Changes are in store for faculty and students who use inQsit testing labs.
David Pearson, assistant professor of physical education, said University Senate decided to make changes in inQsit labs to make students feel more comfortable. The changes will go into effect at the beginning of Spring Semester.
The decision to change the rules came after a university survey of faculty and students, which revealed many of them perceived that students cheat in the inQsit labs, Pearson said
"It wasn't a majority, but it was a high enough amount that thought cheating happened," Pearson said. "It made students uncomfortable in the labs and made faculty not want to use them."
There have been few documented cases of cheating in the labs, Pearson said, but the University Senate decided that the perception of cheating was reason enough for some of the changes.
One of the changes dealing with cheating has already been implemented - the addition of a student academic dishonesty awareness box, which informs students of the university's policies on cheating, he said.
The other major issue that the senate taskforce headed by Pearson wanted to address was the duties of the student monitors.
"[Student monitors] were being asked to do certain things even a professor wouldn't want to do," he said. "There were over 700 different sets of instructions sent by the faculty last year, we thought this was just a nightmare."
Professors could leave detailed instructions for students, complicating their job, he said. Some professors would ask unrealistic things of monitors, like checking a student's textbook before and after the test, he said.
Pearson said several of the implementations reflect the desire to lessen the monitors' responsibilities. Professors will only be allowed to dictate what resources a student can use on their test, he said. Professors can allow students any combination of a calculator, a textbook or notes, he said.
Also, professors will be asked to denote the test, either with the use of resources or without them, Pearson said. The testing labs will be divided into two sections, one with resources, one without, he said.
Pearson said that dividing the room serves another purpose.
The taskforce thought students might see other students using their books or calculators, and they might have thought they were cheating, when in reality they were allowed to use those resources, Pearson said. Partitioning the room will remedy that problem, he said.
For security reasons, cameras have already been added, something, Pearson said, that has needed to happen for some time. Pearson's senate taskforce also wants to let faculty know that inQsit has far more uses than sending students to the lab.
"Eventually, we want professors to be able to hold a test in their departmental computer labs," he said. "[With open book tests] you could even have a test at home."
Junior elementary education major Rebecca Newlin said she welcomes the changes, though she didn't see how it was possible to cheat under the current policies.
"We're all adults, we should know what to do," she said. "We know what's right and wrong."
The enactment will mark the first time that the labs have had a university backed, faculty driven set of rules, he said.
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