thinking. Journal
of Nursing Education, 40 (1), 17-24. Retrieved July 20th 2015 from http://textos.pucp.edu.pe/pdf/3729.pdf
Malamed, C. (n.d.) Writing multiple choice questions for higher order thinking. Retrieved July 20th 2015 from
http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/multiple-choice-questions/
Teaching & Learning Center, University of Oregon (n.d.) Writing multiple-choice questions that demand critical thinking.
Retrieved July 20th, 2015 from http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/assessment/multiplechoicequestions/mc4critthink.html