THE INTEGRITY OF ONLINE EXAMS DURING CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019 (COVID 19)

Elsie Henderson
Jeff McKinnon
Mount Saint Vincent University

ABSTRACT
The Spring 2020 Covid 19 lockdown resulted in many post-secondary institutions moving
exams to an online, un-proctored environment leading to increased academic cheating concerns.
This study examines whether cheating on an un-proctored exam significantly impacted students’
grades. This study also compares the online un-proctored final to the proctored midterm results by
student and then overall. Results for students who accessed materials during the exam and
students for which there was no evidence of accessing documents were also analyzed.
Overall, there was a significant difference between the midterm grades and the final
exam grades. However, there was no significant difference on the final exam between those who
cheated by viewing documents online during the exam and those who did not, lending support to
the validity and reliability of online exams. Even though cheating did not pay off for students, it is
evident that academic integrity remains a concern.
Keywords: Cheating, academic integrity, online exams, un-proctored, proctored, validity, reliability