Academic Integrity:
Methods to Maintain Academic Integrity without Proctoring

Time the Exam

Exams given online should always be timed, and the time should reflect the expected difficulty of the exam. To decide an appropriate exam time, you can consider the following guidelines.

• A multiple-choice question should be answered within 60 seconds / 1 min.
• A short-answer question should be answered in 120 seconds / 2 minutes.
• An essay question should be answered in 10-15 minutes.

Using these numbers, you should be able to determine a rough estimate of the time it will take a student to complete the exam.

Canvas Note: If no time limit is set for an exam in Canvas, students are free to move in and out of the exam at will until the due date has passed. You should always set a time allowance for an exam in Canvas to avoid this.

Shuffle Questions and Answers

Setting as many options to shuffle as possible will help prevent students from getting the “same” exam. While students may all receive the same questions, the questions (and their answers) will appear in a random order, making it difficult to cheat.

Canvas Note: Canvas will automatically shuffle the questions, but you must select for it to shuffle the answers.

Allow Only One Question at a Time

Allowing only one question to be viewed at a time prevents students from comparing exams side-by-side.

Do Not Allow Students to Return to an Already Answered Question

Preventing students from returning to an already answered question can, again, prevent them from comparing exams side-by-side.

Limit Student Access to Correct Answers in Completed Exams

When students have completed the exam, speaking with them one-on-one about the correct answers or limiting their access to those answers will prevent them from lifting your exam material.

Use Question Banks – The Larger, The Better

Using question banks further randomizes a test, which means that students will be even more unlikely to get the “same” exam. While you maintain control of the questions asked, question banks randomize which of your preselected questions students will be able to answer.

Example: Canvas question banks will allow you to choose a number of questions about a specific topic, say 10 questions about aardvarks. You can then tell Canvas that each student should only answer 2 of the 10 given questions about aardvarks. Canvas will then randomize the 2 of 10 questions about aardvarks each student gets. You can do this as many times as needed.

Require an Access Code

This is a checkbox option under quiz settings and prevents students from taking the quiz without the correct code. This feature can be used to make sure students are taking the quiz at a specific time or in a certain location; this works especially well for students who need to take a test in the Testing Center or with a proctor. This setting can also be used if students have started taking an untimed quiz in class (or a proctored environment) and don't finish it in one class period and need to come back to class to finish it. The instructor can add or change the access code after the quiz has started, and it will completely lock the students out of the quiz until they enter the new access code.

Quiz Availability

In general, to maximize quiz security, it is best to have a quiz open the least amount of time as possible. Click here for information on the quiz availability options and how they can be used to enhance quiz security.

Further Considerations

• These measures are most effective when implemented together. The more measures you take at once, the more protected your information will be.
• When working online, the largest issue with academic integrity is students giving other students access to material they shouldn’t have. Limiting student access to that material is a large component of combating academic dishonesty, and that is done almost completely by limiting access to an exam’s correct answers.
• Creating new exam questions and building large question banks is one of the best and most effective methods for maintaining exam integrity, both online and face-to-face.

Still Need Help?

Please call the Research and Curriculum Unit at 662.325.2510 or email the Help Desk at helpdesk@rcu.msstate.edu.

Last updated: May 29, 2020 9:30 a.m.

Online Tools for Educators

Evidence-based COVID-19 resources and webinars from the Regional Educational Laboratory Program

Microsoft Whiteboard

Download Microsoft Whiteboard

Microsoft Whiteboard integrates with Office 365 and is a free tool that can be used to bring a whiteboard into an online learning environment. The three videos below demonstrate how you can use Microsoft Whiteboard to suit your needs as a teacher or professional development designer.

1. Record Microsoft Whiteboard using PowerPoint
2. No pen? No problem! Microsoft Whiteboard with Mouse and Keyboard
3. Collaborating with a digital whiteboard using Microsoft Whiteboard and your iPad or Windows 10 PC

The best thing is it will share to a class or organization on the fly using Microsoft Stream. For more videos on using Microsoft Whiteboard, subscribe to the Microsoft Whiteboard YouTube channel.

Videoconference Safety

• Avoid sharing virtual meeting links on public platforms like social media.
• Require a password for users to enter a meeting. Change that password as frequently as feasible.
• If you’re the host, be ready to disable a user’s audio or video, or kick them out of the meeting entirely if they’re causing a problem.
• Choose the “invite-only” option for virtual meetings when possible. Once everyone who’s invited has joined the meeting, use the “lock” function to keep uninvited guests out.
• Disable private chat functions to prevent individual users (like students) from branching off into separate conversations during the virtual meeting.

For more guidance, visit How to Keep Students and Staff Safe on Videoconferencing.

Canvas Resources

• Canvas Basics Guide

• Canvas Teacher Help Guide

• Canvas Student Help Guide

Instructor Canvas Videos

• Announcements Overview
• Assignments Overview
• Calendar Overview
• Canvas Overview
• Chat Overview
• Collaborations Overview
• Conferences Overview
• Course and Student Analytics Overview
• Course Home Page Customization
• Course Settings
• Discussions Overview
• Files Overview
• Gradebook Overview
• Groups Overview
• Modules Overview
• Pages Overview
• Quizzes Overview
• New Quizzes Overview
• Rubrics Overview
• SpeedGrader Overview

Student Canvas Videos

• Assignments Overview
• Assignment Submissions
• Calendar Overview
• Canvas Overview
• Chat Overview
• Collaborations Overview
• Conversations Overview
• Dashboard Overview
• Discussions Overview
• Feedback Overview
• Files Overview
• Grades Overview
• Groups Overview
• Quizzes Overview
• New Quizzes Overview

Master Cartridges for Programs With Master Cartridges

Look in your Resource Guides course in Canvas. There will be a module named Master Course Cartridge (see picture below) if your program has a master course. If you do not see a module with this name, your program does not have one. Please know the RCU and the MDE would like to see programs create one. 

Open the page for the Master Course. There will be a link for an IMSCC file to download. You will download the file to your computer but do NOT try to open the file upon completion of the download. It will not open for you. Information will be available when the IMSCC file is uploaded to the Canvas course you teach. A picture of the download page in Canvas can be found below with directions for importing the IMSCC file into your Canvas course.

How do I import a Canvas course export package?

*The import process for Canvas will vary in time based on the size of the master course cartridge file and the instructor’s internet connectivity.

**Master course cartridge materials should not be considered as the only information a student would need to be successful in the course.

Reset Password Directions

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13112-4152719735

Computer Science

CS Activities for Home

Shelly Hollis

Webinars

• How To Use Canvas For At-Home Learning (for Exploring Computer Science)
• Support Student At-Home Instruction Through Canvas

Code Break

On Wednesdays at 12 p.m. CT, Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi hosts Code Break, a global, live-interactive classroom! For an hour, he and the Code.org team teach students of all ages, with and without computers, and offers them a weekly dose of education, community, and computer science.

Please encourage your student to learn computer science and coding while school is closed. Check out the Code.org resources for students at home. And take a weekly Code Break every Wednesday!

Visit Code Break

Last updated: Oct. 27, 2020

CTE Pathways

CTE pathway curriculum resources are continually being gathered and created and will be stored in the Google Drive folder linked below. Check back often for updates.

View online resources for CTE curriculum here.

Resources, Tools & Examples:
High-quality CTE in a COVID-19-impacted School Year

The following resources, tools and examples are excerpted from ACTE’s High-quality CTE: Planning for a COVID-19-impacted School Year, a guide published in June 2020 for helping CTE stakeholders identify the key considerations, guiding questions and emerging best practices that should shape 2020-21 planning.

View Resources

From the News

• CTE educators find creative ways to teach hands-on skills during coronavirus school closings.
• Ed Dept: CTE programs can donate PPE to healthcare workers, hospitals

Curriculum Pathways and IDSs

 Upcoming webinars

 Replay available

Parent Resources

Khan Academy

Sean Owen

Visit Khan Academy

Wide Open School

Curated and coordinated by the experts at Common Sense, Wide Open School is the result of a collaboration among leading publishers, nonprofits, and education and technology companies. Wide Open School features a free collection of the best learning experiences and activities for kids, organized by grade band and subject. You will also find daily schedules with creative breaks and recommendations to keep kids engaged and exploring, one day (or one hour) at a time.

Visit Wide Open School

Useful Browser Extensions

Bhanu Shanmugam

Resources mentioned:

• Chrome Web Store
• Firefox Browser Add-Ons
• For Students:
  • Grammarly
  • LanguageTool
  • Ginger
  • Google Dictionary
  • Power Thesaurus
  • Quillbot
  • EasyBib
  • Cite This for Me
  • MyBib
  • ProWritingAid
  • Plagly
• For Parents and Educators:
  Enhance User Experience
  • Midnight Lizard
  • Google Keep
  • JustRead
  • Nimbus
  • Auto Highlight
  • Bitly
  Enhance Productivity
  • AdBlockPlus
  • Todoist
  • LastPass
  • StayFocusd
  • Push Bullet
  • Momentum

Photomath

The award-winning Photomath app makes math easy to understand and master.

Get Photomath

Online Teaching Resources - Early College High Schools

Brock Turnipseed