In-class Exams Research Articles

Using ChatGPT in Teaching Computer Programming and Studying its Impact on Students Performance

Given the recent emergence of artificial intelligence as an important topic that can contribute to improve curricula and lecture delivery, an increasing number of scholars are investigating its impact in various educational fields. The ChatGPT, which is an artificial intelligence model developed by OpenAI, represents a significant advancement in the generative artificial intelligence area. Since its announcement, integrating the ChatGPT into computer programming curricula - and into other scientific curricula - has yielded some challenges. The main challenge is clearly evident in the conduct of in-class tests and in-lab assignments, where the students are given specific tasks to be accomplished within a certain time frame. As they might seek help from ChatGPT, these types of assessments could be considered a potential threat to academic integrity and may be viewed as a form of academic dishonesty. This study aims at integrating ChatGPT into computer programming curricula, exploring its potential to enhance undergraduate education. It follows a mixed methods approach to examine the potential integration of ChatGPT in teaching computer programming as a supplementary tool. A quasi-experimental design is followed, in which an experimental group is allowed to use ChatGPT and compared to a control group that was not. A research sample of 26 undergraduate students (13 males, 13 females) from the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University participated in the study. The methodology encompassed three research instruments: in-class exams, in-lab assignments, and semi-structured interviews. These research instruments were utilized to assess the impact of ChatGPT on students' academic performance, which served as both independent (use of ChatGPT) and dependent (student performance) variables. The quantitative analysis revealed a significant enhancement in students' performance, while the qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews indicated that participants view ChatGPT as a valuable support for learning. Feedback from participants suggested combining ChatGPT with traditional teaching methods to optimize learning outcomes. This study highlights the feasibility and educational benefits of incorporating AI tools like ChatGPT into teaching methodologies. It suggests that such integration can provide a more engaging and effective learning environment, potentially revolutionizing computer programming education. This paper supports e-learning practice by integrating AI-driven tools like ChatGPT into the educational framework and advances the e-learning area by demonstrating these technologies' potential to improve student academic performance in the learning environments. However, the study also acknowledges the need for further research to explore the long-term effects of AI integration in educational settings and to address any emerging challenges. These findings propose a promising direction for future curricular enhancements and suggest an effective method for the integration of AI technologies to support and enrich traditional educational frameworks.

A Robust Examination of Cheating on Unproctored Online Exams

The rapid growth of online education, especially since the pandemic, is presenting educators with numerous challenges. Chief among these is concern about academic dishonesty, especially on unproctored online exams. Students cheating on exams is not a new phenomenon. The topic has been discussed and debated within institutions of higher learning, and significant levels of cheating have been reported in the academic literature for over sixty years. Much of this literature, however, has focused on student behavior in a classroom utilizing proctored, in-class exams. Grades on exams usually determine most of a student’s final grade in a course, and GPAs are used by employers and graduate schools to indicate a student’s subject matter mastery. As more conventional colleges and universities expand their online course offerings it is natural to wonder if academic dishonesty is more prevalent in online classes than in face-to-face classes. In particular, are students more likely to cheat when no one is watching (i.e., on unproctored assessment assignments) than they do when someone is watching (i.e., on proctored assessment assignments)? The purpose of this study is to investigate whether students cheat more on unproctored online exams than they do on proctored in-classroom exams, and if so, is there any pattern to their cheating behavior. Our findings are derived from careful empirical analysis of 741 undergraduate students who completed three unproctored online exams, several collaboration-encouraged assignments, and a proctored in-class comprehensive final exam in the same course with the same instructor. Additionally, we collected demographic and human capital data for every student. Using bivariate and regression analysis, we find significant evidence of more cheating on unproctored online exams than on proctored in-class exams even though students were given stern honor code violation warnings. Moreover, we discover that student cheating increased with each unproctored online exam, implying that students learn how to cheat as they become more familiar with taking online assessment assignments. Finally, we find that students with certain demographic and human capital characteristics tend to cheat more than others. This research strongly supports the use of proctoring for all evaluation assignments in online classes to ensure that grades in these classes properly reflect student aptitude as opposed to merely reflecting their ability to cheat.

Low-Performing Students Confidently Overpredict Their Grade Performance throughout the Semester.

When asked to predict how they will perform on an upcoming exam, students are often poorly calibrated, typically in the direction of overpredicting their performance. Research shows that low-performing students' calibration tends to remain poor across multiple tests over the course of a semester. We tested whether these students remain confident in these erroneously high grade predictions across the semester or whether their confidence wanes, suggesting some degree of metacognitive awareness. In two studies, students made grade predictions prior to taking four in-class exams and then rated their level of confidence in their predictions. Results from both studies showed that miscalibration and confidence remained stable across tests, suggesting that low-performing students continued to believe that they would perform well on upcoming exams despite prior evidence to the contrary.

Educational Videos Versus Question Banks: Maximizing Medical Student Performance on the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 Exam.

Objective The aim of this research was to determine if medical students' use of the active study strategy of working practice questions is associated with improved performance on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 examwhen compared to students who used the passive study strategy of watching educational videos. Methods The study used a correlational design. Participants were students from two cohorts in a United States medical school (N=164 and N=163) who completed their first two years and took the USMLEStep 1 exam. Data collected retrospectively included the number of practice questions completed, educational videos watched, Step 1 exam scores, average scores on in-class exams, and scores on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). Results The number of videos watched was negatively and significantly correlated with the Step 1 score for cohort 2022 (r= -0.294, α=0.01) and cohort 2023 (r= -0.175, α=0.05). The number of practice questions worked was positively and significantly correlated with the Step 1 score for cohort 2022 (r=0.176, α=0.05) and cohort 2023 (r=0.143 though not significant). The number of practice questions was a significant positive predictorof Step 1 score for cohort 2022 (β=0.141, p=0.017) and cohort 2023 (β=0.133, p=0.015). Videos were significant negative predictors for cohort 2023 (β= -0.118, p=0.034). Conclusions Answering practice questions appears to be a more effective study method than passively watching videos. Though other studies have supported the use of active learning methods, this study is unique in finding a negative correlation between test scores and the number of educational videos watched. Medical students should be urged to make the most effective use of study time by incorporating working practice questions and limiting watching educational videos.

Student-Created Physics Problems as an Independent and Equitable Assessment Tool

Traditional high-stakes summative assessments—timed, in-class exams accounting for a large percentage of the term’s overall grade—have often received criticism from the educational community. Such assessments tend to prize a particular “narrow bundle of skills,” and have been shown in some contexts to produce disparate outcomes between different demographic groups. Alternative low-stakes assessments (assignments with significantly less impact on the overall grade) have shown potential to improve student engagement and close demographic gaps. At the same time, principles from physics education research suggest to us that students may benefit from the challenge of writing their own physics problems. Conjoining these ideas, we document an assignment (“The Problem Project”) in which students were asked to create and solve a problem of their own design, as an alternative form of assessment, and provide exploratory research into its equity impacts.

COVID-19 as a trigger of persistent innovations: Evidence from an economics elective at Claremont McKenna College

The COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary for instructors to innovate, and some of the innovations will persist and be refined post-pandemic. An economics elective at Claremont McKenna College provides examples. Innovations likely to persist include replacing in-class exams with context-rich assignments and conducting a set of student presentations and an initial Q&A using recordings posted online. Both innovations advance the learning objectives, and they also free up class time, which permits additional innovations.

A straightforward graphical/statistical approach to help substantiate cheating on multiple-choice examinations.

Academic dishonesty is prevalent in universities in the form of cheating on examinations, with the problem being much greater in classes that have a large number of students that require close seating arrangements for in-class exams. The scenario described below was experienced during an in-class exam that included the possibility of an Honor Code violation between two students that was observed independently by three different faculty proctors. Herein we detail an objective, statistical approach taken to maintain exam and academic integrity that is compelling and transparent to students and the University Honor Council. Using the established error-similarity analysis for multiple-choice exams, it was determined that the number of identical incorrect answers found on the exams of the two individuals in question was sufficiently greater than the number expected by chance (probability of P < 0.00001). The number of total identical incorrect answers found on the remaining exams (across 65 students, n = 89 comparisons) was plotted as function of the number of total incorrect answers found on these exams (incorrect answers ranged from 1 to 22) and clearly supported that there was an Honor Code violation between the two students in question. The techniques used herein established, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a form of cheating had occurred between these students. However, caution must be taken as further investigation is requisite to establish whether the Honor Code violation was unidirectional (one student copying off the other) or bidirectional (collusion between the two students) in nature.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Academic dishonesty is prevalent in universities, especially on examinations with a large number of students in close seating arrangements. Cheating on a multiple-choice exam was suspected by observations from proctors of the examination. Application of error-similarity analysis associated with identical incorrect answers demonstrated that the probability of cheating was confirmed (P < 0.00001) between two examinees. Further comparisons with the remaining exams provided graphic evidence that a violation of the University's Honor Code had occurred.

Evaluating the efficacy of different types of in-class exams

In this research project, students were asked to compare their experiences of two types of exams in an undergraduate economics course with closed-book exams. The first type of exam had a timed group discussion session followed by individual work while the second type had a conventional open-book format. We find that a vast majority of students prefer our new assessment methods, but the group discussion session received mixed reviews. Post-exam feedback on exam preparation methods vindicates our hypothesis that closed-book exams may not encourage deeper learning and are not always an effective means of assessing students’ knowledge and skills. Group discussions are valued by students to brainstorm ideas, clarify questions, and formulate arguments. However, allowing discussion just before a written exam is disruptive to students who want a serene atmosphere to gather and organise their thoughts.

Hybrid Versus Face-to-Face: Evidence From Introductory Corporate Finance Classes

This study examines whether there is a difference in student performance between hybrid and face-to-face introductory corporate finance classes. The ordinary least squares regression model is employed to analyze a sample of 194 students at a four-year state university in the Appalachian region. The results show that students who receive in-class lectures and take online exams in hybrid classes perform better than those who take in-class exams in face-to-face classes, but is not statistically significant. The implication is that instructors for face-to-face classes can consider substituting in-class exams with online exams because neither do online exams change the rigor of the course nor harm student performance. The results also show that student’s major is a significant determinant of student performance.

“Exams by You”: Having Students Write and Complete Their Own Exams During the COVID-19 Pandemic

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to proctor exams after the forced transition to remote teaching and learning.ObjectiveWe evaluated students’ experiences creating and answering their own exam items in an upper-level psychology course during the transition to remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodStudents in an advanced social psychology course wrote and answered exam items to demonstrate their learning when proctored exams became impossible during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exams were graded for breadth, depth, and accuracy, and compared to other demonstrations of learning, including traditional in-class exams taken prior to the transition to remote teaching and learning.ResultsStudents performed well on these exams. Students reported positive perceptions of these exams during the COVID-19 pandemic, but reported that, while these exams reduced test anxiety, they were time-intensive.ConclusionStudents can demonstrate their learning by writing and completing their own exams. Their higher grades may be related to reduced test anxiety and greater time investments.Teaching ImplicationsInstructors should consider having students write and complete their own exams to demonstrate their learning, especially when proctoring exams is difficult or impossible.

Investigating the Electronic Examinations’ Quality from Faculty Members’ and Students’ Experiences and Perspective

The current qualitative and quantitative study methods intend to investigate the quality of electronic examinations and the obstacles of changing the examinations’ process from the participants’ experiences and perspectives. The study generates feedback to enhance the adoption and improvement of the e. examination process. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, electronic exams help much during the education interruption. The study employed two tools to answer the study’scentraln question: “To what extent did teachers and students reflect on the quality of electronic examinations’ criteria? They Were distributed among (n=165) undergraduates and (n=24) faculty members during 2020/2021. Findings from the e. questionnaire’s SPSS and interview’s content analyses indicated that most participants were satisfied with the e. exams’ flexibility, ease of use, clarity, fairness in grading, and feasibility in time, efforts, and money. Concerning challenges, few undergraduates complained about the Network problems, e. cheating, and the number of attempts to answer e. exams. Few faculty members have complained that some questions require different preparation methods, e. exams increase students’ scores without much effort. On the other hand, it opened the door for malpractices. To conclude, the results revealed that E. examinations are of high quality; they were responsible for undergraduates’ high performance, saved effort and time more than the in-class exams. The study recommends future research exploring families, especially parents, about their experience with kids regarding the quality of online examinations during the COVID- 19 pandemic. Moreover, research is needed to address how teachers deal with the validity and reliability of the electronic exams

How to Teach Online? Recommendations for the assessment of online exams with University students in the USA in times of pandemic

We evaluated 350 US University Business Students, comparing in-class and online exams to see differences in type of student and class and evaluating possible cheating impact. After basic statistical analysis (T-Student and correlations), we found that differences in grades related to type of students and type of class are more significant that those associated to online with in-class exams. Results are aligned with literature. In accordance with the results of this and previous studies, we do not expect significant higher level of cheating in online exams versus traditional in-class exams. We justify this based upon the reality, broadly reflected in the literature, that cheating is already quite present, before the coronavirus pandemic Many countries have 50%-85% of University students reporting cheating at least once. Cheating is not an specific online problem. Teaching online brings new challenges and opportunities. We recommend to re-evaluate pedagogical methods and engage more in continuous evaluations, relaying less in exams. Code of Conducts, the use of cheating detection algorithms, data analytics from the online Learning Management Systems for assessment and cheating checking programs available (Turnitin and others) to review online exams is recommended. We should help students understand the importance of learning over grades. Also faculty should online teaching faster be at the same level than students in technology and digital capabilities; the closer we are with our students the more effective we can assess them and, more important, we can contribute more and better to their learning and education.

Evaluating students with online testing modules in engineering economics: A comparision of student performance with online testing and with traditional assessments

Engineering economics courses often require students to take time-constrained, in-class exams in which they solve problems by hand, possibly referring to interest rate tables. Many students rely on partial credit to successfully pass exams. Outside of the classroom, professionals rely on computers to solve engineering economics problems, which raises the question of whether engineering economics courses are correctly assessing student performance. This article describes the study of a large engineering economics class using a non-conventional testing method. Student performance was evaluated using online testing modules with a stringent passing criterion, and the tests could be taken multiple times. The questions for each testing attempt were pulled from a database so that students received a new question every time. We compare the performance of students who were assessed using traditional methods with the performance of students assessed with these online testing modules. Our analysis shows that, overall, students who were assessed using the online testing modules earned better grades than students who were assessed via traditional methods. The analysis also discusses several benefits and drawbacks to using online assessments compared with traditional methods. The online assessment method could be useful in large engineering courses that are formula-based.

Page 2: Happiness for Sale

Page 2Happiness for Sale Jeffrey R. Di Leo (bio) Alain “It is not difficult to be unhappy or discontented,” wrote the philosopher Émile Chartier. “All you have to do is sit down, like a prince waiting to be amused,” he continues. “This attitude of lying in wait and weighing happiness as if it were a commodity casts the gray shadow of boredom over everything.” Chartier was a French philosopher who died in 1951 at the age of eighty-three. He spent his entire professional career teaching philosophy in secondary schools. Though his star has dimmed over the years, while he was alive, he was considered by the French as the most important philosopher since René Descartes. His pupils included Raymond Aron, Simone de Beauvoir, Georges Canguilhem, André Maurois, Maurice Schuman, and Simone Weil. He has also been called the greatest teacher of their generation. “The key to [Chartier’s] teaching,” writes John Hellman in Simone Weil (1982), “was his determination to instill critical habits of mind in his students.” “He believed,” continues Hellman, “that students did not truly ‘acquire’ ideas until they had digested them and re-expressed them in their own words.” Rather than in-class exams, he thus preferred to assign “‘topos,’ or take-home essay examinations, to his students which forced them to formulate their own (not ‘correct’) answers to knotty questions.” To be sure, Chartier’s pedagogical prowess was as legendary as some of his pupils. Still, the work of his closest contemporary, Henri Bergson, is much more highly regarded today than that of Chartier. Part of the reason is the ephemeral nature of the majority of his writing. That is, while he published numerous books on philosophical topics, he was best known in France through the thousands of articles he published in various daily newspapers. Beginning in 1903, he started to publish these philosophical articles under the pseudonym “Alain,” a name he took from the fifteenth-century Norman poet, Alain Chartier. At first Alain’s articles were longer weekly columns and then in 1906 they became daily short articles. The shorter articles were published as a daily column entitled Propos d’un Normand. From 1906 until the start of the Great War in 1914, Alain wrote a two page article every evening. Then, after the war—which he fought in as a soldier even though he was exempt from service and could have served as an officer—he resumed the practice of writing propos. All said and done, Alain produced nearly 5,000 of these little articles. Turning philosophy into literature or journalism can be difficult for philosophers. Writing for a philosophical audience is very different than writing for a literary or general one. Certain assumptions that are made when writing for a philosophical audience cannot be made for a general audience. As such, the list of philosophers of note who successfully wrote for a general audience is a short one. Alain was able to bridge this gap through the technique he used to write his little articles. Every evening he would sit down with two sheets of paper in front of him. He then started to write his propos knowing that its last line would be at the bottom of the second page. He also committed himself to making no corrections, erasures, or changes. This allowed him to meet his publication deadline (all pieces were published the next day) and write only that which was directly relevant to the topic of the propos. The result were thousands of 50 to 60 line aphoristic compositions. In 1928, ninety-three of Alain’s propos dealing with theme of happiness (bonheur) were published as Propos sur le bonheur, which became a best-selling book. The lines above are from the penultimate propos in this collection entitled “The Obligation to be Happy.” It is dated March 16, 1923, and was entitled as to leave no doubt as to his position on happiness. It was a position steeped in practical wisdom tempered with an endless bounty of cheerfulness and cheeky irony. Alain encouraged people to not complain or burden others with their problems. Rather, even when the chips are down, he encouraged his readers to present a happy...

Student and professor use of publisher test banks and implications for fair play

This study examines whether student access to publisher test banks (PTBs) impairs the ability of PTB multiple-choice questions to distinguish between students who understand the material being tested and those who do not. We develop and validate a detection technique that can be used to detect students who use PTBs to memorize question-specific cues and correct answers. Results indicate that a significant number of students (48 percent) use PTBs and that use results in a performance advantage (approximately 30 percent) on exams. Results indicate that student use of PTBs may significantly impair the ability of a professor, who uses PTBs to create in-class exams, to distinguish between students who understand the material and students who do not understand the material. Results serve to inform professors who were either unaware of student access to PTBs, or who were unaware of the extent with which student access to PTBs can impair fair play in the classroom. We discuss the pedagogical implications that arise from our findings and provide some insight about how fair play may be restored in the short- and long-run.

Four semesters investigating frequency of testing, the testing effect, and transfer of training.

We carried out 4 semester-long studies of student performance in a college research methods course (total N = 588). Two sections of it were taught each semester with systematic and controlled differences between them. Key manipulations were repeated (with some variation) across the 4 terms, allowing assessment of replicability of effects. Variables studied included frequency of tests (e.g., 2 vs. 8 in-class exams), the repetition of some and not other exam items (i.e., the testing effect), and variation of test items between the in-class exams and the final exam (e.g., identical items vs. controlled changes in items). Some studies also manipulated presence or absence of low-stakes quizzes. The repetition of test items generally led to better performance. However, we did not observe consistent superiority for items that were repeated exactly over those that were repeated in modified form; the reverse was more often the case. The effect of the low-stakes quizzes was minimal at best. Results are discussed in terms of memory and transfer of training models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Student performance on a knowledge-based exam may predict student ability to communicate effectively with a standardized patient during an objective structured clinical examination

BackgroundThe purpose of this article is to describe the extent that student performance on in-class exams in a drug information course is associated with student performance on medication counseling in a high-stakes assessment using standardized patients (SP). MethodsStudents completed two traditional knowledge-based exams during a drug information and communication course. The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) was the final exam for the course. The OSCE consisted of the student counseling an SP on the use of a medication. A counseling rubric was developed for use in a second-year (P2) OSCE based on the Indian Health Services counseling model and social cognitive theory. Multiple linear regression was used to examine if traditional exams and student admission characteristics were associated with student performance on the OSCE. Results: A total of 78 P2 students took the in-class exams and the OSCE. Students with higher scores on the second in-class traditional, knowledge-based exam had significantly higher scores on the OSCE. ConclusionA traditional knowledge-based exam on pharmacist-patient communication was associated with students’ actual counseling performance on an OSCE. Faculty may be able to use exam scores to target students at high risk of doing poorly on a medication counseling OSCE.

Crib sheets and exam performance in a data structures course

In this paper, we study the relationship between the use of “crib sheets” or “cheat sheets” and performance on in-class exams. Our extensive survey of the existing literature shows that it is not decisive on the questions of when or whether crib sheets actually help students to either perform better on an exam or better learn the material. We report on our own detailed analysis for a body of crib sheets created for the final exam in a junior-level Data Structures and Algorithms course. We wanted to determine whether there is any feature of the crib sheets that correlates to good exam scores. Exam performance was compared against a number of potential indicators for quality in a crib sheet. We have found that students performed significantly better on questions at the comprehension level of Bloom’s taxonomy when their crib sheet contained good information on the topic, while performance on questions at higher levels of the taxonomy did not show correlation to crib sheet contents. We have also seen that students at certain levels of performance on the final exam (specifically, medium-to-high performance) did relatively better on certain questions than other students at that performance level when they had good coverage of that question’s topic on their crib sheet.

Contrasting Traditional In-Class Exams with Frequent Online Testing

Although there are clear practical benefits to using online exams compared to in-class exams (e.g., reduced cost, increased scalability, flexible scheduling), the results of previous studies provide mixed evidence for the effectiveness of online testing. This uncertainty may discourage instructors from using online testing. To further investigate the effectiveness of online exams in a naturalistic situation, we compared student learning outcomes associated with traditional in-class exams compared to frequent online exams. Online exams were administered more frequently in an attempt to mitigate potential negative effects associated with open-book testing. All students completed in-class and online exams with order of testing condition (in-class first, or online first) counterbalanced between students. We found no difference in long-term retention for material that had originally been tested using frequent online or traditional in-class exams and no difference in self-reported study time. Overall, our results suggest that frequent online assessments do not harm student learning in comparison to traditional in-class exams and may impart positive subjective outcomes for students.

The flipped classroom stimulates greater learning and is a modern 21st century approach to teaching today's undergraduates.

Many classrooms in higher education still rely on a transformative approach to teaching where students attend lectures and earn course grades through examination. In the modern age, traditional lectures are argued by some as obsolete and do not address the learning needs of today’s students. An emerging pedagogical approach is the concept of the flipped classroom. The flipped classroom can simply be described as students viewing asynchronous video lectures on their own and then engaging in active learning during scheduled class times. In this study, we examined the flipped classroom teaching environment on student learning gains in an Introduction to Equine Science course. Students (n = 130) were asked to view 7.5 h of recorded lectures divided into 8 learning modules, take online quizzes to enforce lecture viewing, take 3 in-class exams, and prepare to participate in active learning during scheduled class times. Active learning approaches included individual activities, paired activities, informal small groups, and large group activities. When compared to students in the traditional lecture format in earlier years, students in the flipped format scored higher on all 3 exams (P < 0.05), with both formats taught by the same instructor. Analysis of ACT scores demonstrated no intellectual capacity differences between the student populations. To evaluate any gains in critical thinking, flipped format students were asked to take the Cornell Critical Thinking Exam (version X). Scores improved from the pretest (50.8 ± 0.57) to the posttest (54.4 ± 0.58; P < 0.01). In the flipped course, no correlations were found with student performance and interactions with online content. Students were asked in class to evaluate their experiences based on a 5-point Likert scale: 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The flipped classroom was ranked as an enjoyable learning experience with a mean of 4.4 ± 0.10, while students responded positively to other pointed questions. In formal course evaluations, flipped format students ranked the following higher (P < 0.05): instructor availability to assist students; encouragement of independent, creative, and critical thinking; and amount learned. Overall, the flipped classroom proved to be a positive learning experience for students. As the classroom continues to modernize, pedagogical approaches such as the flipped classroom should be considered for many lecture-style courses taught in the animal sciences.