key: cord-0024334-yk5eteic authors: Karizaki, Vahid Mohammadpour title: Different approaches for reducing cheating in online assessments date: 2021-07-31 journal: J Med Imaging Radiat Sci DOI: 10.1016/j.jmir.2021.07.005 sha: cd354df54de97bb8b257141b2298c6aabc148eab doc_id: 24334 cord_uid: yk5eteic nan Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences 52 (2021) 650-651 www.elsevier.com/locate/jmir Letter to the Editor Different approaches for reducing cheating in online assessments Dear Editor, It was pleasing to read an interesting paper entitled "Evaluation of academic integrity of online open book assessments implemented in an undergraduate medical radiation science course during COVID-19 pandemic " that has been recently published in the Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences . This study is of great importance in that it provides insights about tight time restrictions for avoiding the cheating in the online assessments. As presented in the work, various strategies have been proposed for reducing the chance of cheating for students, such as using long questions and limiting the assessment time. I would like to add some comments on the issue considered by Ng [1] . It is hoped that the additional explanations about the cheating in the online assessments will help the other investigators for easier and more accurate interpretation of the related studies in the future. By starting the vaccination process against COVID-19, reopening of the universities, research centers, and educational institutions has been converted to an important item on the agenda of governments in different countries. Some researchers have recently investigated this crucial issue [2] [3] [4] . However, due to the creation of a strong framework for distance learning during COVID-19 period, on-site education seems to be continued in the post-lockdown phase. Therefore, avoiding the cheating through online open book assessments for providing the academic integrity will be remained as an important issue in the post-COVID era. On the basis of my experience and feedback of some students and educators regarding online learning in Quchan University of Technology over the last few semesters, three approaches (i.e., pre-assessment, during assessment, and postassessment) can be used for reducing or avoiding cheating in online courses. These approaches have been implemented through several units that contained the contents related to radiation science, such as advanced heat transfer in Master of Chemical Engineering. The first approach, namely pre-assessment, deals with decreasing the score portion of examinations (mid-semester, and end of semester) from overall evaluation. Assigning the half of total score to the take-home assignments, seminar, project, and online activities result in lower tendencies to cheat during online assessments. Obviously, these items should be carefully monitored for avoiding fraud throughout the semester. The second approach has to do with the using of unique exam for each student in order to reduce cheating during assessments. The unique and different questions are designed for examinations corresponding to the number of students. This strategy causes a lot of trouble for educators in evaluating the exams. Furthermore, the dissimilarity in type of questions usually leads to dissatisfaction among students. In a modified type of this approach, students are allowed to choose randomly or arbitrary several questions from a question bank. A lower dissatisfaction is predicted in this case among students, due to their right of discretion. The post-assessment as third approach is involved to the verification of students' knowledge and abilities after taking the exam. An abnormal pattern such as high exam score may be a sign of cheating. Investigation of reproducibility and verification of scores through a rechecking procedure such as online interview can be an appropriate approach for detecting fraud. Therefore, declaring and knowing that the rechecking process is a part of assessment, an inhibitory effect on the cheating behavior will be probably observed. Although several students have confirmed that these approaches may be considered as a beneficial trend for reducing cheating in the online assessments, more rigorous studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of each approach. Evaluation of academic integrity of online open book assessments implemented in an undergraduate medical radiation science course during COVID-19 pandemic Schools and COVID-19: Reopening Pandora's box? Public Health in Practice Impact of school reopening on pandemic spread: A case study using an agent-based model for COVID-19 Reopening Colleges and Universities During the COVID-19 Pandemic The author wishes to express his thanks to Dr. Majid Mahdavian for his valuable advice and encouragement. The Author has no conflict of interest to declare.