As we look for sustainable methods of assessing our students in the landscape of modern education, online testing practices often bring with them challenges related to academic integrity, equity, and practicality. Last month, Penn State Altoona partnered with Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) to provide a session, Creating Online Assessments with Integrity in Mind, where actionable strategies and various features of technology tools were shared to help instructors navigate these challenges.
In case you missed it, this session focused on designing assessments that are fair for all learners, addressed the impact of generative AI, and outlined tools like Canvas and other proctoring tools for instructors to manage their online assessments. Let’s take a look at some key takeaways and some additional resources that may be impactful as you consider using online assessment in the classroom.
Student Accommodations
Before delving too far into things, it’s important to remember that accommodating diverse student needs are imperative to providing equitable online assessment experiences. There are a few things an instructor can do on the front end to prepare themselves and evergreen their assessments for any student accommodations that may arise from semester:
- Manual Adjustments: Offer time extensions or extra attempts for students who require additional support using the built in Moderate This Quiz feature in Canvas.
- Flexible Solutions: Consider designing assessments that inherently allow for flexibility, such as untimed assignments or alternative formats of demonstrating learning for all students.
Additionally, this would be a good time to remind ourselves of the recent Department of Justice ruling that requires all coursework to be fully accessible by April 24, 2026. As you build your assessments, make sure you are adhering to those standards.
Student-Centered Assessment Practices
Assessments tend to cause our students to have feelings of anxiety but are often a crucial portion of their coursework. By considering the whole student, instructors can improve the testing experience for their students.
- Empathy and Adaptability: While some elements of our students’ working experiences must fall within hard deadlines, not all aspects will be treated that way. With this in mind, consider the constraints of student life and adapt assessments as needed to balance rigor with flexibility.
- Different Models: Think about splitting assessments into synchronous and asynchronous components to help your students demonstrate their mastery of your content.
- Backup Plans: Because technology is not always on our side, have contingency plans for technical or logistical issues, ensuring assessments remain fair and accessible.
Setting Clear Expectations for Assessments
Establishing transparency and accountability in assessments is the cornerstone of academic integrity. By taking a proactive approach to your assessments, you can help your students feel prepared to show their learning without feeling compelled to turn to academically dishonest solutions.
- Syllabus Statements: Include a statement about academic integrity in your syllabus and explain what this does and does not look like for your course specifically during the first weeks of your course.
- Grading Transparency: Clearly communicate how students will be graded and how their performance impacts their overall course outcomes.
- Balance Assessment Types: Use a mix of low-stakes formative assessments to help your students feel confident before taking on more challenging summative assessments.
- Syllabus Quizzes and/or Attestations: Include a requirement in your Modules where students must earn a certain score on a quiz based on your syllabus. Additionally, require students to complete an attestation as specific to your assessment guidelines as you like.
- Regular Reminders: Revisit previous conversations throughout the semester (i.e., prior to major assessments) through Canvas Announcements or Emails to keep concepts related to academic integrity fresh in your students’ minds.
Balancing AI and Exam Strategies
When talking about online assessments today, the rise of generative AI tools cannot be ignored. In this era, assessments are forced to shift from a focus on memorization to applying and extending knowledge. With generative AI here to stay, you may be able to mitigate some potential issues by adapting traditional assessments to fit this new landscape. The Commonwealth Campus Generative AI Toolkit may be a great place to start when thinking about how to approach this topic with students.
- Early Conversations: In addition to statements about academic integrity, make sure to include a syllabus statement and discussion about the acceptable (or unacceptable) use of AI tools in your course. A great resource for instructors preparing for these conversations is the Faculty Checklist resource found in the Commonwealth Campus Generative AI Toolkit.
- Exam Design: Revisit your current exam questions for ones that are susceptible to responses from generative AI. A previous blog post – Outsmarting AI: Designing Exams that Require Human Thinking – may be useful in rethinking your assessments.
- Incorporate diverse question types, such as multiple-choice, essays, and application-based tasks, to assess a range of skills.
- Use New Quizzes in Canvas for enhanced features, such as question banks and randomization. Note: There are some features of New Quizzes that have some reported issues. All recommendations for when to use New Quizzes or not can be found through the Penn State Knowledge Base.
- Balance exam length and difficulty to align with the course’s learning outcomes and score students directly on meeting those learning objectives.
- Oral Assessments: Consider incorporating oral components for a deeper understanding of student comprehension.
- Feedback: Provide timely, specific feedback to guide students through areas of difficulty and enhance their understanding of the material. Address any issues you may see as soon as possible.
Exam Security with Technology
Maintaining academic integrity for online assessments will likely require some use of technology tools. Below are a few solutions that might be worth exploring, but it should be noted that no technology is perfect and cannot stand alone in determining academic dishonesty.
- In-Person Solutions: Instructors have found some success for in-person online assessments by doing some simple things during the testing experience.
- Reiterate what good test taking does and does not look like before administering the assessment.
- Walk around the room to monitor how students are interacting with your assessment.
- Make eye contact and even engage with students who seem to be struggling or exhibiting signs of test anxiety with words of encouragement or support.
- Debrief assessment experiences with students without making an example out of individual students.
- Canvas Quiz Options: There are a lot of Canvas-native solutions available for proctoring online assessments.
- Randomize questions and answers using question groups.
- Set time limits, availability windows, and restrict answer visibility to specific timeframes.
- Use Quiz Log Auditing (in beta) to monitor student activity during exams after enabling it in the Feature Options section of your course Settings.
- Respondus Lockdown Browser: Available in all STEC general classrooms reserved through 25Live, Respondus may provide some additional exam security.
- Have students open Respondus Lockdown Browser on the classroom computer Start menu and log into the Instructure Canvas instance to enable the lockdown browser.
- Keep students in Canvas on that device (does not prevent other device usage or navigating elsewhere in Canvas) to stay focused on the assigned assessment.
- Top Hat Test: While not meant for high-stakes assessments, instructors already in Top Hat may find Top Hat Test to be a helpful solution.
- Create simple assessments with lockdown browser and versioning capabilities.
- Have current exams transitioned to Top Hat questions using the platform’s Concierge Service.
- Sync your Top Hat gradebook with your Canvas gradebook for easy reporting of student progress.
- Other Tools: Because of the expansiveness of the University, other tools such as Honorlock, ExamSoft, and Examity may be available to your unit.
Resources and Support
There are a number of valuable resources for designing and delivering online assessments that can be found across the Commonwealth. Some useful training opportunities include:
- Canvas Guides: Step-by-step instructions for maximizing the potential of various Canvas features.
- Teaching Online Program (TOP): Self-paced learning modules on Canvas, Multimedia Tools and Techniques, Design and Development, and Best Practices in Teaching Online.
- BlendLT Learning Path: A comprehensive training program on blended and online teaching techniques.
Key Takeaways
Creating online assessments with integrity in mind requires a thoughtful blend of pedagogy, technology, and empathy. As the landscape of education continues to evolve, fostering integrity and equity in assessments will remain a cornerstone of effective teaching. Whether it’s through refining exam security measures, incorporating flexible and inclusive practices, or adapting to the presence of generative AI, instructors have a wealth of strategies to draw from. By leveraging the resources available through Penn State and taking proactive steps to design meaningful assessments, instructors can create environments where students are empowered to demonstrate their learning authentically and confidently.
