Working remotely means you don't have the security mechanism of monitoring your students as they are assessed. We recommend adjusting your assessment strategy in light of the context, but recognize that for some of you that may be unfeasible. What follows is a set of recommendations if you intend to maintain your high-stakes summative assessment strategies in your course.

If You Were Using the DLC Exam Commons

With the shift to remote teaching, the DLC Exam Commons is not available to proctor examinations. If you are maintaining your exams, rather than adjusting to an alternative assessment strategy, there are a couple things you'll need to do in your remaining exams:

Disable IP Filters

Filter IP Addresses To ensure that students only take tests in the Exam Commons, your Canvas quizzes have IP Filters enabled. Since students will not be able to take tests in this environment, if you intend to use those same tests still, you will need to disable the IP Filter setting on your remaining quizzes. To do this, edit the quiz, uncheck the Filter IP Addresses checkbox, and save your change.

Update Respondus

Tests in the Exam Commons use a piece of software called Respondus Lockdown. This resource is not available for remote testing, however, the University has secured remote proctoring software called Respondus Monitor which provides you the ability to have your students monitored while they take exams. The technology does require some setup for students as well as requiring students to stream live video to the Respondus servers for the duration of their exam. If you do feel that you need to utilize this tool, you can follow these instructions to set it up. Note: we recommend sending the student instructions in the “What to tell your students” section via your normal course communication channel (announcement, email, etc) as well as posting these instructions in your Canvas exam. We continue to encourage you to find assessment solutions other than online proctoring.

Other Strategies

Even without a formal remote proctoring option available, there are several strategies we can use to encourage academically honest student behaviors. Consider implementing one or all of these strategies in your courses:

These strategies were provided by Dr. Tareq Daher, Director of the Engineering and Computer Education Core for the College of Engineering at UNL

1. Academic Honesty Agreement (Pledge)

Add a 1-question agreement quiz to your course and/or exams. Students would need to agree to engaging in academic honesty practices throughout the course before any of the other modules become available to them on Canvas. You can mention this agreement in the policies section of your syllabus.

The text of the demonstration pledge is provided below. Feel free to use it or modify to fit your expectations.

I pledge to engage in and complete all activities, discussions, assignments, and exams in this course by myself, without the assistance of online resources, textbooks, or others unless otherwise specified by my instructor or the instructions.

I pledge to engage in Academic Honesty practices throughout all of my interactions with this course.

I pledge to follow the UNL Student Code of Conduct and not engage in academic dishonesty, including, but not limited to, plagiarism, falsification, fabrication, impermissible collaboration, and cheating.

2. Communicate the Importance of Academic Honesty

Help students see the importance of protecting academic integrity. Create an online discussion forum on the impact of cheating and the importance of academic integrity. For example:

When you cheat, you are missing the opportunity to develop a deep understanding of the content. What you didn’t learn in one course can be required in the next course or in your future workplace. You wouldn’t want the civil engineering that builds bridges to have cheated their way through college! Discuss how cheating in courses impacts your personal integrity? In what ways does cheating affect others? How does cheating impact the community? If grades are not evidence of learning, jobs are filled by incompetent people, how does cheating in a course relate to cheating the economy and workforce?

3. Diversify and Personalize Your Assessments (More Frequent/Lower Stakes)

Consider increasing the frequency of assessments and lowering the stakes. You could use Formula-based, open response questions that require the students to reflect and analyze. Have your assessments build on previous assessments (projects/tasks), and provide additional opportunities for assessment.

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4. Technology Support

At UNL, we have an institutional license for Turnitin. Turnitin identifies unoriginal content. The tool highlights similarities against a database of content from the internet including submitted student papers. It integrates with canvas. If you're looking to get started with Turnitin, we recommend this Turnitin training resource, provided by ITS.

Similarly, you can develop a pool of questions for each exam and randomize the order of questions and answers. Pull a predefined number of questions from each pool. Students will have a unique version of the exam. And remember to set a time limit!

5. Provide Resources for Accurate Referencing and Citation

In many cases, students are not intentionally cheating. Plagiarism can occur due to lack of knowledge on how to correctly reference or include in-text citations. Partner with your designated instructional designer and librarian to develop resources for your students that you can include in your course.