A Method for Cheating Indication in Unproctored On-Line Exams

COVID-19 has disrupted every field of life and education is not immune to it. Student learning and examinations moved on-line on a few weeks notice, which has created a large workload for academics to grade the assessments and manually detect students’ dishonesty. In this paper, we propose a method to automatically indicate cheating in unproctored on-line exams, when somebody else other than the legitimate student takes the exam. The method is based on the analysis of the student’s on-line traces, which are logged by distance education systems. We work with customized IP geolocation and other data to derive the student’s cheating risk score. We apply the method to approx. 3600 students in 22 courses, where the partial or final on-line exams were unproctored. The found cheating risk scores are presented along with examples of indicated cheatings. The method can be used to select students for knowledge re-validation, or to compare student cheating across courses, age groups, countries, and universities. We compared student cheating risk scores between four academic terms, including two terms of university closure due to COVID-19.

Academic Orientation as a Function of Moral Fit: The Role of Individualizing Morality

Researchers have studied academic orientation—students’ valuing of and commitment to education—as in part a function of a cultural fit between students’ cultural capital, competencies, identity, and the institutional culture of the education system. Recent research on students’ aspirations and commitment highlights the moral undertones of such cultural fit. Scholars have identified the perceived moral connotations of becoming “an educated person” and illustrated how students’ academic orientation may be intertwined with the unique moral culture of the education system. Neoinstitutional scholars have examined modern education systems’ emphasis on an individualizing type of moral culture, that is, an institutional moral culture emphasizing individual autonomy, rights, and achievement over traditional mores, knowledge, and social hierarchies. Scholars have yet to bridge these streams of research by examining the link between students’ personal moral culture and the institutional moral culture of education systems. In this study, we consider whether students whose moral orientation matches the individualizing moral culture of education systems are more academically oriented. We conceptualize this link as moral fit, and we use moral foundations theory to identify students’ personal moral culture. Analysis of a unique sample of students drawn from all secondary schools in Iceland (N = 10,525) shows (1) individualizing moral intuitions (those that emphasize the individual as the basic moral unit) are associated with a greater academic orientation, net of parental involvement, cultural capital, and other important controls, and (2) this association is only lightly moderated by differences in the school structure.

Engaging and Authentic Education Practices

This chapter is an argument for and celebration of lessons learned during the pandemic of 2020 toward the end of designing authentic and engaging learning experiences across education systems. In the forced shift to online and multimodal learning, educators and students experienced challenges of access, equity, and low engagement. However, there is an opportunity to extrapolate the lessons of 2020 for the betterment of education into the future. This chapter describes lessons pertaining to planning and collaboration, classroom environment, humanized online practices, as well as empowering pedagogy. The chapter concludes with three practical application examples for further thought and inspiration. The pandemic year can be one to survive and never think about again or, with the proper perspective, education's greatest learning moment.

ICT-Enhanced Instruction in COVID-19 Lockdown: A Conceptual Paper

Purpose: The general increase in popularity of information and communication technology (ICT) leads to its integration into the education systems worldwide. Nowadays, educational institutions uses relevant ICT tools to create, read, store, update, and communicate information as well as enrich educational management decisions. Furthermore, ICT serves as an important instrument for teaching and learning communications in educational system especially with the evolution of flipped classroom and blended learning to complimenting the normal classroom. This study is to identify the instructional role of ICT in the education system in the lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic globally. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study covers novel approaches in the use of ICT for instruction, its role in educational access and quality of education as well as learners’ academic achievement in the lockdown period for COVID-19 pandemic Findings/Result: The use of ICT in education systems and its integration in instructional services results in agile, effective, efficient, and flexible learning. The use of this technology enhances accessibility and quality of education in the COVID-19 lockdown period. ICT eliminates the traditional face-to-face instructions by creating virtual learning environment whereby educators and learners interact at their comforts in a seamless manner. Courses can be taken online at less cost far cheaper than the traditional physical learning environment. Also, ICT promotes learners’ motivation as well as enhances learners’ engagement in learning activities ultimately facilitates the shift to the desired learner-centred method. Therefore, when ICT is appropriately utilized in educational systems, it serves as an instrument for enhancing the quality of education and the general transformation of educational systems for enhanced students’ academic achievement. Originality/Value: A flexible and efficient interaction among educational stakeholders; educational administrators, parents, educators and learners is a critical factor for enhancing learners’ academic achievement in the COVID-19 lockdown. In conclusion, this study recommends further empirical studies on the impact of ICT on learners’ academic achievement during the COVID-19 lockdown. Paper Type: Conceptual Research.

The transformative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global higher education systems

The article deals with the long-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for higher educational institutions in different countries. The lack of information and verified data relative to the impact of the pandemic on changes in the education systems in different countries, the topic is still poorly learned, and therefore, it is difficult to predict what transformation processes will occur in the near future. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many challenges for higher education in terms of teaching, learning, research collaboration and institutional governance. At the same time, the pandemic has provided an excellent opportunity for various stakeholders to rethink and even reschedule higher education process with an effective risk management plan for future resilience. The crisis made it possible to reconsider the role of informational and communicational technologies (ICT) and analyze the effectiveness of online learning in higher education. The article attempts to systematize the information available in open sources and assess the impact of the pandemic on such aspects of higher education as problems connected with technical facilities provision, accessibility for different social groups, digitalization and international academic mobility. Methods of systemic and comparative analysis based on international research and online surveys were used. Recommendations are proposed for studying the impact of global politics and geopolitical factors on the future of international higher education.

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the book’s central claim: that in a free and open society, higher education ought to be a right. It argues that prevailing anxiety about the distributive unfairness of higher education systems shifts needed attention away from a serious consideration of this possibility. However, that chapter also shows how justifying higher education as a right faces conceptual challenges, as well. First, arguments that set out to establish the importance of higher education often end up looking more like an argument in favour of what should be offered to all citizens on a compulsory basis. Second, arguments that set out to establish the general value of a higher education can end up making paternalistic conclusions about what is in citizens’ best interests. Meeting these two challenges, argues the author, can point the way toward a better understanding of why liberal societies should treat higher education as a right as opposed to a mere privilege.