A culture of academic integrity at UBC Sauder is everyone’s responsibility – we all play a part. Here you will find information, resources, and links for faculty to learn more about academic integrity, understand its role, and learn what happens when it is breached. Included are strategies and tools that will help ensure student performance is authentic and reflects their own thoughts and work.
When we speak of academic integrity in relation to faculty, we are referring to strategies and tools that ensure student performance is accurate and reflective of their own work. Sound processes contribute to upholding the integrity of students, faculty, Sauder School of Business and its credentials, UBC, and the industries we serve.
Getting Started with Academic Integrity
This is your starting point for academic integrity: frequently asked questions and essential links for faculty members and students.
Learning with integrity requires knowing the expectations for academic integrity in your courses and ethically collaborating with your classmates when appropriate.
Understanding how the academic misconduct process works is vital for faculty and for students who may be impacted by an allegation or an investigation.
Exams are used as high-stakes summative assessments. There are a number of strategies and tools that are used for exams.
Canvas Exam Integrity Measures
Randomization: Randomizing the order of questions can prevent students from collaborating.
Single Question Display: Displaying questions one at a time can discourage students from taking screenshots, downloading, and printing entire exams for sharing elsewhere.
Question Banks: The use of question bank groupings of question types, where Canvas then selects individual questions for individual students, can prevent collaborations on exams.
Timer: Timed exams can ensure that students have enough time to recall responses, but enough time to look up answers or collaborate with each other.
Exam Design: Various exam designs can help prevent academic integrity issues in individual circumstances.
Question Types: Create the exam with question types designed for integrity. Instructors should be familiar with what kind of question types are available. Review the question types and how to answer them.
Lockdown Browser
Lockdown Browser is a web browser that “locks down” what students can do during a quiz in Canvas. When students use LockDown Browser to take a quiz, they will be unable to print or copy questions, visit other websites, access other applications, or close the quiz until it is submitted. Quizzes created for use with LockDown Browser cannot be accessed with standard browsers.
You can use LockDown Browser to help preserve academic integrity in Canvas quizzes and exams:
Restricting what students can do in their main browser (e.g., no printing, copying, accessing other websites)
Locking down in-person assessments, along with in-person invigilation
Locking down online assessments, along with web-conferencing invigilation
Sharing exam results and feedback with students in a locked-down environment
We do not recommend using LockDown Browser with Zoom. The tools were not designed to be used in coordination, and combining them can trigger challenging technical issues for a significant number of students. You can read more about our recommendation against using Zoom with LockDown Browser for invigilation for additional information.
Lockdown Browser does not work well with assessments that:
are open book
require students to upload file(s) or photo(s)
contain a lot of images – if an image breaks, there is no way for students to right-click to open the image in a new tab
require Excel and the use of formulas – Lockdown Browser’s version of Excel has limited capabilities
Turnitin is a plagiarism prevention tool that helps you check the originality of student writing. Turnitin generates a similarity score for each student, which can be used to assess how original their work is. You can also use Turnitin to provide marks and detailed feedback for each student and re-use common feedback across multiple student submissions. Students may use it to check their work to avoid accidental plagiarism before submission.
Sauder Learning Services has modified Turnitin software that turns each student’s response into a PDF. A folder containing all students’ PDFs will be provided to the instructor for uploading to Turnitin. In this way, instructors may use such a folder to check for submission similarities between students.
Learning Services will copy an Integrity Pledge into a course several days before the actual exam date (if not earlier). There is also a Tech Check course available for students to self-enroll. This tech check course is intended to:
Familiarize students with the “exam experience”
Help students identify any technical issues that may arise during their actual exam
Ask students to agree to the following integrity pledge:
Learning Services also adds a shorter integrity pledge to the beginning of each exam:
Instructors can use this Canvas announcement template to encourage students to self-enroll in the tech check course prior to the exam.
Before the Exam
Exam Preparation, Build, Configuration, and Access
To assist instructors in preparing for an exam, here are some resources to show them how to:
1. Prepare for an online exam
• Technical Checks — Instructors and students can self-enroll in the “UBC Sauder Exam Tech Check Course” to identify any technical problems prior to the exam. This course informs students on what to expect when writing a Canvas-based exam and includes an “Integrity Pledge and Tech Check” quiz that will mimic an exam’s settings and question types, ensuring that students become familiar with the experience.
• Exam Rooms— The Undergraduate Office will be facilitating the booking of exam rooms and hiring of Invigilators. Please email ugooperations@sauder.ubc.ca to begin the process.
2. Build the exam
Learning Services requires 10 business days of lead time to help an instructor build an exam. Requests may be made by emailing help@sauder.ubc.ca
If they would like to self-serve, here are some resources:
Want to hear from your colleagues on their tips + tricks for building online exams? Consider watching these faculty round-table webinars on designing online exams:
Question Banks can be used to randomize question orders. Instructors can also use them to pick from a pool of questions to create different versions of an exam for each student.
Respondus Quiz is a software that allows instructors to compile exam questions in a word document. These can be uploaded all at once directly into a Canvas quiz or question bank.
Using Respondus to upload multiple choice questions is much faster than doing it manually in Canvas!
Respondus also allows instructors to import publisher question banks. Instructors should contact the publisher directly if they would like to import publisher questions. More details are available on the Respondus below.
Convert a Canvas Quiz to a printable PDF for paper exams.
Even if the instructor is building their own exam, Learning Services will add an integrity pledge to the exam. Exam-saving reminders will also be added that guide students on how to check if their answers are saving in real time during the exam. In order for Learning Services to know when to add these components, contact help@sauder.ubc.ca to let us know that your exam is ready for them.
3. Configure the settings
The following Canvas quiz settings are recommended — Learning Services will review every exam and configure accordingly. If an instructor is taking care of their own exam, these might be helpful guidelines as well.
Include the term and date in the exam title (e.g. 2021W2 COMM 333 Final Exam – April 2, 2022).
Clarify in the instructions what students are and aren’t allowed to use in their exams.
Set the time limit as the exact exam time (i.e. a two-hour exam will be 120 minutes)
Do not check the boxes:
“Allow Multiple Attempts”
“Let Students See Their Quiz Responses (Incorrect Questions Will Be Marked in Student Feedback)”
Once the exam is published, ensure that its column in “Grades” is set to manual — this will ensure that students do not see their marks immediately upon submitting the exam.
4. Give students access to the exam
Upon publishing, a Canvas quiz is assigned to “Everyone” in the course by default.
Instructors can configure the exam to be assigned to different students at different times/dates — i.e. one section in the morning, the other section in the afternoon.
Set the “Available from” to be the exact time/date when the exam is scheduled to start.
Set the “Available until” time to be 1 hour after the exam is supposed to end. This gives Learning Services a “cushion” to extend student timers in case they run into any technical difficulties — please note that students will still be restricted to the time limit.
Use the +Add button to configure other sittings.
Once again, Learning Services is happy to review all of these settings as well!
Adjusting student attempts and time during an exam
Besides configuring the availability, instructors may also need to extend the time allowed per exam attempt or add an extra attempt.
The steps above must be done for CFA students as well, since they are allowed extra time. In addition, if you are using Lockdown Browser on your exam, the CFA have requested instructors to log into their account on the CFA Website and under additional information space for the CFA students, input the Proctor Exit code for the exam season. This is the code that the invigilators use to exit Lockdown Browser during an exam to troubleshoot technical issues. A member of the Learning Services team will reach out to disclose this proctor exit code for you to enter in the CFA website. Please include in the instructions that the code is forinvigilator-use only. This extra step is only applicable for Lock-Down browser exams.
Best Practices for Delivering Online Tests and Quizzes
Tips for Instructors
Offer a Practice Test:
Include the same question types that will be asked on a real exam.
Use similar settings to those that will be used on a real exam, e.g., timed tests vs. un-timed tests, multiple vs. single attempts, use of Lockdown Browser
Ensure the students complete the practice test as close to the exam date as possible so they have the most up-to-date software for the exam.
Send a follow-up email to all students who have not completed the practice test a day before the exam (this can be done through the Canvas Gradebook).
Use similar settings in quizzes that will be used in the midterm(s) or final so students are familiar and comfortable with the online exams and settings.
Request a review of the settings before the exam is published (help@sauder.ubc.ca).
Tips for Students
Before the exam, remind students to:
Verify they have a stable network connection before starting the exam. Get students to connect to UBCSecure (or UBCVisitor if UBCSecure is not working)
Set their phones and other WiFi-enabled devices to airplane mode to minimize load on the wireless network.
This module addresses how to plan, design and develop assessments in online courses. It also explores providing feedback online, involving students in the assessment process, rubrics, and how to encourage academic integrity in online assessments.
Reimagining Assessments – This is a Wiki page intended to be an open resource for instructors who need to move from traditional face-to-face assessment to online assessments. The resources explores opportunities, benefits and online challenges for several assessment types.
“This guide aims to provide an evidence-based background on the prevalence, benefits, challenges and importance of online student assessment in higher education. Outline strategies and recommendations from research and practice that can be used to mitigate challenges of assessing students online. Encourage instructors to thoughtfully design student assessments for use in online courses.”
If the instructor encounters any issues with Respondus, please email help@sauder.ubc.ca.
During the Exam
Once the exam is built and the logistics are prepared, students will be assigned to a classroom and required to bring their own device, usually their laptop, to write the exam. The instructor is expected to be on-site during the exam.
This video summarizes what instructors can expect during an exam.
In-Person Canvas Exam Support
Instructors must be in attendance during exams. Learning Services will provide live technical support.
Please note that Learning Services does not currently have the capacity to provide live support for take-home exams, assignments, or Centre for Accessibility students who are writing outside of the main exam sitting. Support for alternate exams is available if: • Exam is no longer than 3.5 hours • 10 or more students are writing the same exam • Exam is scheduled to begin and end between 8am and 10pm PST • Instructor is on-site
Please note that only 1 alternate exam per course will be supported.
1. What to Expect
30 minutes prior to the exam, all the invigilators and instructors will meet to go over the requirements of the invigilators, room assignments, how the exam is set up and the specifics of the in-person exam. Invigilators will then go to their assigned rooms. Approximately 15 mins prior to the exam, students will be let into the room to set up their devices and troubleshoot any technical issues prior to the exam start time. When the exam begins, the instructor or invigilator will release the password to the students in their classroom. Students will enter the password and begin to write. Invigilators will monitor the student screens.
At least one day before your exam, Learning Services will create an MS Teams chat with instructors and invigilators. This chat will be used as a communications back-channel to resolve any technical issues that arise during the exam as well as to clarify any exam policies. Instructors are expected to be available on MS Teams chat during the exam to make any high-level decisions.
Invigilators are responsible for monitoring academic integrity as well as performing basic technical troubleshooting for students, per their training. Any issues that invigilators are not able to resolve will be escalated to the Learning Services team.
If a technical issue is unresolvable, a floater invigilator will escort students to the backup computer lab booked for each exam.
An “Exam Bulletins” page will be set up in each Canvas course — this will be linked within the exam’s instructions for students to see.
If any exam-wide issues are detected — including typos, broken links, images not showing up, and more — Learning Services will be able to update this page in real-time to provide information to students.
This bulletins page opens in a new tab and works with Lockdown Browser-enabled exams as well. It is okay for students to have it open during the exam, and a pop-up banner will inform them if any changes are made.
If Learning Services is supporting an exam, the following text will be added into the instructions box of the exam.
Moderating an Exam
Learning Services will assist with moderation during supported lived exams, but the following information will be useful for instructors self-serving their exam as well.
Canvas features various tools in regards to moderating exams — these can be found in the “Moderate This Quiz” link on the quiz page.
Moderate this Quiz
Once a Canvas quiz is published, a “Moderate This Quiz” link will appear in the sidebar on the top-right of the quiz page. This page displays information about student submissions and exam progress — it is also where extra time and extra attempts can be added, as well as where student activity can be monitored.
Time can be added to any exam attempt in progress. If a student loses time troubleshooting a technical issue for example, this time can be given back — however, Learning Services does not typically do so unless 5 minutes or more is lost.
Once a Canvas quiz is submitted, it cannot be re-opened. With permission from the instructor, students can be given an extra attempt in scenarios involving accidental submissions, timers running out during troubleshooting, and more.
Student work from their first attempt will not be overwritten — however, their answers will not show up when they begin their second attempt. Usually, students are advised to simply continue where they left off. All attempts will be available to view and grade in SpeedGrader.
Student activity can be monitored through Canvas Quiz logs, which provide live time-stamped information regarding a student’s progress on the exam, including which questions they have read and answered. It’s important to note that while the logs provide a good overview of the student’s activity, they don’t show a perfect play-by-play of activity. Accurate logs are not available for Fill-in-Multiple-Blanks, Matching, Multiple Answers, and Multiple Dropdown questions.
The logs are also helpful in determining how much time a student actually lost while troubleshooting, since every instance of exiting and resuming the exam on Canvas is recorded as well.
SpeedGrader allows instructors to mark exams and enter grades directly within Canvas. However, it’s important to note that there can only be one person using SpeedGrader at a time — if multiple TA’s or instructors are marking simultaneously, grades and comments will not save properly.
If an exam question was configured incorrectly (i.e. wrong answer defined), Canvas is only able to regrade multiple choice, true / false, and multiple answer question types. Please email help@sauder.ubc.ca for assistance with regrading these question types.
By default, all exam grades should have been set to manual posting so students won’t be able to see any grades or comments until the instructor posts them in the Canvas gradebook.
A statistics dashboard is generated for every quiz on Canvas — once an exam is submitted, a “Quiz Statistics” link will appear in the sidebar on the top-right of the quiz page.
By clicking on the “Student Analysis” button, a CSV of every student’s responses can be exported for further analysis.
Plagiarism and Turnitin
For exams with essay questions, instructors are encouraged to check student responses for plagiarism through Turnitin. Instructors can contact help@sauder.ubc.ca for assistance with this.
Students often ask to see and review their exams after receiving their grades. To prevent exam questions from being too easily downloaded and distributed, Learning Services recommends that instructors set up an appointment with the student and share their screen rather than opening up the exam again.
The Canvas Calendar can be used to quickly set up time slots for students to sign up for.
Asking students to present their work to the class is a very effective, and often times authentic, way to assess students. Presentations can be conducted synchronously in class, asynchronously in the form of an assignment, or a combination (i.e. recorded presentation, synchronous question and answer period). In addition, presentations can be conducted offline or online, and individually or in groups.
Asynchronous presentations are a way for students to take the time to develop and record a presentation and submit it via Canvas.
Individual Asynchronous Presentations
Asynchronous individual presentations are a way for students to take time to develop and record a presentation and submit it via Canvas. Sauder Instructors are recommended to use My Media in Canvas.
Group Asynchronous Presentations
Asynchronous group presentations are a way for students to have time to work as a group outside of class to develop and record a presentation and submit it via Canvas. Sauder Instructors are recommended to advise students to use ZOOM and submit in Canvas.
Synchronous presentations are a way for students to practice their presentation skills and create interaction with the rest of the class. For online, students can present using ZOOM as individuals or in groups. Hosts can allow students to share screens, videos, and audio. Students can identify one student to share their screen and navigate the slides if working in groups.
Online Individual Synchronous Presentations
Synchronous individual presentations are a way for students to take time to develop and record a presentation and submit it via Canvas. Sauder Instructors are recommended to use My Media in Canvas. Here are some instructions for this (insert link here).
Online Group Synchronous Presentations
Synchronous group presentations are a way for students to develop their presentation skills as well as gather experience working with teammates. Instructions coming soon.
Student Facing Instructions- ZOOM Synchronous Group Presentations: Here are student-facing instructions for student group presentations within an instructor’s ZOOM course room where student groups are sent to instructors’ breakout rooms and record their presentations. Students are then shown how to access and upload their recorded video into the Canvas course Media Gallery. The instructions are for 1 video of all students presenting and this video will be available to all students to see when in Media Gallery.
NOTE: Instructors will need to give all students co-host roles in ZOOM before sending students to breakout rooms and enable a media gallery in their course before students upload to the media gallery.
Student Facing Instructions: Synchronous Group Presentations in ZOOM. Please email help@sauder.ubc.ca so we can copy these instructions into the Canvas course for release to students.
Group work is easy to facilitate and assess in Canvas. Additionally, a Canvas setting can be enabled to allow students to create their own study groups as well.
If you have in class group presentations planned, here is the approach we recommend:
Synchronous Groups Presentations:
Set up a meeting in ZOOM and name for each group. Ensure that you change the role of group members presenting from ‘Participant’ to ‘Co-Host’. This will allow them to share their screen or PowerPoint slides. The group members can join remotely and present to just the instructor or the whole class. The presentation can also be recorded to review later.
Asynchronous Groups Presentations:
For asynchronous group presentations involving students, we suggest using distinct Collaborate Ultra sessions for each group. Students in each group would be moderators with the ability to share slides, speak, control the room etc. When they are ready to present, they will record their session and it will become available for the instructor to access in Collaborate Ultra. For instructions on set up click HERE.
Group Evaluation
iPeer is a group peer review application where instructors can customize and receive students’ evaluations of one another. These anonymized evaluations can then be shared with the evaluated student or kept confidential between the evaluator and instructor.
