The advent of COVID-19 has necessitated a rapid movement to online assessment for universities across the world. Due to technological challenges, cost, and concerns around privacy and surveillance, many universities have chosen to make use of non-invigilated online exams. There has been a resultant upsurge in misconduct cases. In this webinar, we contend that this issue has three dimensions: the preparation of students for open-book online exams as well as specific disciplinary expectations, the design of assessment that reduces opportunities for academic integrity breaches and the appropriate recognition, investigation and response to allegations of academic misconduct. We first present key literature related to these dimensions. Then we explore the dimensions in relation to two exemplars which synthesise issues commonly reported in the literature and by students and staff anecdotally. Finally, we open the discussion by presenting a final exemplar and unpacking the preparation, design and follow up activities that could potentially mitigate against the issues highlighted.

https://ecu.ap.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a2f42b13-05b1-4918-98d6-ad43005e3756

Exemplar 1: https://youtu.be/5vIXH0-7l4Y

Exemplar 2: https://youtu.be/r256u9z0BmY  

Exemplar 3: https://youtu.be/gG2aRg-Qyv4

Presenters

Dr Melissa Merchant is a Professional Learning Lecturer and a Lecturer in English and Theatre at Murdoch University. Her different roles allow her to collaborate with staff from across the university and to design professional learning workshops. She also works with the Student Integrity team to investigate academic misconduct allegations and regularly sees the role assessment design plays in integrity issues.

Dr Shannon Johnston is a Professional Learning Lecturer at Murdoch University. Her current research interests are in curriculum design and implementation, and inclusive education for diverse student cohorts, including universal design for learning. She supports staff in academic development, leads the development and implementation of Murdoch’s Continuing Professional Learning Framework, and contributes actively and leading assessment policy and design at Murdoch.

Associate Professor Michelle Picard is the Dean Learning and Teaching in the College of Arts, Business, Law and Social Sciences. She publishes and supervises in the areas of academic literacies including academic integrity as well as higher education teaching. She is one of the authors of the Epigeum student modules on academic integrity and also serves as an academic integrity investigator and arbiter at Murdoch University.

For inquiries, please contact Katrina k.strampel@ecu.edu.au