Authenticating Online Students
We had a meeting recently of our college's Online Issues Workgroup to discuss the Higher Education Opportunity Act language that requires authenticating online students. It states that accrediting organizations, like Middle States, must require that institutions offering distance education have processes to establish that the student who registers in a distance education course is the same student who participates in and completes the program and receives the academic credit.
Last summer, I wrote briefly about a WCET briefing paper that considered this issue. The HEOA requires changes that appear to be costly and complex for online programs. The people who run those programs are somewhat fearful and definitely confused. The part that seems to get the most attention focuses on academic integrity and student authentication.
It is not a new concern. It is one that teachers have expressed for years. How do you know that the person at the distant keyboard is the registered student? Maybe someone else is taking the test. Maybe someone else is taking the entire course.
Of course, in a traditional class setting, you don't always know that the paper submitted was written by the student who submitted it. Depending on the testing conditions, you might not even know that the student sitting there taking the exam is the registered student.
What the HEOA actually says is:
The current practices in place at most colleges and universities usually require secure student login credentials, possibly proctored testing for online students and institutional policies concerning student use of network resources and academic honesty. And, for right now, nothing else is probably required. The concern is that there is also an expectation in the HEOA that as technologies get better and more affordable that institutions will take greater steps to insure who is taking your online course.
That expectation is leading schools to explore software/hardware solutions (like Acxiom, Kryterion & SoftwareSecure) that provide authentication using video, fingerprinting, and verification questions (similar to those used by financial institutions to verify your identity before allowing access to information). To some of us, those solutions seem overly expensive and technically overwhelming for students.
No one is quite sure what is expected now and what will be expected in the future. Most of us are monitoring what our accrediting agency (or agencies) might say about the HEOA. For now, institutions should focus on policies, best practices and course design strategies that promote academic integrity in their online courses now. There is a draft document from WCET that is a good starting place for discussions on your campus.
More
http://www.chea.org/ia/IA_2008.10.30.html
http://www.nmc.org/nmctab/authenticating-students
Last summer, I wrote briefly about a WCET briefing paper that considered this issue. The HEOA requires changes that appear to be costly and complex for online programs. The people who run those programs are somewhat fearful and definitely confused. The part that seems to get the most attention focuses on academic integrity and student authentication.
It is not a new concern. It is one that teachers have expressed for years. How do you know that the person at the distant keyboard is the registered student? Maybe someone else is taking the test. Maybe someone else is taking the entire course.
Of course, in a traditional class setting, you don't always know that the paper submitted was written by the student who submitted it. Depending on the testing conditions, you might not even know that the student sitting there taking the exam is the registered student.
What the HEOA actually says is:
"...the agency or association requires an institution that offers distance education or correspondence education to have processes through which the institution establishes that the student who registers in a distance education or correspondence education course or program is the same student who participates in and completes the program and receives the academic credit."You can access the full text of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 at ed.gov
The current practices in place at most colleges and universities usually require secure student login credentials, possibly proctored testing for online students and institutional policies concerning student use of network resources and academic honesty. And, for right now, nothing else is probably required. The concern is that there is also an expectation in the HEOA that as technologies get better and more affordable that institutions will take greater steps to insure who is taking your online course.
That expectation is leading schools to explore software/hardware solutions (like Acxiom, Kryterion & SoftwareSecure) that provide authentication using video, fingerprinting, and verification questions (similar to those used by financial institutions to verify your identity before allowing access to information). To some of us, those solutions seem overly expensive and technically overwhelming for students.
No one is quite sure what is expected now and what will be expected in the future. Most of us are monitoring what our accrediting agency (or agencies) might say about the HEOA. For now, institutions should focus on policies, best practices and course design strategies that promote academic integrity in their online courses now. There is a draft document from WCET that is a good starting place for discussions on your campus.
More
http://www.chea.org/ia/IA_2008.10.30.html
http://www.nmc.org/nmctab/authenticating-students
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