U of R believes videotaped exams helped curb cheating

With final exams complete and the spring semester over, the University of Regina is thinking about continuing its videotaped final exams pilot project.

Back in April, it was announced all large examination rooms would be videotaped for future use if there was speculation of academic dishonesty.

“We believe in some cases it has reduced the number of detected incidents of academic misconduct from the December to April exam (period),” Thomas Chase, Academic Provost for the U of R said. “We need a longer data series to say definitively that the presence of the cameras helped us reduce the detected academic misconduct.”

Chase said there were plenty of other steps taken over and above the cameras in the final exam rooms.

He said they also trained instructors to look for cheating, had commissionaires stationed outside of the room to keep an eye out for traffic going back and forth from the bathrooms.

As for the future of taped exams at the U of R, Chase said there’s still work to be done.

“We have to look at it over several years to see whether those detected incidents of academic misconduct are in decline or on the rise … we (also) need a longer data series  to say definitively that the presence of the camera’s helped us reduce the detected academic misconduct.”

Chase expects the topic will be brought up at their next executive council meeting sometime in late June.