Assuring Academic Integrity of Online Testing in Fundamentals of Accounting Courses

Demand for online courses continues to grow. To remain competitive, higher education institutions must accede to this demand while ensuring that academic rigor and integrity are maintained.  The authors teach introductory Fundamentals of Financial and Managerial Accounting courses online. Previousl...

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Main Authors: Elizabeth Mulig, Stephanie Metts
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Online Learning Consortium 2024-03-01
Series:Online Learning
Subjects:
Online Access:https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/3706
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author Elizabeth Mulig
Stephanie Metts
author_facet Elizabeth Mulig
Stephanie Metts
author_sort Elizabeth Mulig
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description Demand for online courses continues to grow. To remain competitive, higher education institutions must accede to this demand while ensuring that academic rigor and integrity are maintained.  The authors teach introductory Fundamentals of Financial and Managerial Accounting courses online. Previously, there was no proctoring of the exams.  Prior experience teaching these courses led the professors to suspect a high likelihood that academic integrity on these tests was low and that cheating was high.  To address academic integrity concerns, the professors utilized a remote proctoring service employing a lockdown browser with screen and webcam monitoring.  The program monitors the students remotely, recording sound, video and the information appearing on the students’ screens.  The videos are reviewed for detectable instances of breach of academic integrity prior to releasing the grades. Data was collected and analyzed for the average exam scores prior to and after the implementation of the remote proctoring software. The data analysis reveals a significant difference in the two sets of scores, with the average exam scores after the implementation of the remote proctoring being significantly lower than the ones before implementation.  These results indicate that concern about academic integrity in online test taking in the accounting curriculum is valid. 
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spelling doaj.art-f9f5960ac7004191a958d23073205fff2024-03-07T13:40:46ZengOnline Learning ConsortiumOnline Learning2472-57492472-57302024-03-0128110.24059/olj.v28i1.3706Assuring Academic Integrity of Online Testing in Fundamentals of Accounting CoursesElizabeth Mulig0Stephanie Metts1Southeastern Oklahoma State UniversitySoutheastern Oklahoma State University Demand for online courses continues to grow. To remain competitive, higher education institutions must accede to this demand while ensuring that academic rigor and integrity are maintained.  The authors teach introductory Fundamentals of Financial and Managerial Accounting courses online. Previously, there was no proctoring of the exams.  Prior experience teaching these courses led the professors to suspect a high likelihood that academic integrity on these tests was low and that cheating was high.  To address academic integrity concerns, the professors utilized a remote proctoring service employing a lockdown browser with screen and webcam monitoring.  The program monitors the students remotely, recording sound, video and the information appearing on the students’ screens.  The videos are reviewed for detectable instances of breach of academic integrity prior to releasing the grades. Data was collected and analyzed for the average exam scores prior to and after the implementation of the remote proctoring software. The data analysis reveals a significant difference in the two sets of scores, with the average exam scores after the implementation of the remote proctoring being significantly lower than the ones before implementation.  These results indicate that concern about academic integrity in online test taking in the accounting curriculum is valid.  https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/3706Academic IntegrityOnline Learning
spellingShingle Elizabeth Mulig
Stephanie Metts
Assuring Academic Integrity of Online Testing in Fundamentals of Accounting Courses
Online Learning
Academic Integrity
Online Learning
title Assuring Academic Integrity of Online Testing in Fundamentals of Accounting Courses
title_full Assuring Academic Integrity of Online Testing in Fundamentals of Accounting Courses
title_fullStr Assuring Academic Integrity of Online Testing in Fundamentals of Accounting Courses
title_full_unstemmed Assuring Academic Integrity of Online Testing in Fundamentals of Accounting Courses
title_short Assuring Academic Integrity of Online Testing in Fundamentals of Accounting Courses
title_sort assuring academic integrity of online testing in fundamentals of accounting courses
topic Academic Integrity
Online Learning
url https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/3706
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