PHASE 2 STEP 1 - DECISION MAKING: SELECT THE BEST SOLUTION THROUGH ONLINE INTERVIEW WITH EXPERTS
TOPIC: Cheating in Online Examinations Among University Students
Planning of online interview
Expert details
Planning of questions
1) Dr, can you introduce
yourself and explain briefly about your educational background?
2) What’s dr opinion on
the implication of cheating cases during online exams?
3) Dr, what is the main
reason they tend to make academic dishonesty misconduct during online exam
although it is a wrong deed?
4) What’s dr opinion on
our idea of solutions?
5) In Dr's opinion, what
is the most effective way to overcome these issues?
Online interviewing with expert
Analyze feedback from online interview
1) Dr, can you introduce yourself and explain briefly
about your educational background?
(PIC for analyze: MUHAMMAD ALIFF HAQIMEE BIN MD YUSOF)
Dr. Jolius
Bin Gimbun obtained his BEng. Chemical Engineering from University Putra
Malaysia in 2002 and MSc Environmental Engineering at the same institution in
2004. Two years later, he then furthered his studies in Doctor of Philosophy
(Ph.D) of Chemical Engineering from Loughborough University and received his
Ph.D in 2009. Upon completion of his studies, he has been appointed as a
lecturer in University Putra Malaysia since 2006 and then become one of the
lecturer in University Malaysia Pahang. Basically, he has served as a lecturer
for about 15 years and still in the same field until now.
2) What’s dr opinion on the implication of cheating
cases during online exams?
(PIC for analyze: SYED MUHAMMAD FAIZAL BIN SYED
MAHADZAR)
Based on Dr
Jolius’s opinion, there is a lot of problem and cheating during online exams.
Even he finds it's hard to describe what is the impact would cause if students
cheat during online examination. However, Dr. Jolius does mention the worst
thing that could happen is one cannot hone his skills in seeking knowledge in
academics. He/she is just basically lazy when it comes to academic performance
and only doing something that he/she interests in. Nowadays, most students
spend their time playing video games instead of studying to get an excellent
result for their future sake. Students most likely 100% depending on the
information they can search through the internet. If they do get excellent
results, the results are not originally coming from their own sweat points.
Zero marks also
will be given if the student is caught cheating from Dr. Jolius's point of view.
They are not taking it seriously in terms of learning and start getting nervous
when the online examination is right around the corner. Students are probably
well qualified, but they actually may not have the required knowledge to face
the online examination. Students such as this one, only waste his/her time
applying for university. Due to his/her mistake, it can tarnish the reputation
of the university. Even worst, students also might be expelled from the
university because of his/her pointer does not meet the eligibility
requirements.
3) In Dr’s opinion, Dr, what is
the main reason they tend to make academic dishonesty misconduct during online
exam although it is a wrong deed?
(PIC
for analyze: YONG CHEN YEE)
Regardless
of the test mode (in-hall test or online examination), those who are cheating
in the exam are driven by the desire to get a good result. However, Dr. Jolius
could not determine the root cause behind this behaviour even though he has
teaching experience as an instructor in tertiary education over 15 years. It is
because the situation varies from one student to another. So, it cannot be
concluded as a single root cause that suits all the cases.
Dr. Jolius disagreed with the claim
that online examinations make students cheat. In his view, online exams would
not make students more likely to cheat but provide the students with the
opportunity to cheat. For example, not all students in his class cheat in the
online exam. The instructors can trace the academic dishonesty among their
students based on their answers. Unfortunately, it is hard to collect evidence
of cheating compared to in-hall tests. Therefore, the institute does not
officially punish suspicious students.
For the cases of students cheat with the aid of homework helper services such as Chegg.com, Dr. Jolius disagreed with the suggestion to close such websites or services. The purpose of establishing such services is for tutoring, not for academic cheating. The problem is on the students themselves to abuse it. Dr. Jolius also mentioned that these websites could not help when it comes to higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) questions. They can only solve questions similar to those in reference books. In other words, academic integrity depends on students. Cheating should not blame on the technology improvements. It shares the same theory with the American gun issue. It is not the gun’s fault, but it is a heart problem.
“Yes, guns can be dangerous. And in the wrong hands, the hands of someone who has a nefarious purpose or is careless and fails to respect the power of the firearm, or is mentally ill, they are dangerous. Fire in the hands of a cook is useful; fire in the hands of a pyromaniac is deadly. Water can be for bathing or drowning. A pair of scissors can be for opening a box or stabbing someone. An airplane can be an incredibly efficient vehicle to travel between distances, or it can be a missile to be flown into buildings (Huckabee, 2014).”
Technology is just a tool. The root
cause of cheating in online examinations is on the students themselves.
4) What is Dr’s opinion on our list of
solutions?
(PIC for analyze: Fatin Najihah Bt Md
Rizuan)
In Dr. Jolius's opinion on our list of our solutions, there were some suggestions that effective or not effective to apply in order to reduce the chance of students cheated as it cannot totally eliminate it. Dr Jolius told us that the implementation of High Order Thinking Solution (HOTs) question because it would be unfair for some students. It is because of the setup by the university, there is supposedly a barrier level for the exam question difficulties that been categorised during examination, where it is easy, intermediate and difficult. That is why the idea of using the HOTs questions was ineffective based on the university's standard.
For
the release question one by one was one of good solution as it can limit the
student time from browser the internet. However, students still get the chance
to cheat through sharing answers among them by using media social platforms (WhatsApp,
Telegram). This situation can also happen for other solutions such as online
proctoring, using examination system and also preparing different sets of
question. As there are too many students that taken the exam at the same time
for one subject, it gives the examiner a hard time to inspect each student
during the examination.
This action can still happen if students feel like they want to cheat even do there are several types of solutions that applied during online examination. Although the lectures know that some of the students do cheating in online exams but they can not provide enough evidence to point out that action. So Dr said that the solution suggested by us were good suggestions to overcome the cheating problem during examination but it still not enough to eliminate it because students still can cheat as long as they wanted.
5) In Dr's opinion, what is the
most effective way to overcome these issues?
(PIC
for analyze: MAN JUN POH)
Dr mentioned
that in our list of solutions, there is no suitable solution to handle these
cheating cases completely and effectively if only a single solution is carried
out. He thinks that the most effective way is the combination of solution 1
and solution 3 which is online proctoring and preparation of different sets
of questions. It is because students are aware that they are being observed by
lecturers by online proctoring during online examinations. However, every
single action by students during online examination are very difficult to be
observed. It is because when the number of candidates in Google Meet, Microsoft
Teams and Zoom increases, the screen will display and appear the small dots.
They are not able to observe clearly what the students do behind the camera
screen.
However,
when this solution “Online proctoring” is carried out combining with the
solution “Preparation of different sets of questions”, it will reduce the
likelihood of students to being able to cheat. In fact, it is very difficult to
handle the cheating cases by students perfectly, however university authorities
are still able to reduce it by implementing different solutions while one of
the effective solutions is the combination of online proctoring and preparation
of different sets of questions that have been highly recommended by Dr.Jolius.
Decision of making final decision
Final decision
In the previous decision among all the
group members, we met our consensus of discussion and agreed with the points of
view from our experts that the combination solution of "online
proctoring" and "preparing different sets of questions" is
the best solution among the other ideas of solution for our topic “Cheating in
Online Examinations Among University Students” It is mostly because candidates have no chance to cheat using any internet browser during online exam when they
are being observed by lecturers while they will not be able to chat with their
friend via social media for the answer since the exam questions they received
may be different from each other. Even using higher-order thinking skill
(HOTS) questions, there is a higher possibility that they can use the exam period
to seek for the answer from their friends via social media, such as Whatapps,
Messenger. It is not the best way to
curb the cheating issues if we really complement the solution “Open-book test
but with higher-order thinking skill (HOTS) questions”.
We all agree that every single solution has its limitations and weaknesses. Hence, it should be supported by other solutions to maximise its efficiency. Practically, there is no conflict to implement more than one solution. Hopefully, in the future, cheating cases during online examination can be reduced among university students as integrity and honesty are the basic criteria as labor when they contribute themselves in the future workplace.
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