Chapter 12 Misbehavior in Online Testing

Online testing offers many advantages for classroom management and learning: ease of grading, immediate feedback, robust question types, integration of technology such as graphing utilities or specialized applets, and multimedia integration (e.g., questions based on detailed images or video files). It also offers many opportunities for misbehavior, such as misrepresentation (e.g., taking a test for someone else), sharing information between testing sessions, or inappropriate access of online resources during the test. We consider potential tools available in course management systems that can help, and also mention other available resources. With online testing, it is easier for students to save copies of testing materials, which find their way to social web sites. Fortunately, many course management systems allow the possibility of randomization, either by choosing one of several alternate questions on a given topic, or preparing calculated questions in which a parameter is allowed to vary over a specified range of values.