4 min read
With any new technology that emerges in the school community or a larger learning environment, cheating can quickly become a concern. Pronto, however, does not condone cheating in any form. Ultimately, cheating decreases the overall integrity of the lesson and makes it more difficult for students to actually learn the content presented to them. Because of our commitment to academic integrity, we have several built-in features that assist in improving the overall learning environment while decreasing the risks of cheating.
Pronto is Designed for Communication and Collaboration
In many cases, collaboration is a cornerstone of effective learning. By collaborating with one another, students can frequently increase their understanding of unfamiliar concepts or improve their ability to handle complicated scenarios. It also helps connect them to their professors, which can make it easier for them to get the answers to any challenges they may face in the classroom. Those communications are not designed to facilitate cheating, but rather to improve student learning and give them more opportunities to connect with professors and peers.
Pronto Integrates with Your Existing Learning Management Systems
Many college and university classrooms are already using learning management systems to make it easier to push out virtual tests and quizzes or to provide virtual lessons to students. Pronto is designed to integrate directly with those systems, including commonly-used Blackboard and Canvas. These integrations not only ensure that you can effortlessly use Pronto alongside the systems you’re already using, but they also allow you to turn off communications within Pronto or even disable access to it while students are testing.
During tests and quizzes, students won’t be able to access one another. While they can remain connected at any other time, they can’t just jump on Pronto and ask each other for answers while they’re taking a test. You can also disable Pronto so that students cannot use it to access other information while they’re testing, including handouts or past communications with one another or with their instructors.
Conversely, if you do want students to collaborate for a specific assignment, you can leave Pronto up and running, which may make it easier for them to get access to one another or the information they need.
Pronto Messages Can Be Reviewed by a Teacher or Admin
Sometimes, a teacher or admin may want to go back over the information shared in Pronto, including how students choose to collaborate. When it comes to preventing cheating and promoting integrity, this offers one key advantage: you can easily see what information students have shared and ensure that they aren’t using Pronto to communicate inappropriately. As a teacher or administrator, there are several things you may want to check on to determine how your students are using Pronto and how that use could impact their future academics.
Look over communications to see what information they share.
Are students using Pronto to communicate about challenges they might be having, or are they sharing direct answers to questions? While working together to come up with answers can be incredibly helpful for many students, simply sharing the answers to homework assignments might be less useful. Likewise, sharing sources that could help students learn more about the concept is useful, while sharing sources that offer direct answers might prevent students from developing a firm grasp of the material.
Check communications following a test or quiz.
Despite your best intentions, you might fail to disable Pronto while students are taking a test or quiz, either in the classroom or virtually. Sometimes, you might simply forget. Other times, you might decide to leave it up and running for another purpose, including looping in students who can’t be in the classroom. After the test or quiz is over, however, you can go back and review messages sent between students to ensure that no student has shared answers to the test or quiz questions or that students stayed off of Pronto while taking the test or quiz.
Make sure students don’t share information with others taking your class.
Some students may need to take a test or quiz at a different time, either due to an emergency or because of different testing times for specific needs or different sections of your class. By reviewing those messages, you can take a look and ensure that students didn’t share test or quiz content ahead of time.
Managing student integrity when it comes to academics can prove challenging. With Pronto, however, you can more easily monitor how students use the platform and determine whether they are avoiding academic dishonesty. Want to learn more about our platform and how it can help prevent cheating? Contact us today for a free demonstration.