Policy Review: Academic Cheating in Online Examinations during the COVID-19 Pandemic

With the liberalization policies towards the COVID-19 pandemic in various countries, in-person teaching is the mainstream currently. Many countries are more open to their border and quarantine/isolation requirements; however, this does not mean the contagious virus is gone. Various variants are still a threat to people’s health. Online teaching has its essential to students.

Our observation was based on the almost three-year pandemic experience towards the widely used online teaching, especially on academic cheating behaviors during examinations. We found that the online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated students to obtain high scores through improper cheating in online examinations.

Academic faculty faces a big challenge when they try to use new technologies to protect the integrity of online exams because students can develop new strategies for cheating. They not only surf the internet to find the correct answers but also get help from peers and experts. Cheating prevents students from gaining essential skills and knowledge. It is unfair to honest students who spend time and effort studying course materials. In this article, we explored the common ways of cheating on online exams. We also provided recommendations to prevent academic misconduct in the digital environment.