Strengthening Exam Integrity Practices Through Experience

Facilitated by Dr. Anita Woods, Teaching Scholar in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Western University.

Maintaining exam integrity requires thoughtful design and responsive practice. In this session, Dr. Woods reflects on how her experiences with academic misconduct, mostly within proctored exams, have shaped her approaches to exam procedures, proctor training, and investigations. Using anonymized examples, she will highlight patterns of misconduct and the practical adjustments made to reduce opportunities, including changes to exam design and proctoring practices.

The session will emphasize iterative learning by examining what worked, what did not, and how small, evidence-informed changes can support integrity. Dr. Woods will also discuss her approach to investigating suspected misconduct, including how she developed more effective questioning strategies in the absence of formal training.

Framed within a broader institutional context, the session invites educators to reflect on their own practices and consider how evolving experience and awareness can inform approaches to promoting academic integrity.

Facilitator Bio

Dr. Woods is a Teaching Scholar in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, a role she has held since 2023, after joining Western in 2008 as a teaching-intensive faculty member. She has extensive experience coordinating large undergraduate courses with enrollments of 300 to 500 students. From 2019 to 2024, she served as Undergraduate Chair, where her responsibilities included overseeing and investigating cases of academic misconduct.

Her scholarly interests examine student motivation and learning in human physiology, with a focus on how belonging and inclusive instructional images shape engagement. She is the founder of EveryBodyPhysiology, an open educational resource supporting inclusive teaching in the discipline.

• Event organized by the DesignEd Team at the Faculty of Health Sciences.
• Session is designed for instructors/faculty members and teaching assistants.