Three Ways Students Cheat Online

[WilliamW]

Sometimes students cheat, here's three ways we do it
Posted by Suzanne Craig Main Feature, News Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Online classes are growing increasingly popular, so too are the chances to abuse the honor system. After all, there isn/t any instructor sitting to watch, or hovering over suspicious characters. While this list might seem rudimentary to a particularly clever student, these are the three main ways students can cheat online classes:

1. Group testing

This is one common enough most students don't even consider it cheating. Students still have to do some of the work, so it's not like the entire class is just being skipped over. When it comes to take home or online tests and quizzes, many instructors say 'Do not work together!"

Right. Each person in the group does sections of problems correctly, then swaps them with the group to get the test done. This doesn't work as well for English classes where there is reading, essays and definite plagiarism detection worries. But with math, technical subjects and terminology courses where there are only so many ways to write the same thing, this method of cheating is clean and easy.

2. Fair trade agreements

In this case, it is most beneficial if you have taken an online class yourself and need to take another one. The ideal symbiotic relationship would be you taking a class again for someone else and your trade partner taking the class you don't want to do in exchange, preferably one they have already taken. Another, harder route: You do two of one class and someone else does two of another, each of you signed on once as yourself, and once as the other person. Half the studying involved, but a fair amount of writing, typing and anti-plagiarism detection efforts.

3. Pay your friend -- or your neighbor

Pay someone. Find someone who has already taken the class, say, English 102. There are a lot of online options. Generally, the person should have good grades, wants to make some easy cash and be reasonably good at altering documents so plagiarism detectors don't go off. After all, they already have the essays and know most of the material -- why not make some money for it? Depending on the individual asked, the going rate for a class is anywhere from $50- a few hundred bucks, depending on the material studied and the actual work involved.


Have you ever cheated online?
Nope, I'm honest Abe. (68%, 23 Votes)
Yes, I've taken an individual quiz or test with a group. (18%, 6 Votes)
Yes, I paid someone to take an online class for me. (12%, 4 Votes)
Yes, I swapped online classes with someone. (2%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 34


Do you think cheating in an online class is immoral?
Yes (65%, 20 Votes)
No (35%, 11 Votes)
Total Voters: 31


What do you think should be done to people caught cheating for the first time?
They should get one warning. (73%, 22 Votes)
They should be expelled. (27%, 8 Votes)
Nothing should happen to them. (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 30

Student voices: Would you pay someone to take your online class for you?


Aron Lupton, 20, kinesiology, sophomore, Nampa
"If I didn't really like the class, I would think about it."


Andrea Korn, 23, English, senior, Boise
"I'm good at English, so I wouldn't need anyone to take it for me -- (but) professors should expect that we can look up answers online if they tell us to take an online test."


Cassie Tipton, 22, physical education, senior, Buhl
"I have done group testing. Might as well use your resources if you have them."


Zac Broadie, 27, radiology, sophomore, Hailey
"There is no need for someone to take it for you if you have your book."

[Albert Hidel]

Only three? Slackers!

[Virtual Bison]

I wonder if any of those studets are attending accredited online schools like the University of Phoenix? I would be willing to be thats the case.

[Herbert Spencer]

The Impact of an Honor Code on Cheating in Online Learning Courses

by Frank M. LoSchiavo & Mark A. Shat, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching

Although honor codes are effective in certain situations, instructors should maintain realistic expectations when teaching online -- students will likely cheat. Thus, the authors recommend that honor codes be used whenever possible, but that they must be augmented by common sense strategies, such as proctoring. Although proctoring is less convenient for students and instructors, it is one of the most reliable methods for ensuring academic integrity.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no2/loschiavo_0611.pdf

[WilliamW]

Only three? Slackers!

There's more at the door...although these seem to be B&M methods rather than online. This suggests that either online cheating is far less prevalent than its detractors would have us believe, or that online students are just not as inventive (or crooked) as their B&M counterparts.

Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 09/29/2011
New ways students cheat on tests
By Valerie Strauss

A cheating scheme just uncovered in New York in which a college student took the SAT exam for younger teens -- for a fee -- is bringing new calls for increased test security and questions about whether cheating is on the rise in the era of high-stakes tests.

Six minors and a 19-year-old were arrested in the cheating scandal and prosecutors have said they are looking to see if more people were involved.

The SAT cheating scandal comes on the heels of a number of recent episodes in school districts around the country in which teachers and principals have been accused -- or suspected -- of cheating on high-stakes standardized tests, the most prominent in Atlanta.

Are we in a cheating epidemic?

There isn't definitive data to reach that conclusion, though surveys suggest a big percentage of students cheat -- and have for a long time. The Center for Academic Integrity at Clemson University has reported that more than 75 percent of college students cheat in some way on school work or exams at least once during their undergraduate careers. The nationwide rate of college students admitting to cheating on tests and exams is 22 percent. Of course, it's not likely they waited until college to start to cheat.

Yet it is worth remembering that people have been cheating on tests since the first tests were given (really, scholars say there was a great deal of cheating on civil service exams in ancient China). What has changed over time are the ways that people come up with to cheat.

According to FairTest, or the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, a nonprofit that works to end the misuse of standardized tests, the method used by the students in Great Neck, N.Y., impersonation, appears to be the least of three types of admissions test cheating cases.

The most common is "collaboration" (aka copying from someone seated nearby at the test center). Bob Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest, said that more than 2,000 potential cases on the SAT (out of 2.5 million tests administered) are flagged for investigation each year (either as a result of "whistleblower" complaints or large score changes from previous administrations) with about 1,000 sufficiently confirmed for the Educational Testing Service, which scores the SAT for the College Board, to withhold scores.

The second broad grouping is "prior knowledge," in which a test-taker gets an advance look at questions and/or answers.

Christine Probett is a San Diego State University management professor who has studied the methods student use to cheat. Here's what she told me in an e-mail:

"Kids have been cheating forever and some of the 'classic' methods are still utilized: crib notes (pieces of paper, written on hand/under bandaids, etc.), looking at another's paper, signals/whispering to others, etc.

What I categorize as 'updated classic' methods are now added to the arsenal:

* Notes inside brim of baseball caps

* Notes inside label of water bottles

* Fake 'Coke" bottle labels with notes printed where ingredients, etc. should be printed

* Having another student take exam in their place (easier now with larger class sizes)

* 'Clickers' (sometimes used in class for quizzes, attendance, etc.) - students who skip class give their clickers to others so they get credit

* There are many videos on YouTube which provide step-by-step cheating techniques, so that in itself is yet another method!

However, the new 'high tech' methods include:

* Distracting teacher and pulling out cell phone and taking photo of exam

* Texting someone in/outside class for answers

* Google-ing for answers

* Organized groups of students working together to 'memorize' a question or two and collaborating to recreate the exam

* The Internet also enables access to lots of material that can make plagiarism much easier.

As for which of the above are the most popular, my guess is that it's whichever they think they can get away with! The most amazing thing to me is the effort that some students go through to cheat. If they just spent that much time studying the material instead, they would probably do fine!

Asked what teachers and professors can do to stop kids from cheating, she wrote:

A) Teacher countermeasures:

* Understand the methods and prevent them as much as possible

* Clearly articulated “Academic Integrity Policy”, with severe repercussions (failed course, university judicial review, etc.)

* Multiple versions of exams, different colored paper

* New exams each term

* If possible, essay exams

* Numbered exams

* Photo ID check for exams

* Walking around during exams

* NO electronics (cell phones, IPods, PDAs, etc.)

* Require baseball caps turned backward, check drink bottles

* On-line exams/quizzes: use technology to juggle questions and use algorithmic variations for calculations

* For writing assignments, utilize plagiarism check software such as TurnItIn or SafeAssign

* In a nutshell, I think if you tell students that you know ' ALL' of these methods, it precludes them from even trying (i.e., instructor precautions, above)