Online tests: court: chat exchange allowed during exam or not?

online tests
Court: Chat exchange allowed during exam or not?

During online exams, it seems tempting to quickly chat with other people via mobile phone chat. photo

© picture alliance / dpa

Don’t get caught cheating on exams. Does that also apply to the online world?

If students exchange ideas intensively in a chat group during an online exam, they can be exmatriculated for cheating. That was decided by the administrative court in Berlin, as announced on Friday. According to the court, it is not important whether the exchange was actually helpful and provided the right answers.

The lawsuit filed by a student in the “Public Administration” bachelor’s degree course, who had been exmatriculated because of the “particular seriousness of the deception”, was unsuccessful. The judgment is final (Az. VG 12 K 52/2).

According to the court, the student wrote an online exam in July 2021. After they were corrected, the lecturer and examiner were given screenshots of a chat history in which numerous test participants – including the plaintiff – exchanged ideas.

The university initiated an examination procedure against group members on suspicion of cheating. This ended with exmatriculation. Rightly so, according to the judges. After a large number of deceptions occurred during online exams, the university was allowed to choose a sanction with a deterrent effect.

dpa

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