Keynote Presentation
Time: 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm (HK time) / 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm (Melbourne time)
Venue: Conducted via Zoom
Speaker: Prof. Phillip Dawson, Associate Director, Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University
T&L Leadership Meeting (by invitation only)
Time: 1:00pm-2:00pm (Hong Kong time)
Venue: Conducted via Zoom
Abstract
COVID-19 triggered a rapid international shift toward online assessment, which has been accompanied by concerns about student cheating. If we aren’t physically with students, how can we be sure they are completing tasks in the circumstances we require – and how can we verify their identity? Add into the mix the range of new technology tools that are being used to cheat and unprecedented resource constraints, and it seems that assessment has become much more challenging over the pandemic period.
This presentation explores what educators are doing to detect and deter cheating in online assessment. It argues that addressing cheating will require an uneasy balance between positive ‘academic integrity’ and adversarial ‘assessment security’ approaches. Examples are provided from a range of disciplines, connected to research into their effectiveness at addressing cheating.
About the Speaker
Professor Phillip (Phill) Dawson is the Associate Director of the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University. Phill has degrees in education, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, and he leads CRADLE’s work on cheating, academic integrity, and assessment security. This work spans hacking and cheating in online exams, training academics to detect contract cheating, student use of study drugs, the effectiveness of legislation at stopping cheating, and the evaluation of new assessment security technologies. His two latest books are Defending Assessment Security in a Digital World: Preventing E-Cheating and Supporting Academic Integrity in Higher Education (Routledge, 2021) and the co-edited volume Re-imagining University Assessment in a Digital World (Springer, 2020). Phill’s work on cheating is part of his broader research into assessment, which includes work on assessment design and feedback. In his spare time, Phill performs improv comedy and produces the academia-themed comedy show The Peer Revue.