Learning assessment must change in a world of digital “cheats”

Abstract

Digital disruption has touched almost every industry and sector imaginable including the education sector. One disruption in the education sector comes from the rise and acceptance of distance and online education, including massively open online courses (MOOCs), and the technological changes associated with course delivery and student interaction. Moreover, the rapid changes in digital technology have also led to the new breed of “cheats” who use the same digital technology causing disruption to cheat the system for better results. This paper looks at the evolution of cheating and suggests that the solutions may require a fundamental shift in how institutions conduct learning assessment in business education. Specifi cally, we posit that cheating is a function of two main factors: motivation and opportunities. While the motivation factor has not changed much by the digital advances, the opportunities for cheating have skyrocketed in this digital era, and it is this latter factor that warrants heightened attention. The paper, therefore, examines how digital technology has impacted the traditional assessment tools and how assessment can be modifi ed in a digital world to ensure that students are achieving programme- learning goals.