academic

Online academic integrity: an institutional choice


Academic integrity is a critical asset in our higher education infrastructure which protects the quality and value of degrees conferred.

academic-online-integrity
Douglas Winneg

The first brick of the foundation is student authentication – the assurance that the student who claims credit from a particular school is that person and is deserving of the grade awarded.

Without this cornerstone, the integrity of our education system will topple.

The reliance on academic integrity impacts education in several ways, from facilitating hiring decisions, to determining acceptance into graduate programs. It also separates individuals based on merit.

Educational institutions can attract top faculty offering the best content, but without academic integrity, there is little reason for others to see value in the institution and those graduating therefrom.

With the growth of distance and online education being the catalyst, technological solutions have emerged in the marketplace to help safeguard academic integrity. Therein presents a new challenge, who should be the chief architect for driving the decision, selection and administration of these solutions?

The 10 most inventive cheating attempts on online exams

The single-most confounding market reality I have faced – and continue to face – is schools deferring to faculty when it comes to the enforcement of academic integrity. Over the 14 years at my company Software Secure, I have worked with more than a thousand academic institutions, designing systems and products that ensure that students could benefit from using computers to take proctored exams without facilitating digital cheating.

Here’s what I’ve learned, schools are looking to accomplish the following: protect their brands, ensure students don’t cheat, maintain a level playing field to support the students who have endeavored and performed honestly for their achievements and finally – a way to offer learners who are not able to enter the traditional classroom an alternative method of earning a degree by working for it online.

These are noble and proper goals.

The common denominator: they are institutional goals.

But here’s the paradox: while schools will go to great efforts to identify, select and implement tools to protect academic integrity in their education programs – oftentimes, the adoption and use of these systems are left at the discretion of the faculty.

Whether it is using anti-plagiarism software on submitted work, or requiring proctoring for online exams, most institutions do not feel that they can “require” faculty to protect integrity, fearing that such a requirement would trespass on the faculty member’s domain. But now the institutional goals for integrity are potentially compromised.

In actuality, the processes and applications available today to protect academic integrity have no impact on teaching. Remote proctoring, for example enables students to take online exams from the convenience of their own home, on their own schedule, while still maintaining the same academic integrity as found in a traditional proctored classroom – without having any impact on teachers.

Teachers can still teach, test and grade the way they want.

In truth, teachers should teach and develop valuable content, period. It should not be a faculty member’s responsibility to choose the tools to stop cheaters or to police integrity.

Giving faculty the responsibility to enforce academic integrity transforms the intended nurturing relationship between teacher and student, into one of confrontation.

As the foundation of quality and fairness, integrity should be an institutional tool or asset. We don’t ask faculty to choose which bricks to use in the classroom, and we shouldn’t ask faculty whether online students should be permitted to cheat.

Mr. Winneg founded Software Secure to promote test integrity. An industry pioneer, the company was the first to offer remote proctoring systems for online testing programs. A designer of the company’s patented Securexam Lockdown technology and Remote Proctor products, Mr. Winneg has lead the design of secure computer-based testing systems for higher education and K-12 online education programs and national certification providers in the US, Canada and Scotland. Mr. Winneg received his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and a B.A. with Honors from Swarthmore College.

Sign up for our newsletter

Newsletter: Innovations in K12 Education
By submitting your information, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Latest posts by Douglas Winneg (see all)

Oops! We could not locate your form.

Sign up for our newsletter

Newsletter: Innovations in K12 Education
By submitting your information, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.