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A new study  has uncovered surprising insights into how different exam formats impact student cheating.

The research was conducted through a collaboration between the University of Toronto and Hangzhou Normal University in China – lead by Dr. Li Zhao from Hangzhou Normal University and Professor Kang Lee at the �鶹��ý from the University of Toronto.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, researchers found that unproctored exams — exams taken without direct supervision — are actually more effective in reducing cheating than traditional teacher-proctored exams. These findings suggest that universities might benefit from adopting unproctored exams and emphasizing trust-based approaches to reduce academic dishonesty while maintaining assessment validity.

“These findings are really eye-opening,” said Dr. Lee. “We found that trusting students to behave ethically, without supervision, led to better outcomes in reducing cheating. It shows that cultivating an environment of trust might be more effective than relying on traditional methods of direct supervision.”

The team conducted four rigorous preregistered field studies involving over 700 second-year university students, using a double-blind, randomized, controlled experimental design to ensure the validity and reliability of their findings. Unlike previous studies that relied on self-reported data, which can be biased, this research directly measured students' cheating behavior in real-world exam settings.

This approach allowed the researchers to capture actual cheating behaviour, providing a more accurate and objective assessment of how different exam formats influence academic dishonesty.

Participants were randomly assigned to take either unproctored or teacher-proctored exams, with or without academic integrity reminders. The researchers found that students cheated significantly less under unproctored conditions than proctored ones. Specifically, the cheating rate in unproctored exams was found to be as low as 7.9 per cent, compared to 22.7 per cent in proctored exams. Similar patterns emerged across all four studies, consistently showing lower cheating rates in unproctored settings.

Dr. Li Zhao, a professor at Hangzhou Normal University and lead author of the study, emphasized the implications for academic institutions worldwide.

“This study shows that we might need to rethink our reliance on strict proctoring as the main way to prevent cheating. By fostering trust and reminding students about academic integrity, universities can promote a more honest academic culture,” Dr. Zhao explained.

Additionally, say the researchers, when academic integrity reminders were provided before the exams, cheating rates dropped even further in both formats, highlighting the effectiveness of fostering an environment of trust and ethical awareness.