Unproctored exams have been increasingly adopted by universities globally to assess students’ learning and prevent cheating. Different forms of honor code reminders have been implemented with such exams, but no empirical research has directly compared their effectiveness in promoting academic honesty. To bridge this significant gap and inform educational practices for promoting optimal learning, we examined cheating among university students taking an unproctored exam in two field studies. Both studies used a double-blind randomized controlled design. Prior to the exam, students were provided with no reminders of academic integrity policies (most common in unproctored exams) or reminders of policies, actual cases of cheating, or negative consequences of cheating. Reminding students about academic integrity policies, actual cases of academic cheating, and the negative consequences of cheating led to significantly less cheating than providing students with no reminders. The present findings suggest that although university students may have been informed about academic integrity policies upon entry and have experienced unproctored exams, they need a brief reminder to ensure honesty just before taking them. Our findings also illustrate the importance of conducting well-controlled behavioral research that evaluates, in the field, the effectiveness of commonly implemented educational practices to ascertain that they indeed serve their designed pedagogical purposes to promote learning optimally.

全球大学越来越多地采用无人监考考试来评估学生的学习情况并防止作弊。此类考试中已经实施了不同形式的荣誉准则提醒，但没有实证研究直接比较它们在促进学术诚实方面的有效性。为了弥补这一巨大差距并为促进最佳学习的教育实践提供信息，我们在两项实地研究中调查了参加无人监考考试的大学生的作弊情况。这两项研究均采用双盲随机对照设计。在考试之前，学生不会收到有关学术诚信政策的提醒（在无人监考的考试中最常见）或有关政策、作弊的实际案例或作弊的负面后果的提醒。提醒学生学术诚信政策，学术作弊的实际案例，以及作弊带来的负面后果导致作弊现象比不给学生提供提醒的情况要少得多。目前的调查结果表明，尽管大学生在入学时可能已了解学术诚信政策并经历过无人监考的考试，但他们在参加考试之前需要简短的提醒以确保诚实。我们的研究结果还说明了进行良好控制的行为研究的重要性，该研究在现场评估普遍实施的教育实践的有效性，以确定它们确实服务于其设计的教学目的，以最佳地促进学习。目前的调查结果表明，尽管大学生在入学时可能已了解学术诚信政策并经历过无人监考的考试，但他们在参加考试之前需要简短的提醒以确保诚实。我们的研究结果还说明了进行良好控制的行为研究的重要性，该研究在现场评估普遍实施的教育实践的有效性，以确定它们确实服务于其设计的教学目的，以最佳地促进学习。目前的调查结果表明，尽管大学生在入学时可能已了解学术诚信政策并经历过无人监考的考试，但他们在参加考试之前需要简短的提醒以确保诚实。我们的研究结果还说明了进行良好控制的行为研究的重要性，该研究在现场评估普遍实施的教育实践的有效性，以确定它们确实服务于其设计的教学目的，以最佳地促进学习。