Anti-cheating in the workplace
Cheating among learners in workplaces has become a growing concern, especially as organisations adopt digital training approach and initiatives. While workplace learning is designed to foster growth and development of employees, some employees may choose to resort to dishonest and unethical work practices such as copying of answers, or having others complete the assessment for them instead. These behaviours can in turn compromise the effectiveness of such training programmes, leading to poor on-site workplace performance, and in more serious cases, breaches of safety. Hence, addressing such complications requires proper measures to be put in place.
Companies can implement a combination of policies as well as cultural and ethics strategies to counter or minimise cheating among learners in digital workplace training environments.
1. Assessment protocols and monitoring system
In-person invigilation or setting up of webcams (or CCTVs) can be implemented during assessments in a controlled environment to deter any misconduct among learners. This also provides evidence if any misconduct or cheating is suspected.
2. Fostering a culture of integrity in the workforce
Often times, employees behaviours, culture and values are cultivated from Day 1 of joining the company. Hence, it is important to encourage employees to take accountability and be in charge of their own learning and growth, and practice honesty even when carrying out daily tasks.
3. Diverse assessment types and design
As L&D managers, another way and the most effective way to deter cheating among learners is through assessment design. With the diverse number of mobile training platforms available, relying on good instructional design and leveraging its built-in features are essential, rather than opting for advanced protocol softwares.
ArcLab, is one of such platforms for mobile and nano learning. While it offers assessment features, it is not primarily marketed as a high-stakes exam protocoling tool. Below are some ways in which L&D managers can successfully utilise ArcLab by combining its features with general best practices for online assessments.
Leveraging ArcLab's features
Diverse Assessment Types
ArcLab offers various assessment screens, including:
- Multiple Choice Questions
- Multiple Select Questions
- Open-Ended Questions
- Reorder questions
- Word Unscramble
Using a mix and putting a timer on the questions can make it more challenging for learners share or copy answers with each other.
Question Bank and Randomization (for MCQs)
ArcLab has a Question Bank feature for Multiple Choice Questions. This allows you to:
- Bulk upload a set of different MCQs.
- Serve different questions to different learners. This is a key anti-cheating measure, as it allows each learner to have their own unique test version.
NanoCredentials
ArcLab allows you to award digital achievement badges (NanoCredentials) for completed modules. While this does not serve directly as an anti-cheat measure, it can be part of a broader strategy to encourage ernest learning and achievement.
Geofencing
ArcLab offers geofencing capabilities to restrict module access to specific locations. This can be useful for in-person training or assessments as it ensures that learners are present in a specific physical area to access the content or complete an assessment.
Secure Access
ArcLab modules are accessed through unique logins automatically-generated by the platform, which helps ensure that only authorised learners can participate.
Learner Analytics
The Learner Analytics Dashboard can help you track learner progress and effectiveness. While not a direct cheating detection tool as well, it can be used to detect inconsistent progress, similar responses or unusual completion times, which can in turn raise flags for further investigation.
General best practices & tips
Design Meaningful Assessments
- Questions should focus on application, not just recall/facts: Instead solely relying on memorisation, formulate questions that demand critical thinking, problem-solving, and application of knowledge and concepts. Questions that require situational analysis or individual viewpoints and responses are harder to cheat on.
- Open-Ended Questions: These are more difficult to cheat on with simple copy/paste methods or pre-written answers.
- Personalised Questions: Wherever deemed suitable, tailor questions to learners’ personal experiences or ask questions that apply to their specific job scope.
- Vary Question Order and Answer Choices: Even without an exclusive feature for randomising questions, manually shuffling the question and answer options order across different versions of a module can deter cheating and copying of answers.
- Frequent, Low-Stakes Assessments: Instead of one high-stakes exam, assessments can be split up into various frequent, smaller quizzes. Low-stakes assessments generally reduces the pressure on the learner to cheat on any assessment.
Time Management
- Set Time Limits: Set reasonable time limits on questions to prevent learners from having sufficient time to search for answers online or discuss with one another.
Content Security
- Regularly Update Questions: Avoid recycling the same questions over various learner groups. It is important to regularly refresh the question bank so that each group of learner gets a new set of questions.
- Avoid Publicly-Available Answers: Avoid using questions and answers that readily accessible from the internet or online forums. Instead, tailor the questions to your specific company or industry.
It is essential to put measures in place that encourages honesty in the workplace, especially as business are becoming more and more reliant on digital training. By enforcing general best practices while leveraging on ArcLab’s features, companies will be able to create a learning environment for effective and genuine learning.