Much of the contract cheating identified by university staff is in assignments – but that is not where students report it happens most

A new analysis of a contract cheating database, by Rowena Harper, Tracey Bretag and Kiata Rundle (all Uni SA) reports in Higher Education Research and Development that seven out of the ten most common stusdent cheating behaviours is in exams, notably multiple-choice.

“Students may find it easy to cheat, given they can quickly and discretely look at the boxes that have been checked on a neighbour’s paper or whisper a question number and letter response to a friend,” they report.

This is bad news for advocates of exams as more secure than written assignments.

“While multiple choice question exams may be efficient in terms of the time they take to mark, these findings suggest that their integrity cannot be assumed simply because they are conducted under invigilated conditions.

“The belief in the inherent integrity of the exam format has provided a false sense of security.”

The authors conclude, “text-rich forms of assessment should retain a valued place in university assessment strategies. While they are not immune to contract cheating, staff appear to be practiced at detecting cheating in the context of a written task.”