Khan et al.

International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-021-00079-5
International Journal for
Educational Integrity

ORIGINAL ARTICLE Open Access

‘e’-thinking teaching and assessment to

uphold academic integrity: lessons learned
from emergency distance learning
Zeenath Reza Khan1* , Shivadas Sivasubramaniam2, Pranit Anand3 and Ajrina Hysaj4

* Correspondence: ZeenathKhan@
uowdubai.ac.ae Abstract
1
Faculty of Engineering and
Information Sciences University of Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on many day-to-day activities but one of the
Wollongong in Dubai, PO Box biggest collateral impacts was felt by the education sector. The nature and the
20183, Dubai, UAE complexity of higher education is such that no matter how prepared we are as
Full list of author information is
available at the end of the article faculty, how planned our teaching and assessments, faculty are all too aware of the
adjustments that have to be made to course plans, assessments designed, content
delivery strategies and so on once classes begin. Faculties find themselves changing,
modifying and deviating from original plans to ensure accessibility and inclusiveness,
this may be due to a variety of reasons such as student abilities, behaviour,
disturbances and even outside factors that may be political, environmental, social
etc. Majority of the time, faculty are prepared for the change that needs to be
incorporated and are quick to adjust. However, no one expected the disruption to
education that was caused by COVID19 pandemic. The world came to a standstill
while schools and universities scrambled to push learning to the digital space. It was
important to try to ensure continuity of learning for students, but the issue of
integrity came to the forefront by summertime. Faculties were suddenly expected to
restructure their lessons, delivery, teaching and assessing digitally, at the same time
ensuring and upholding integrity of the concepts taught and assessed. This has
neither been easy or straightforward because the situation was unprecedented with
little or no prior documentation or guidelines to help. Recognising this gap, this
paper is an attempt at providing exploratory findings from authors’ experiences in
their respective institutions over the ensuing months. The paper attempts to record
the changes made by the faculty and colleagues to lessons and assessments with
particular focus on how technology has been used to help restructure classes, deliver
lessons and assess students which have aided in minimizing the likelihood of
students cheating. The paper further narrates the reflective changes that were made
in response to experience, student/external examiners feedback etc.
Keywords: Assessment design, Redesign, Technology, Smart education, Academic
integrity, Pandemic

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Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 2 of 27

Introduction
Continuing education for students was one of the top most priorities for a large portion
of countries when COVID19 peaked in March–April 2020. With over 1.6 billion stu-
dents out of classrooms due to lock down measures by governments, many countries
scrambled to move the learning and assessments online to help continue education for
the students (UNESCO, 2020). This became known as emergency distance learning, a
treatment rather than a strategy in response to the pandemic taking over.
Many educational institutions struggled with the move to online platforms, such as
lack of training, lack of resources, lack of funds, lack of buy-in from staff and students
to name a few. By the end of the term, it was obvious that COVID19 was not going
anywhere and institutions now had to think about assessments, particularly end of
year/term assessments. Amidst the chaos of lockdowns, saving lives and keeping mini-
mum necessity functions going, governments also faced backlash from student bodies
when online proctoring software became prevalent across schools and universities.
Finding a balance between positive learning and upholding academic integrity became
a tug of war.
This paper uses experiential research method (Grant et al., 2001) to reflect authors’
experiences and shared conversations on the topic of integrity during the pandemic; at-
tempts to identify some barriers to maintaining integrity and through experiences ex-
plores the various technological interventions to teaching, learning and assessing
introduced or continued in their classes and how they may have helped minimize stu-
dents’ likelihood to commit misconduct during the pandemic’s emergency distance
learning.
This paper has been arranged as follows: the paper looks at assessment design and its
role on teaching and learning; it then provides a brief overview of technology in educa-
tion, and its role in upholding integrity. The paper then proposes a methodology
followed by results, shared analysis and discussion, and conclusion.

Assessment design and its role in teaching and learning and upholding integrity
Studies have shown that assessment design cannot completely eradicate the prob-
lem of academic misconduct, such as plagiarism however, there is enough evidence
to suggest that some types of assessments are harder for students to plagiarise, and
then certain assessment designs may actively discourage plagiarism and other acts
of misconduct through engagement and a focus on learning rather that the final
grade (Ellis, et al., 2020; Jansen & Nicole, 2017). These types of assessments
emphasize “learning for skills application” rather than “learning for knowledge
reproduction”. Pedagogical approaches have recognized active learning as a focal
point for achieving high levels of student’ satisfaction and respectively increased
levels of faculty professional satisfaction. Students’ academic satisfaction with the
process of learning is interconnected with the faculty satisfaction with the process
of teaching. As educators, we design curriculums aiming at the achievement of
common goals of teaching and learning. However, we are all quite aware of the ne-
cessity to consider students’ perspectives on learning alongside the demands im-
posed by the learning outcomes and relationship between general subjects or
subjects of different disciplines (Phillips, 2005).
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 3 of 27

Students’ active learning has been considered a crucial element in encouraging stu-
dents to be more honest and has been analysed for the last two decades (Walker, 2003;
Settles and Craven, 2008; Roehl et al., 2013 and McConnell et al., 2017). Active learning
is seen as a well-suited solution to many challenges related to development of critical
thinking, participation in group work and most importantly to the designing of authen-
tic assessments that aim for creation and submission of reliable and a high standard
work from students individually, in pairs or in groups. According to Settles and Craven
(2008) and Hysaj et al. (2018) higher education utilizes multiple corpora that aim cre-
ation and utilization of novel procedures to demonstrate and analyze strategies of de-
velopment of active learning; while addressing the importance of critical thinking and
recognizing the limitations of the learning outcomes, curriculum design or the assess-
ment tasks.
Development of critical thinking is not only crucial in higher education but it is es-
sential in all aspects of life. Assessment tasks generally evaluate critical thinking when
addressing the variety of solutions provided by students, as well their logicality and the
coherence of writing (Şendağ and Odabaşı, 2009; Sharov et al., 2019; Hysaj and
Hamam, 2020). Educators in higher education facilitate the process of developing crit-
ical thinking through problem-solution assessment tasks, group work assessment tasks
(Gleason et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2020) that improve students’ cultural knowledge, as well
as through lectures and tutorials that challenge students understanding of given topics
through addressing possible bias (Lombard and Grosser, 2008). Although educators
commonly aim at the presence and the disposition of students to think critically, the
latter may consider this as an added challenge, hence aiming instead to merely
complete assessment tasks without any meticulous consideration of all the aspects of
design and completion (Walker, 2003). Therefore, enabling students’ development and
demonstration of students’ critical thinking requires inclusiveness of the same in the
lectures, tutorials, case studies, debates and assessment tasks.
Students may at times feel intimidated by the lack of critical thinking or the applica-
tion of it when working in groups or attending lectures. Therefore, it could prove to be
very encouraging to involve them in the process of searching for information through
assigned tasks that require investigation of solutions and approaches (Park and Lee,
2017), to help them become confident in their own work and abilities, rather than look
for support elsewhere .

Technology in teaching, learning and assessing and its role in upholding integrity
Sir Isaac Pitman mailed postcards with texts transcribed into shorthand as part of his
attempt to teach shorthand to his students in 1840 (Bates, 2016). Distance learning or
correspondence courses have always been popular and gained momentum with the ad-
vent of the Internet and online learning.
Using technology in classrooms for teaching and assessing has been making its pres-
ence felt for decades, not just helping teachers to blend their delivery but also ways to
assess them and going beyond to even provide complete virtual experiences.
From the first Logo program by Seymour Papert to Apple’s computers sweeping
classrooms in the mid-1980s, technological evolution has changed the way we educate
and assess students (Christensen, 2019). In the next decade, the Internet mushroomed
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 4 of 27

connectivity globally with email communications, videos, images, text being shared
freely. Prior to the lock down due to COVID19 pandemic and forced remote learning
strategies implemented by universities and schools everywhere, educational technolo-
gies had already become popular. Digital citizenship skills, innovations and communi-
cation skills online were buzz words being used in professional teacher training to help
prepare students for the fourth industrial revolution. Even United Nations’ 17 Sustain-
able Development Goals acknowledged the role of technology in a number of key areas,
not just as a standalone goal #17 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, but as a key
cog in helping to achieve all 17 goals, including goal #4 Quality Education (United
Nations, 2020).
Artificial intelligence, Big data, Internet of Things or Augmented Reality, Virtual
Reality and others - all cutting-edge technologies have been put to use in the education sec-
tor to enhance quality of education or make it more inclusive and accessible (Leiberman,
2018). Many theories have been formulated and put forward that encourage incorporating
technology in teaching and assessing such as engagement theory, disturb learning theory,
cognition, constructivism and many more that are meant to help “enhance and change stu-
dents’ behaviour towards positive learning” (Clarkesite, 2016).
From learning management systems to proctoring and text-matching software, to ac-
tivity tools and gamification platforms, technology has been supporting education for
decades. Educational technology has been adopted within higher education because of
its various affordances that align well with contemporary theories of learning such as
social constructivism (Jonassen & Rohrer-Murphy, 1999). As stated by Roberts (2008)
in the last decade, the incorporation (or the use) of technology in HE is mainly
dependent on competition (amongst providers), student demand. Covid-19 has resulted
in an environment that provides a third dimension which is the necessity. Unfortu-
nately, technology is also frequently associated with academic dishonesty, particularly
due to its pervasive characteristics and connectedness (Khan and Subramanian, 2012).
Academic misconduct is not a new problem (be it plagiarism, cheating in exams, get-
ting someone else to do the work and so on). Bowers (1964) to McCabe (2001) and
more recently McCabe et al. (2017) all self-reported cases ranging from 65% - 75% of
students admitting to engaging in some form of misconduct. So it would seem that al-
though technology makes it easier for students to copy and paste or contract cheat, it
hasn’t had a considerable impact on the actual cases of misconduct over the years. In
fact, Khan (2014) extensively showed the impact of using technology and how it helped
more than hindered learning and upholding integrity among students. Technology in
education is seen as an impetus that drives learning through the integration of multidi-
mensional proficiencies, which encourage the development of transversal and transfer-
able skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking and collaborative behavior (Gane
et al., 2018). Therefore, it becomes necessary to utilize technology in our tutorials and
lectures to foster active learning and apply the same when designing assessment tasks.
The knowledge enabled through the use of technology can represent a variety of forms
of knowledge and foster an appropriate level of competency that goes beyond rote
learning and equips students with the skills required presently and in the future. Ac-
cording to Bearman et al. (2016), factors that require a careful consideration when de-
signing assessment tasks are of contextual, individual and institutional nature, and the
reconciliation and alignment of different thoughts that these factors enforce can be
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 5 of 27

facilitated through the use of technology. Coupled with good assessment design, tech-
nology can help enhance student learning and reduce or minimize the likelihood of stu-
dents cheating (Fang, 2012; Khan, 2014).

Research objective
Although there are a variety of factors that influence a student’s propensity to cheat,
this study explores how assessment design, redesign and inclusion of relevant technol-
ogy can help to develop a culture of integrity and engagement. Particularly during the
pandemic when schools and institutions tried to shift learning, teaching and assessing
online, it is of utmost importance to learn from practical experiences to understand
what practices yielded desired results. This research proposes to use experiential re-
search methodology to document such experiences and develop an understanding.

Methodology (reflection of our own and peer approaches)

This qualitative, exploratory study was based on informal mini interviews conducted
through collegiate discussions and upon reflection of the authors’ own experiences as
academics/external examiners (EE) who ensure the quality of assessment and grading
in different higher education organisations in the UK, Australia and UAE.
We chose to use experiences and reflections as a method of inquiry for this study be-
cause reflections can help us to observe and be participants at the same time (Fook,
2011), enabling us to research and explore narratives of changes (Morley, 2014) made
in the manner in which we structured our lessons and assessments in response to the
pandemic. Reflection is most often thought of as a teaching and learning tool that helps
professional learning (Schon, 1983; Coulson and Harvey, 2013; Nelson Laird et al.,
2014). However, reflection has in fact been used as a research method to explore pro-
cesses and experiences that can identify patterns in behaviour, thoughts, practices
(Schon, 1983; Harvey et al., 2017). Bilous et al. (2018) have posited that reflection can
be a valuable research method for developing curricula and for participatory research.
The discussions for this study involved academics from law, business, computing,
biomedical science/medical sciences, and sociology. The discussions were based on:

(a) different assessments modalities (such as exams, short answer questions, course
work etc) that are usually designed and employed in each institutions,
(b) the sudden impacts of employing “no detriment policies” in grading system to
maintain fairness
(c) the effects of Covid-19 pandemic on the effectiveness of these assessment
strategies,
(d) individual experiences of redesigning these assessments to mitigate the rigour of
these assessments without affecting student experience.

We also made use of a variety of modes for reflection such as visuals (screen shots),
auditory (story telling), writing and activities (Bilous et al., 2018). Furthermore, we ex-
amined recently published and/or reported (in media) effective assessment strategies
amidst pandemic. Finally, we tried to understand the effectiveness of these changes by
writing (coding) our shared experiences which were summarised and narrated by the
overall experiences of different academics and analysing them to identify patterns and
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 6 of 27

good practices. Fig. 1 summarises the methodology/processes that are presented in this
manuscript as a meta-cognitive reflection (similar to Eaton et al., 2019).

Results and discussion

As explained above in the methodology, the study first compared the experiences of ac-
ademics, external examiners, and quality assurance personnels to understand the im-
mediate effects of Covid-19 related issues in higher educational organisations. We were
particularly interested in the impact on (a) grading for 2019/20 cohorts, (b) adopting
assessments from paper-based traditional examinations and course work to online
grading, and most importantly (c) reflective changes that were made from feedback
from students, external examiners, and quality assurance departments.

Fig. 1 Schematic representation highlighting the reflective transformation of teaching and learning enquiry
procedures during emergency distance learning
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 7 of 27

This is the narrative summary of our own experiences together with the findings
from our conversations with our colleagues within the HE sector involved in this jour-
ney. Here, we will first show some examples of the chaos that were brought about by
this pandemic.

Sudden changes of grading system - fairness or madness?

In this study, we first looked at the “reflective transformation” of assessments and
marking in response to the pandemic in March 2020. Our conversations with several
academics in different HE organisations within the UK have highlighted that the uni-
versities were extremely keen to protect their students’ grading, especially the fact that
they were forced to cancel some of their assessments. Many universities, hurriedly in-
troduced the so called “no detriment policies”. However, authors found many inconsist-
encies which have cast doubts about fairness, equity and standard of grades and their
implications. Some simply finalised the results based on the available gradings. Whilst
others employed individualised approaches by comparing the grades from different ele-
ments. Yet others rounded up the grades to the nearest classifications. For example,
those students who had an average mark between 67 to 74% were rounded up to 74%
(i.e. First class). Also, as a quality assurance measure, these rounded up marks were
clearly marked as “predicted grade” by inserting a ‘P’ sign next to it. Although it sounds
reasonable, by showing this on the transcript, the potential employers would assume
the original marks may have been as low as 67%. This disadvantaged the student who
obtained 73%. This also created several student complaining discrepancies within grad-
ing resulting in unfair advantages as well disadvantages for some students. However,
many universities listened to the students and addressed the EE concerns and read-
justed their grading systems (based on no-detriment policies) as far as they could. In
the authors’ point of view, this was the first impact on assessment integrity imposed by
the pandemic.

Assessing students amidst the pandemic - challenge or opportunity?

As for assessments or the ways of assessments are concerned, the academic community
which are mainly used to traditional ways of paper-based methods were forced to use
online tools and methodologies. This itself was a challenge as most of the academics
were not properly trained to effectively use online tools for assessments and by the
same time minimise the chances of any academic misconduct. Some transformed as-
sessments into multiple choice questions, short answer style structured questions using
online tools whilst others incorporated vivas, online presentations etc. These new
methodologies, especially poorly adopted (or designed tests) caused severe challenges
to upholding academic integrity.
For example, online MCQs and short answer tests would also provide the opportun-
ities for the students to use common search engines to find the answer. Therefore, aca-
demics were forced to think about questions that would require knowledge application
(rather than knowledge reproduction). Another problem was time management. Due to
the pandemic and resultant lock-down, the universities were forced to deploy a 24 h
window period for students to complete the tests. This of course provided the potential
opportunities for the students to share questions (i.e. those who sat the text earlier pro-
vided hints for those taking the exam later in the day). This pushed the academics to
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 8 of 27

randomize questions within a pool of question banks. During this process, the staff
learnt to effectively use additional measures to minimise academic misconducts. In
other words, many academics had a reflective learning experience about the challenges
of these new methodologies. The institutions worked closely with higher educational
quality agencies (such as Higher Education Academy) and those with university centers
of learning and teaching that offered extra training in teaching and effective assess-
ments techniques.
Covid-19 has resulted in reeducating academics to face the challenges of maintaining
integrity by producing valid but variety for assessments strategies. Most importantly
the community got together, shared good practices and tried to transform challenges
into opportunities.

Learning from mistakes and looking forward

One of the factors that influenced assessment design for many educators has been their
concerns around academic integrity. Regardless of COVID-19, most educators in re-
spective institutions have been reluctant to move away from traditional examination
type assessments, even though studies have shown that examinations are least likely to
measure students’ abilities to demonstrate real world knowledge, skills and attitudes
nor does it ‘cheat-proof’ assessment (Dawson, 2016). Most institutional assessment pol-
icies and procedures tend to reinforce this belief by making it more difficult for innova-
tive educators to try out different forms of assessments (Stobart, 2003). COVID-19
created an emergency where everything had to be moved online, even with all the con-
cerns around academic integrity. Although a number of educators went down the path
of using various forms of online proctoring and/or conducting vivas with all or a se-
lected group of students, the courses that always had low levels of plagiarism instances
had similar trends during COVID-19 assessments and vice versa. Although many edu-
cators transformed their assessments to non-invigilated types of assessment as a re-
sponse to the COVID-19, the more successful initiatives were where the educators had
already used some form of non-invigilated assessment prior to the COVID-19 related
emergency.
By doing that these educators were a lot more comfortable in their approaches and
were confident with the validity of their practices (Bretag, et al., 2019). One of the more
significant approaches that has been discussed in various previous studies that can have
an impact on reducing the motivation for students to cheat is the idea of personalising
assessments to the individual students (Vehviläinen et al., 2018). Assessments that are
engaging and personalised are less likely to be plagiarised, and often leads to more au-
thentic demonstration of students’ capabilities. These assessments also instil in students
that the educators trust their students to do the right thing and most students recipro-
cate this trust (Butler et al., 2016; Carless, 2009).
A great way to personalize assessments is through the use of digital storybooks. A
digital storybook allows students to provide a reflective account of their learning
through storytelling (Anand, 2020; McDrury, 2003; Price, 2012; Richardson et al.,
2018). This encourages students to delve within their own experiences as a learner and
curate a story that highlights their journey as a student and how they intend to apply
their learnings in the future. Students need to provide evidence of any claims of their
learning, using any freely available tools and resources available to them, online or
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 9 of 27

offline. Often these stories are highly engaging and very personal and provide a realistic
account of students’ learnings and application of these learnings, and are done within
an authentic environment that can be shared with all relevant people.
Below we put forward examples of technological tools that were developed/adopted
within authors’ own institutes to effectively assess students whilst maintaining academic
integrity (see below).

Technological tools to set up and assess in-class activities

In a traditional classroom setting, with umpteen amounts of physical resources includ-
ing our own self we are at liberty to use them to maximize on connecting with stu-
dents, engaging them with the content and pushing them towards deeper learning. A
simple eye contact can prove effective in bringing a student’s attention back to the con-
tent. A spur-of-the-moment class activity, rotating students in the classroom and get-
ting them to engage in a debate or poster making are all creative and student-centered
teaching approaches that help teachers. However COVID19 pandemic forced us to
move the entire experience online and while we may still have access to a lot of other
resources, mainly the technology related aids, it is now more important than ever to
understand our students’ learning styles, be flexible and understand how the resources
we do have can be used in innovative ways. Most importantly, we should realise the
fact that we have lost one important peripheral feedback - “the eye contact”; therefore,
during the early days of remote teaching, the first course of action was to understand
the students, their needs and challenges. Our observations yielded the following con-
cerns students shared with the faculty informally:

 Feelings of isolation (this was perceived/reported by many academics, resulted in

offering additional help)
 Newness of technology (some students were less acquainted with technology than
we thought)
 Sudden increase in workload (repeated laboratory sessions due to social distancing
influenced reduction in class sizes)
 Digital divide (managing students and staff with a variety of digital capabilities was
a challenge)
 No time to understand own needs and barriers to learning (unpreparedness or the
inability to change time managements according to lock-down situation)

Although students are technologically perspicacious, the whole experience of sud-

denly being online has been a challenge to them during the COVID19 pandemic re-
mote learning. Emergency distance learning should not be confused or be used as a
synonym of remote learning. Albeit congruently used interchangeably with remote
learning, emergency distance learning is not the same as remote learning. During re-
mote learning, faculty and students have umpteen amounts of time to design, train and
deliver courses and assessments. In times of emergency, that is not always possible. Es-
pecially for students, the change has been drastic, to say the least.
A word cloud of student feedbacks (below, Fig. 2) through social media on their ex-
perience learning remotely garnered the following word cloud which shows a lot of
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 10 of 27

Fig. 2 Word cloud illustrating how some students responded when asked to share their experience
learning remotely

positive feedback, but also some negative such as “difficult”, “not good”, “harder to
learn”, “technical difficulties”, “cannot grasp quickly” and so on.
As stated above in methodology section, we (the academics) researched and brainstormed
on ways to use the technology we have at our disposal to see how we could best replicate
the “traditional” classroom exchange and interaction of students and push them to higher
order thinking even during remote space, thus minimizing likelihood of cheating or
plagiarizing.
A number of technological services have been adopted such as Word Clouds, Padlets,
Kahoot and even FlipGrids to address student barriers and help enhance their online
learning experience. It is of vital importance that the technology chosen was simple,
easy to use most often did not require any downloading or even account creation.
Some of these are described below.

The post-Covid journey - moving forwards with innovation and integrity

Using word clouds to engage students with concepts
Word clouds are amazing tools that help to provide insight into student understanding,
student thoughts and if used right, can be great conversation starters and help “visual
learners process reading assignments” (Fuglei, 2020). Word maps are colourful arrange-
ments of words in response to a thought-provoking question. There are many online
services that offer to develop word maps for free. Mentimeter is one such service that
we prefered to use.
Word maps aren’t just a collection of words entered, they make commonly used
words or phrases in larger fonts, or darker colours too. We have found word maps to
be exceptionally helpful in engaging students to visually see and reflect on a topic that
we may have just debated or discussed in class. It is also quite exciting to use as most
learning Management Systems such as Moodle allows for the Mentimeter to be added
directly to the Moodle site for students to view the Word Clouds live. When teaching
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 11 of 27

students about system analysis and design, for instance, we once used the Mentimeter
Word Cloud (see Fig. 3) and got students to record words they could think about
with each concept. This was in response to student confusion between the two
concepts – that of analysis and design with it came to first year computer science
students.
During the lecture, as part of the conversation, we asked students to use the Menti-
meter and join in the exercise. As the word clouds formed, we shared the clouds on
the screen during a live class and asked students to see what was being written which
led to discussions about the difference between system analysis and design. This not
only helped students visualize the concepts but also prompted memory and added to
the level of cognitive engagement from previous lessons on the topics, leading to revi-
sion of the topics and allowing the educators to gauge overall understanding and pre-
paredness of topic in class for students.

Fig. 3 Example of two word maps created by students during System Analysis and Design course
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 12 of 27

Employing Padlets for class discussions and collaborations

Students feel isolated when they are engaging in remote learning. Remote classes can often
seem like one-sided, archaic forms of “lectures” dumping information onto students.
Using technology is always a great way to introduce collaborative learning both in a
traditional classroom and even online (Resta and Laferrière, 2007). In fact, we used
Resta and Laferriere’s Instructional Motive Model (2007) to understand the complexity
of using technology in collaborative learning which focus primarily on four areas

 collaboration skills and knowledge creation

 engagement in knowledge creation
 cognitive performance
 flexibility of time and space

We found Padlet, an online, free service that acts as a cork-board in the virtual space to
help in contributing to all four instructional motives. Padlet is a multimedia service that
allows live interaction between student-peers and between students and teachers.
It allows not only text, but videos, images, flow-charts etc. to be posted on what looks
like a cork board and invites collaboration easily and effectively online. Likewise,
university managed learning management systems such as Moodle allows the code to be
embedded directly into it so students are continuously engaged on familiar ground when
using these tools.
Using the Beltran-Martin model (2019) (based on the Resta and Laferriere (2007) -
see below), we were able to successfully use Padlets to design collaborative activities
around subjects such as discussions, gathering answers to questions, brainstorming

Fig. 4 Use of padlet to contribute to the four instructional motive (Source: Beltran-Martin, 2019)
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 13 of 27

sessions for research, asking what students found to be easiest topic and hardest for
each lecture, creating live question banks, even allowing for students to create their
own portfolios online for their projects (adding research, links, images, articles for pro-
jects) and so on. These are summarized in Fig. 4 below. For example, for a first-year in-
formation system subject (that taught students the basics of information systems, steps
to developing software by analysing existing systems and designing proposed solu-
tions), we asked students to research and answer questions pertaining to concepts
taught in the class and applied to a real-world example (see Fig. 5).
As a graded activity, students were able to work on tasks, discuss with peers and
write down their findings, then further discuss the answers in the live tutorials. This
allowed for students to join in knowledge creation, cognitive performance and gave
them flexibility of time and space. Padlet also allowed the educators to download the
student feedback either as a PDF or an excel sheet to be graded at a later stage.

Fig. 5 An example screenshot effectively using Padlet canvas to create collaborative discussion connections
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 14 of 27

Padlet allows for different formats to be used to set up an activity, from a cork board
post to canvas (with connected posts), to location on maps, to timelines, even conversa-
tions. With the ease of adding images, links and videos, a Padlet activity can allow stu-
dents to choose a format of engagement that aligns with their learning styles. Using
this technology saw a marked reduction in stress and anxiety over assessments in the
subject, and increased student overall engagement.

Adopting Flipgrid to increase accessibility and inclusiveness

A major issue with remote teaching has been the ability to provide equal opportunity
for all students to participate, engage and interact. While the traditional digital divide
concept has always been about those who have access to technology and those who
lack it, especially during the emergency distance learning, the term has taken a new
meaning. We had students who were not in-country anymore, stuck outside their insti-
tutions, in their own countries during the lockdown; or students who came from con-
servative moral backgrounds and could not use their webcams or even mics during live
classes; or students who lived in shared spaces and could not use their webcams or
mics to join in class discussions, answer questions and so on.
Upon some research, we came across Flipgrid, an online free-to-use video sharing tool
that is classroom friendly. This technology allows students to make short videos easily,
sometimes even without the need to create an account! “Flipgrid is a response system that
allows students to explain or show their learning using video” (Clark, 2020). The technol-
ogy allows students to provide responses, present their ideas even if they have missed a
live class or been unable to connect or not allowed to use a webcam during class. We suc-
cessfully used Flipgrid for our ethics course as well as more technical courses. Students
have used the service to prepare short videos explaining their ideas and solutions to entre-
preneurial pitches, ethical role plays replicating a courtroom debate on intellectual prop-
erty, system design problems, issues of system analysis and more.
Flipgrid has levels of privacy that allows a teacher to set it up as per class require-
ments. The video formatting is easy with a host of features such as editing, trimming,
adding audio, taking selfies and more, and allows students to “hide” their faces by blur-
ring them or placing “smiley” on them if students are conscious (see Fig. 6). Flipgrid
also allowed authors to set up student “comment” so they could reply or “like” each
other’s work.

Fig. 6 An example screen-shot of Flipgrid allowing students to choose “privacy” when making videos
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 15 of 27

Kahoot! – gamifying assessments and activities

Despite efforts, it is sometimes still difficult to reach all students attending a class, par-
ticularly when teaching a technical course. One way to bring “class” feeling into a vir-
tual class is to use gamification. Gamification is when game elements are used in non-
game contexts that increases participation, excitement, engagement, and healthy com-
petition (Lee & Hammer, 2011; Smith, 2014; Packt, 2019).
Kahoot! is a gaming tool for classrooms that we have been using regularly in our sub-
jects. A free service online, it allows teachers to set up fun quizzes using various for-
mats such as MCQs, T/F and so on. The platform presents the quizzes as games,
awarding points to students’ answers based on correctness and speed at which they an-
swer. We are able to control the question text, any images and even the length of time
and points for each question.
Designing a Kahoot! is easy but not always straightforward. It is important to realise
the idea of such a game isn’t necessarily to test really difficult concepts, although it can
definitely be used for that too.
Kahoot! allows teachers to set it up as a live game competition that can be shared
with a live class or as a challenge for each student to try at their own pace. When ad-
ministering a Kahoot! we do not just let the game be played by students; we dawn the
role of a game-show-host with commentaries, jokes, laughs, and sometimes stunts to
make the game a “live” experience. Calling students who are getting answers right, en-
couraging students who are falling behind are some of the ways we have found we can
keep all students’ interests in the game. We used Kahoot! not just as a quiz that was
graded, but also as a recap tool at the end of a lesson and as a personalized learning
tool for students to go back and access and try out again and again as revision. In
addition the application provided analytics such as which questions were least an-
swered, which questions were most answered, which students had difficulty answering,
etc. (see Fig. 7). This helped students develop confidence in the knowledge they learned
and made it less likely that they would look elsewhere for answers.

Instructional videos
To ensure students were aware of how to use the technologies we introduced as part of
learning or assessment with instructional videos of all technologies or teaching

Fig. 7 An example dashboard showing analytics produced by Kahoot for a game played
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 16 of 27

techniques and assessments that we designed, used or implemented in our classrooms.

Simple videos made and uploaded to a private YouTube channel and then made avail-
able through Learning Management Systems (LMS) seemed to decrease students’ anx-
iety over using the various teaching tools and participating in the assessments that we
introduced.
Videos on netiquettes, how to engage with lectures online, how asynchronous assess-
ments work, how to upload assignments using LMS database, Mentimeter, Padlet,
Flipgrid were some of the instructional videos created to support the techniques on the
online platforms.

Industry-based assessments
One of the proactive approaches to instilling integrity values into students and fostering
a culture of integrity beyond a course is producing creative assessments that help push
students to higher thinking. These assessments give them confidence in their know-
ledge application and provide them with satisfaction of knowing they can apply the
knowledge in real world settings. This set of educator-developed assessments allowed
students to be the knowledge content creators and assisted the academics to select for-
mats of assessment that tested their knowledge in the best possible way. Upon
researching and studying teaching methods and theories, these educators designed and
conceptualized two programs using Collaborative Learning theory and the Experiential
Learning Theory.
Collaborative learning theory involves student-student (peer) interactions that allow
for greater learning/deeper thinking, better communication, leadership/ team manage-
ment and spirit (Vygotsky, 1962), while experiential learning theory emphasizes the role
of “experience” in the learning process (Kolb, 1984). In fact, experiential learning theory
is sometimes considered as Problem-Based learning which calls for students to be cen-
tral to their own learning process.
The aim with the two programs was to invoke curiosity in the students, provide
guided discovery opportunities through mentorship and hopefully result in their
critical thinking about problems and solving them (Bates, 2019). The details of the
programs and how they were modified to adapt to remote delivery are explained
below.

ReBitVlogs
One author and their subject coordinator conceptualized and implemented a student
program called ReBitVlogs – Responsible Business and IT Use Video Blogs program
(ReBitVlogs, 2020). The program aimed to initiate, enhance and engage students on re-
sponsible business and ethics of the information age across campuses. As an innovative
platform that was initiated to engage students in discussions on pressing responsible
business and technology-use issues, ReBitVlogs is a link between students and aca-
demics with industry experts, government and non-government officials, creating an
environment of awareness, facilitating dialogue towards a sustainable, responsible
future.
Originally initiated in 2017, the program grew to now be in its 10th iteration. It was
really useful during the pandemic for students to come “face-to-face” with industrial
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 17 of 27

experts online. Upon selecting a theme, the first part of the program is to run a story-
telling competition through posters. Winning teams are then invited to join industry
experts in a panel discussion to continue the conversation. During the emergency dis-
tance learning, the program continued with online storytelling and poster competitions.
Students were encouraged to find creative ways to present their “stories”. Electronically
designed posters using simple Word or Powerpoint to using Adobe Illustrator and even
online tools such as PiktoCharts and Canva.com, students got creative and produced
fascinating stories around chosen topics.
Going virtual helped make the online panel discussion (Majlis) international with ex-
perts from Australia, Turkey, USA and Europe taking part in the discussions and en-
gaging with the students. Invited industry experts found the students to be highly
engaged and well researched. Students were excited to participate either as panelists or
as audience. Audience got to use Twitter to ask questions live to the panelists which
were showcased on Twitter Fall (see Fig. 8). The projects reported zero cases of
plagiarism.

WISP: real world innovative solutions to real world problems

In teaching the importance and methods of system analysis and design for Computer
Science students, educators conceptualized WISP – real world innovative solutions to

Fig. 8 An example ReBitVlogs online Competition, using Webex and Twitter Fall to engage students
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 18 of 27

real world problems (WISP, 2020), a program that invited the university’s alumni to
join a “Human Library” (Human Library Organization, 2000) as mentors to help first
year students understand how the real world works, what kind of solutions are ex-
pected and how important these skills are that are taught so early in their degree. This
“library” of human experts and mentors were accessible to the teams taking the subject
for the duration of the program. Teams were then able to “book” experts from the li-
brary on “loan”, much like a book from a physical library, for a small period of time
based on level of expertise and time the human experts were able to dedicate. The hu-
man library has been built upon partnership with industry experts and companies
through the university’s Alumni Relations Office and Marketing Department.
The program deliverables included:

 Student-initiated and proposed solutions that are approved and appreciated by

industry experts
 Possible on-the-job training opportunities for excelling students
 Possible short-term internships with partnering industry experts and/or their net-
work for excelling students
 Corporate Social Responsibility opportunities for industry partners

Student teams were matched with Human Library experts for mentoring programs,
and ultimately teams presented their “pitch” to the judges/experts, convincing them of
the proposed solution as “the” solution for the problem identified.
This is yet another program that utilized the virtual platform to connect students to
their peers and to mentors, reducing their anxiety and stress, to focus their attention
on engagement with subject content, knowledge creation, collaboration and enhance
their overall learning experience that is expected to help them throughout their degree
program, well beyond the subject (see Fig. 9). The projects reported zero cases of
plagiarism.

Using online debates to enhance peer interactions and engagements

Some of the authors within the medical field were forced to transform their usual
debate-based learning activities as online activity. Although it was perceived by the aca-
demic as “mission impossible”, using online learning tools such as Microsoft-Teams,
Zoom, and WebEx, these debate-based activities have been successfully delivered. The
number of participants for these activities differed amongst institutions, ranging from
35 to 255 participants. For larger participant numbers, WebEx was found to be better
suited. Also, many platforms allowed devising small discussions by splitting the partici-
pants into different groups in a timely fashion and then rejoining them to report back
in a plenary session. Most important observation of using a web platform for debate-
based learning was the enhanced student contributions. Those students who were
usually silent during face-to-face delivery, were commenting and taking part in the
discussions.
Others simply wrote their opinion and observation onto the discussion board which
were picked up by the conducting academics and addressed. In fact, this is another
unexpected positive outcome from emergency online learning.
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 19 of 27

Fig. 9 An example screen-shot of WISP Human Library and its usage with mentors

Summative analysis of shared experiences

Maintaining high levels of academic integrity in academic environments has always
posed challenges for educators at all levels of the education ecosystem, but particularly
within higher education. This is because these learners are often a lot more independ-
ent and focus around their study processes and engagement. Educators have explored
various forms of assessments to assure learning outcomes, and although there are nu-
merous examples of innovative and engaging assessment practices, most educators tend
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 20 of 27

to rely heavily on invigilated examinations as a tried and tested means of assuring that
the work that students submit is their own (Dawson, 2016).
Increasing use of technology within higher education has provided opportunities for
educators and students to engage in diverse and unique learning activities and topics.
For example educators are able to use relevant technologies to engage students through
immersive simulations, facilitate collaborative activities with students from different
continents to solve complex real world problems, and so on. Technology is also in-
creasingly used in various forms of assessments. It has unfortunately also provided op-
portunities for some students to engage in various forms of unethical behaviour
(Fawns, 2019). This is particularly so within education where some students try to take
advantage of the ever-connected nature of online activities and at times the perceptions
of anonymity to cheat and therefore get credit through someone else’s effort. The
omnipresent technologies such as smartwatches, smart phones and other emerging
technologies enables many students the ability to engage in various forms of unethical
behaviour.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced all educational institutions to become a lot more in-
ventive in most of their teaching, learning and assessments procedures. Although
teaching and learning during this pandemic has been challenging for educators and stu-
dents, the most significant challenge for educators has been designing assessments to
maintain academic integrity. Most assessments had to be carried out online, and in
many cases they were non-invigilated assessments. Even institutions that used various
forms of online proctoring technologies and services were challenged to assure aca-
demic integrity (Bretag et al., 2019; Daniel & Thomas, 2019; Dawson, 2021). For ex-
ample, Dawson outlines a number of ways in which motivated students could ‘hack’
online and face-to-face examinations regardless of the presence of any invigilators
(2021).
Maintaining academic integrity should be a multi-faceted approach. Although it is
widely accepted that plagiarism and other forms of cheating cannot be completely erad-
icated, there is enough evidence to increase confidence that with appropriate assess-
ment designs, redesign of existing assessments, engaging classroom and assessment
practices and constant awareness about the importance of academic integrity it is pos-
sible to discourage it.
It is widely recognised that written, invigilated examinations may not be the best way
to assess many types of knowledge, skills and attitudes that students need to have in
order for successful work after studies, however many educators in higher education
are reluctant to move aware from examinations (Hillier & Fluck, 2013). Although
COVID-19 created the emergency for everyone to relook at their assessments and de-
ployment strategies, most responses during this pandemic was reactionary rather than
proactively planned. However, COVID-19 has provided an opportunity to explore other
ways in which we can continue to uphold academic integrity in varied assessment and
teaching modalities.
Although many studies have evaluated and suggested a number of different
types of academic integrity verification tools, where students’ work is cross-
checked against other work on the Internet (Ellery, 2008), in this paper the
authors have attempted to explore other ways of upholding academic integrity.
Approaches that attempt to identify plagiarism and cheating may be too late in
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 21 of 27

the student’s assessment cycle and therefore may not effectively play an educative
role on developing ethical behaviours that encourage learning rather than focus-
ing on the final grade.
The authors have leveraged studies that demonstrate the significant influence of vari-
ous engagement strategies to improve student outcomes to develop effective engage-
ment strategies for online student cohorts (Nelson et al., 2014). Although the online
mode was imposed upon all higher education institutions around the world, it also pro-
vided us with opportunities to explore appropriate technology tools to engage students.
Technology became even more important during COVID-19 as an enabler to engage
students in meaningful activities and develop engagement. The various examples of as-
sessment design and student engagement focus on using easily accessible technology
tools that are in most cases free to use or at worst free for the students to use. Technol-
ogy tools should also seamlessly integrate into existing teaching and learning ap-
proaches, such as supporting classroom discussions, and accessible from standard
equipment like smart phones.
Similarly, assessment designs that actively discourage unethical behaviours and scaf-
fold students into effective learning should also be encouraged as many would then
help students acquire more transferable skills. The COVID-19 emergency that all edu-
cational institutions had to address has spawned many good practices initiatives that
we can learn from going forward, pandemic or not. Many of these strategies have been
discussed in the sections above.

Addressing exceptional extenuating circumstances

Emergency distance learning did pose some unexpected (or unpredicted) challenges
too. The first issue was “digital literacy” of the students. Most of these online
based approaches were new, or newly adopted using tools that were neither intro-
duced to nor practiced by the students. Explaining “how to” use these tools via an
internet-based environment was a challenge. In contrast to the general academic
perceptions of all HE students being experts in using online tools, many students
were not competent enough to use these tools. This may be due to a variety of
reasons (a) unfamiliarity of educational online tools (as students usually use more
games/game-related IT tools, (b) mature students (who hardly use online), (c) sheer
inadequacy of students to understand algorithm of these packages (especially to
those complicated on-line packages that replaced laboratory-based learning) and (d)
accessibility of these packages (i.e. the inability to run these highly sophisticated
packages in their home countries). This was also recently highlighted in the Times
Higher Education article stressing about carefully adopting “educational technology”
to meet learning goals (Losh, 2021). Losh further highlighted that academics need
to be mindful of the variety of component prerequisites of digital literacy including
(a) technological aptitude, (b) social confidence, (c) privacy awareness and (d)
financial ability (2021). However, in actual fact the sudden nature of this pandemic
did not provide time to adopt these technologies focusing on students aptitude on
above said components of digital literacy. In our experience, this has created more
work for academics, first to introduce and make the student understand how each
of the online tools works (through instructional videos, as explained in prior
sections), before actually engaging them into the subject specific learning. Some of
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 22 of 27

us received assistance from the respective IT departments in the form of skills

development workshops for students and academics.
Second issue was the dependency of the internet with a reasonable bandwidth to
carry out and receive these online sessions. These are mainly experienced by the
students as “receivers”, especially during the lockdown periods when the majority of
students have moved back to their hometowns or countries of origins (in case of inter-
national students). Some students did not have their computer facilities at home, others
(especially the international students) faced financial restraints to obtain internet
access, or happened to share the wi-fi with too many users in the same space. The
former was somewhat addressed by the universities by lending institutional laptops on
loans. The latters have remained as sources of problem (in fact a limitation) against
‘e-teaching/assessment’ strategies. In 2020, the UK government had taken some initia-
tives to provide free internet access in collaboration with major mobile companies to
support students from financially impoverished school students (Difn, n.d.). Similarly,
the UAE Ministry of Education and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority worked
with the leading internet providers of the country to give free mobile internet access to
families who did not have home connections to continue emergency distance learning
(Abbas, 2020). However it is not clear whether this was also provided to the students in
HE; or in other countries.
The third concern was students losing their “sense of belonging” in the context of a
university community, which has always been an important factor in creating inclusive
learning environments. We as authors, despite our varied fields of expertise, experi-
enced the student losing their “cohort identity”, especially during lockdown when all
activities were online. As described by Mooney and Becker (2021) “belongingness” not
only influenced students’ backgrounds but also their interactions and experiences with
other students, academics, technicians etc. The lockdown has resulted in them losing
the physical environments. Whilst some students maximised their virtual interactions
with their peers, others struggled to cope with these sudden changes. This may be one
of the contributing factors for increasing mental health related illnesses amongst HE
students during Covid-19 (Marelli et al., 2021; Meda et al., 2021; Savage et al., 2020).
Considering the lockdown was slightly relaxed, some UK universities have offered lim-
ited on-campus activities in STEM subject areas. One of the authors’ reports, his insti-
tution has tried to introduce a blended applied learning model where students would
receive a minimum “3-hours per student per week” on-campus activities. However, it
was observed that there existed mixed engagements from the students, around 85% of
the students actively engaged with this model, the rest were not prepared to engage in
on-campus activities (unpublished data: calculations were made from the number of re-
mote study requests received). Although this data is from one institution, representing
one discipline, this may be due to (a) the worry about Covid-19 infections, (b) inter-
national students unable to return (as stated above) and (c) medical/shielding related
issues. Also, the ever-changing Covid-19 related restrictions and regulations hindered
almost all universities to provide a consistent approach. Overall, our approaches were
constantly challenged by the changing situation. Yet it did open up new and innovative
ideas for effective learning and teaching activities.
Finally, and perhaps the most stressful issue that we were forced to rethink, or ad-
dress was related to the potential academic misconducts in online assessments. Almost
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 23 of 27

all HE institutions were concerned about this. During the pandemic we transformed
our traditional assessments strategies to a variety of different online based evaluations.
These included time-released or time constrained assessments (TCA), take-home ex-
aminations (online essay type questions without any time limitations), video-based as-
sessments (including on-line viva voce’s), online student presentations (oral and
poster), on-line structured essay questions, short answers, multiple choice questions
(MCQs)/multiple response questions (MRQs), extended matching questions (EMQs)
etc. (Gamage et al., 2020). Our own institutions have also employed these measures de-
pending on subject areas, and the levels of study. Each of these have their own advan-
tages and disadvantages. In the context of this manuscript, we concentrated on
selecting the most appropriate mode of assessment(s) to minimise the chances of cheat-
ing. Here we narrate some initial “threats” against integrity and discuss some possible
way forwards.
Eaton (2020) summarized the pandemic and its resultant online delivery as having
provided opportunities for commercial file-sharing and contract cheating companies to
thrive. This is particularly true in take-home assessments where the students would
have a window period with a deadline to submit their essays/work. In our experience,
there are two ways to handle this (a) using structured essay questions or EMQ’s (in-
stead of providing essay type questions) and (b) employing feedback led continuous as-
sessment strategy (a measure pioneered by one of the authors). The former is useful in
applied and/or STEM subject areas where knowledge applications with different con-
text is expected. The latter can be employed by any subject area as it requires a con-
tinuous online dialogue between the students and the academic. However, it is time
consuming and can only be employed in a smaller cohort of students. With respect to
online examinations, the main threat is the students’ accessibility to the internet (as
they are using it to answer it). Students often “Google” the question and answer. In this
context, some academics and institutions have used time restricted structured ques-
tions (where each question would impose a time duration to minimise searching an-
swers). However, this would also minimise the chances of making sure the student
understands the subject area (as the answers would often be superficial). Another
method of minimising academic misconduct in online examination is providing ques-
tions that need knowledge application in a different context (rather than reproduction).
This is particularly successful in STEM areas of HE but may not be suitable for
concept-based education. On the whole, we, like several academics, have experienced
different assessment related challenges that are linked to maintaining integrity. In our
opinion, we all need to move away from the notion of “assessment for acknowledge-
ment (or reproduction) towards assessment for application”. Academics also need to
refrain from recycling the past question or using publisher databases because question
recycling would enhance file sharing practices; instead, we need to be innovative.
At this point we would like to point out that the experiences about exceptional
circumstances and our ideas of maximising integrity during online examination, are
purely narrative. The pandemic started only in 2020, so we are only sharing our experi-
ences from online teaching. As for the challenges of adopting and applying these innova-
tive technologies enhanced learning activities during this pandemic, we can safely say
these approaches (stated herein) may not be a perfect solution but they have paved the
way to continue to deliver our courses achieving the programme learning outcomes.
Khan et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity (2021) 17:17 Page 24 of 27

Concluding remarks
Covid-19 pandemic did impact the ways of learning and teaching in higher education.
As a sector, we faced similar challenges across institutions and countries. Whilst some
of the academics struggled to acclimatize to this new online based teaching/assessment
environment, many of us transformed this challenge into opportunities for innovative
teaching and assessments.
Moreover, with the help of institutional learning and teaching excellence centres and
through collegiate sharing of good practice, we believe, we can help each other to en-
hance integrity with effective practice in our online and face-to-face classrooms.
Faculties from different institutions shared their collective experiences during the
pandemic that highlighted similar challenges and solutions that were developed in re-
sponse to the crisis. This provided an opportunity to learn from one another, with par-
ticular focus on on-going good practice to uphold academic integrity beyond the
emergency distance learning experiences. As Donald Rumsfeld (the former US secretary
of Defense from 2001 to 2006) once stated “there were known knowns and known un-
knowns; also unknown unknowns” (Rumsfeld, 2002). As academics we learn from these
variables, reflect and maximally adjust to enhance the learning and teaching activities.
Authors are confident this paper will add significant value to the body of existing lit-
erature; however, it is important to note that the study is limited to the experiences col-
legially shared and reflect measures taken under force majeure and therefore the
findings made should not be generalized across the sector.
Acknowledgements
Authors wish to thank all of our colleagues in different institutions for sharing their approaches with us.

Authors’ contributions
Equal contribution. The author(s) read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding
There are no funding for the study.

Availability of data and materials

All data is available upon request.

Declarations
Competing interests
No competing interests.

Author details
1
Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences University of Wollongong in Dubai, PO Box 20183, Dubai, UAE.
2
Human Sciences Research Centre, School of Human Sciences, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby DE22 1GB,
UK. 3Learning and Teaching Unit, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
4
UOWD College, University of Wollongong in Dubai, PO Box 20183, Dubai, UAE.

Received: 19 December 2020 Accepted: 13 May 2021

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