Many consider online courses to be an inferior alternative to traditional face-to-face (f2f) courses because exam cheating is thought to occur more often in online courses. This study examines how the assessment design in online courses contributes to this perception. Following a literature review, the assessment design in a sample of online courses is analyzed and then the results of a survey of student opinion on assessment design issues are reported. We report the finding that in our sample the online courses a heavy reliance on unproctored multiple choice exams and likely have greater cheating risk than comparable f2f courses. For online courses with multiple choice exams we recommend instructors modify their assessment design to proctor some of the multiple choice exams, and aggressively use strategic question shuffling tactics. (Contains 5 tables.)