Asynchronous assessments have benefits (e.g. flexibility, time conflicts, etc.) but are vulnerable to collaborative cheating. An appropriate assessment design can help reduce concerns associated with asynchronous assessments.
Asynchronous exams are prone to collaborative cheating, even when proctored. This study compared proctored asynchronous and synchronous exam performance of 351 students in an upper-division computer science course at the University of Illinois. Results indicate that students gained an advantage (3%) in asynchronous exams but such advantage was reduced through question randomization techniques regardless of question type.
Students have score advantages on asynchronous exams, most likely due to collaborative cheating.
Question type (i.e., multiple choice, check box, etc.) has less impact on score advantages compared to whether or not the question is randomized.