Distance exams : can targeted warnings discourage cheating?

Abstract

During the COVID-19 sanitary crisis of 2020, many exams were hastily moved to online mode. This revived a much-needed debate on the privacy issues of online proctoring of exams, while the validity and fairness of unproctored exams were increasingly questioned. In a randomized control trial, we send a targeted warning to half of the students who were identified as cheaters in previous exams. We then compare their cheating behavior at the final exam to the group of unwarned cheaters. Preliminary results show that the warning proves effective but does not completely annihilates cheating as the cheating strategies of some students become more sophisticated. We conclude that switching traditional exams to online mode should come with proctoring. When proctoring is not possible, credible and effective anti-cheating technologies should be deployed, together with adequate warnings.