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Online academic exams: Does multiplicity of exam versions mitigate cheating?

Author

Listed:
  • Klijn, Flip
  • Alaoui, Mehdi Mdaghri
  • Vorsatz, Marc

Abstract

We study academic integrity in a final exam of a game theory course with 463 undergraduate students at a major Spanish university. The exam is an unproctored online multiple-choice exam without backtracking. A key characteristic is that for each (type of) problem, groups of students receive different versions. Moreover, each problem version is assigned to one subgroup during one stage of the exam and to another subgroup during an immediately consecutive later stage. Thus, we can exploit grade points and timestamps to study students’ academic integrity. We observe a significant decrease in completion time at each later stage; however, surprisingly, there is no corresponding impact on average grade points. The precise number of different versions does not seem to have an effect on either variable. Our findings thus suggest that employing a limited number of distinct problem versions (as few as two) can diminish cheating effectiveness in online exams.

Suggested Citation

  • Klijn, Flip & Alaoui, Mehdi Mdaghri & Vorsatz, Marc, 2025. "Online academic exams: Does multiplicity of exam versions mitigate cheating?," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ireced:v:48:y:2025:i:c:s1477388024000239
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iree.2024.100305
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Field experiment; Academic integrity; Online exam; Multiple versions; Completion time;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A22 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Undergraduate
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D9 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

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