How do we check the identity of students when the examination is online? And how do you do it in an efficient manner?
Context
It is a take-home exam, but is the student really the one they say they are and has they really done the exam themself?
Solution
Follow up the take-home exam with short meetings in Zoom, where the student shows their identification papers and themselves and is linked to their own exam solution by use of follow-up questions.
Plan time for your own preparations directly efter the deadline for the examination, so that you can do the follow-up shortly after the student’s performance. Make notes when assessing things to follow up orally, in general or for individual students’ exam answers, e. g. reasoning that could be developed, sub-tasks that could be reformulated and then get new answers (“How would it be if the question instead was…?”) or simply construct some extra questions.
Book short meetings with one student at a time in Zoom, where you have an opportunity to check the identity (The student is to show themselves and their identification papers for the camera) and ask your control questions.
Make sure to inform the students in advance that such a follow-up will take place. Students have the right to know the examination procedure in advance. (They must also be given the opportunity to ensure that they have video capability available.)
You can organize the procedure as at a doctor’s office: Put the students in a waiting room (Zoom Waiting room) and call them as it is their turn!
Step by step
Publish an approximate schedule for the students, where each student is given a time slot when they should be available (Have logged in to your Zoom Waiting room). The slots can e.g. be 30 minutes and several students can be summoned to the same interval. Estimate how many students you can manage during such an interval and make a schedule based on that.
At the beginning of a time slot, the student must log in with video and then wait to be “called up”. They will be greeted by a “sign” (Teacher’s Personal Meeting Room in Zoom) saying that they will have to wait to be admitted. Make clear that they may have to wait a while for their turn. The text on the “sign” in the waiting room can be adapted so that the student understands that they are in the correct Zoom room and e. g. remind them to use waiting time to check that audio and video are working properly.
You log in to the Zoom room yourself and let the students in one at a time, do identity checks and ask control questions. When one student is finished, instruct the student to leave the room and invite the next. This way, you can dedicate just a few minutes to some students and more time to others and keep a high average pace throughout the process.
Remember to test your Zoom Waiting room in advance with the help of colleagues!
Result
The procedure allows you to spend different lengths of time on different students without having to schedule so that you yourself have idle time after students who could be dealt with quickly.
The fact that the students know in advance that the follow-up will take place can in itself reduce the tendency to cheat. You can even settle for following up a quite small sample of students and still achieve such an effect.
Related
- How to use Zoom waiting rooms
How to create Waiting room in Zoom (Zoom support)