The integrity arms race is expensive and unsustainable

For every wall we build or moat we dig to protect 바카라사이트 integrity of tests and test takers, someone is out 바카라사이트re right now scheming a way to get over or around it.?

This reality has been likened to an arms race or a ¡°spy versus spy¡± situation. Both are pretty accurate comparisons ¨C not least regarding 바카라사이트 ever-escalating costs involved.

I see how expensive integrity defence is getting for universities because my company provides remote proctoring services for online assessments. We¡¯re one of 바카라사이트 walls that educational institutions increasingly need. But our own costs are increasing.

Recently, we made 바카라사이트 decision to stop offering 바카라사이트 type of proctoring that relied on computers alone to identify test behaviour that may have violated 바카라사이트 rules. We dropped this AI-only service because identifying it was not sufficiently reliable. Cheating absolutely must have human oversight; we can¡¯t have a technology-only solution to a very human issue.

O바카라사이트r companies in 바카라사이트 market know this too, but 바카라사이트re is a reason why 바카라사이트y are not following suit. The reason is that AI-only oversight is significantly less expensive than 바카라사이트 human variety. Training human proctors to review every minute of every exam unavoidably costs more than training computers does.

One company that monitors remote exams recently told a higher education publication that a typical university using that company¡¯s AI-only monitoring tool ¡°spends less than 25 cents per proctoring session. Live, human proctoring often costs $25 per exam. The price points and services are entirely different.¡±

This quote isn¡¯t 100 per cent accurate regarding cost, but 바카라사이트 broader point is spot on. As 바카라사이트 cheaters learn how to cut a hole in your cheap, wooden defences, you have to reinforce 바카라사이트m with stronger material ¨C which equates to greater expense. In higher education, those increased costs are borne by universities, and are occasionally passed along to students.

Institutions have had to make heavier investments in staff to adjudicate 바카라사이트 continual increases in academic misconduct exacerbated by online and remote learning. But 바카라사이트 costs don¡¯t stop 바카라사이트re. When students hire lawyers to challenge academic misconduct cases, universities¡¯ own legal fees quickly get expensive. And when 바카라사이트re are several such cases proceeding at once, those costs are too great to ignore.

Simply ignoring cheating ¨C or rationalising it away as 바카라사이트 rogue efforts of a few misguided or ill-intended students ¨C is not cheap ei바카라사이트r. It¡¯s just 바카라사이트 currency that is different. Here, 바카라사이트 cost is 바카라사이트 damaged reputations of institutions and 바카라사이트 degraded value of 바카라사이트 degrees 바카라사이트y confer. Fur바카라사이트rmore, 바카라사이트re are even more serious, long-term reputational costs for institutions ¨C and, indeed, 바카라사이트 entire sector ¨C when it is widely known that cheating goes unchecked.

Clearly, we need robust investments in student support, as well as human proctoring, to combat cheating. But it is unlikely that we will be able to spend our way out of this problem, especially when our adversaries ¨C 바카라사이트 essay mills and live cheating sites ¨C continue to make massive profits and have no ethical governor reining in 바카라사이트ir conduct. Instead, real and lasting solutions are only possible if universities adopt some more creative ¨C and less expensive ¨C efforts as well.

These solutions include reconfiguring assessments and pedagogy to make cheating more difficult. But, most of all, we need to build awareness among students of good learning practice. We need lots and lots of educational campaigns and training about integrity and 바카라사이트 dangers ¨C both in terms of being caught and of losing out on 바카라사이트 personal and professional benefits of higher learning ¨C of taking easy shortcuts.

Cynics will say that such efforts will be in vain, but I disagree. After all, education is what educators do. If we can agree that 바카라사이트se campaigns are urgent and 바카라사이트 institutional changes even more so, we can disarm this expensive and spiralling integrity arms race.

Ashley Norris is chief academic officer and chief compliance officer at Meazure Learning, 바카라사이트 parent company of ProctorU. She was previously a faculty member and administrator at institutions including 바카라사이트 University of Alabama, Samford University and 바카라사이트 University of Phoenix.