Collusion, rackets, and plagiarism in assessments

Recently, due to the global pandemic, some higher education institutions moved from formal closed-book examinations to emergency virtual assessments (EVAs). These EVAs normally comprised open-book, remote, short time-frame assessments. Most institutions are moving back to formal examinations as effects from the pandemic reduce, but some institutions have created a “new normal” regarding assessments and have opted to remain with open-book, remote, non-invigilated assessments. With these enforced changes, the mathematical sciences assessment setter is tasked with creating assessments which are resistant to collusion, plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice. Here we discuss some recent examples of issues encountered in the assessment of science and engineering topics without formal invigilated examinations.