Computer Science GCSE students will receive no marks for coursework amid widespread cheating fears
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Loading... - Mary Campbell
- 09 Jan 2021
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GCSE coursework for Computer Science will not count for any marks amid fears about widespread cheating, the exam watchdog has said.
The move follows concern that thousands of students were given undue assistance, with Ofqual finding dozens of examples where students were able to obtain answers posted on online forums and websites.
Examples of malpractice included students posting the tasks on forums asking for help, with other members responding with detailed solutions and code which they could simply copy and past.
The watchdog has now ruled that coursework - which is meant to make up 20 per cent of a student’s overall grade - will not count towards the final grade for all Computer Science students sitting their exams in 2018 and 2019.
“The speed with which the tasks appeared on-line and the number of times the discussions and solutions were viewed threatened the integrity of this aspect of the qualification,” Ofqual’s report said.
In November, the exams watchdog launched a consultation on changes to computer science.
Yesterday, their report said that responses to the consultation confirmed their view that the “current situation is untenable”.
Ofqual said this “must be addressed to make sure the qualification is fair for all students and to preserve the credibility of the qualification itself”.
The exam watchdog is yet to decide whether to scrap coursework altogether for future cohorts of students taking the GCSE.
The Government has thrown its weight behind computer science, a relatively new subject that only became part of the national curriculum three years ago.
In the November budget, the Chancellor pledged £84 million to train up another 8,000 GCSE teachers for computer science, and announced that the number of computer science teachers is to be trebled.
Ofqual chief executive, Sally Collier said: "We are pleased that so many teachers and students took the time to respond to our consultation.
"A clear majority of respondents agree that there are currently shortcomings with the non-exam assessment that could unfairly advantage some students.
"While the tasks themselves will no longer contribute to students' grades, we strongly believe that learning about a high-level programming language and having the opportunity to show how it can be used to solve problems is hugely important.
"We believe these changes will make the qualification as fair as it can be for all students."
Coursework, known as non-exam assessment, is completed by GCSE computer science pupils during their studies, and is currently worth 20% of their final mark.
Students due to take their exams in the subject this summer - the first time that awards will be given for the qualification - were able to start their coursework from the beginning of September last year.
But shortly afterwards Ofqual became aware that tasks and solutions were being discussed in online forums, the regulator said.
In one case, an individual asked for help with a task on designing a piece of software. The first response to this question included a full solution, Ofqual said, adding that the post currently has more than 2,500 views.
In another example, Ofqual said a simple search for a key requirement of a task on a popular online developer community returned over 40 pages of results.
