Mitigation of Cheating in Online Exams: Strengths and Limitations of Biometric Authentication

Abstract

E-exams have different cheating opportunities and mitigations than paper exams, and remote exams also have different cheating risks that on-site exams. It is important to understand these differences in risk and possible mitigations against them. Authenticating the candidate may be a bigger challenge for remote exams, and biometric authentication has emerged as a key solution. This chapter delivers a categorization of different types of high-stakes assessments, different ways of cheating, and what types of cheating are most relevant for what types of assessments. It further presents an analysis of which threats biometric authentication can be effective against and what types of threats biometric authentication is less effective against. Insecure aspects of various biometric authentication approaches also indicate that biometric authentication and surveillance should be combined with other types of approaches (e.g., how questions are asked, timing of the exam) to mitigate cheating.