After reading a couple of articles on online assessments and cheating, I feel like I do a pretty good job on keeping wandering eyes at bay.
All of my formal assessments are taken online. I use USATesprep.com when taking assessments. This online program allows me to create standard-based questions. Last year all of my assessments were on paper. It created a lot of wasted paper and was a pain to keep up with filing. This also was an issue with keeping the tests secure.
With the online program, I can create assessments ahead of time and assign the test. Students cannot take the test ahead of time. I have to activate the test for students to be able take it. I can also deactivate the test at the end of the day. This dissuades students from being able to finish it when they get home. I can also see what students are not finished at the end of the hour. I can keep a pretty good eye on their tests.
When students take the test, they are not allowed to start until I activate the tests. Students take the test on their personal chromebook. Our school has a monitoring system through Google call Hapara. I am able to keep track of what students have open on their chromebook. This helps me to make sure students stay on tasks. I do occasionally have students try to play games on their chromebook. I can easily close out the tab they are currently on. It's a lot of fun to see their reaction when their tab is no longer opened. The monitoring systems also allows me to watch students who leave my room. I have some students who have 504s or IEPs who test in other rooms. I am able to make sure they are working on what they need to do.
For the actual assessment, I have the ability to shuffle questions and their multiple choice answers. This helps with keeping students from cheating since no two students are ever on the same question at the same time. I also do not allow students to view the questions and the correct answers after the test. Students can view the answers when we go over the test (once everyone is finished and their grades have been passed back). I also do not allow students to retake the same test. I have a retake test that has different questions, so students cannot simply memorize the questions and answers to improve their grade.
