Hi Kelly,
Wow! Technology can destroy academics, if we sit back and allow it. We as instructors must monitor things very closely in the classroom. Electronic devices should be put away when testing.
Patricia
Hi David,
You are right students really need to understand what is meant by cheating. I let my students know if you turn in someone else's work as your own to receive credit, it is cheating.
Patricia
Hi David,
These tactics have proven to be very effective in order to reduce cheating. Also, make sure all electronic devices are put away, especially cell phones.
Patricia
Make sure you are serious on cheating and is written on the syllabus. Creat two(2)an A & B test, if no room to seperate the student sitting next to eachother. If there is room one student per table.
In a practical, hands-on educational environment it is important to clarify with your students what qualifies as "teamwork" and what is "cheating". One student assisting another with the physical skill set can be a great thing that shows the classroom dynamic is an effective learning environment. When this continues to such a degree that one student may "carry" another student through practical examinations, then this qualifies as cheating.
You must be aware of how cheaters work. I make sure when it comes to test that all tables are clear with the exception of the test. Circulate through the room and be very observant of head / eye movement and body language.
If answers are a word for word duplicate with another student, that could be a cause for concern.
While testing I quietly walk around the classroom and stand in different locations in the room. Enen though this seems to help, it is still impossible to remove all chances for the experienced cheater.
One way, is to have 2 versions of the test and pass them out..test a, test b, test a, and so forth. Also, by incorporating short answer into the tests will eliminate it.
I will make several, at least five, versions of a quiz, then make sure no one at a table has the same one. It's a little harder to grade, but I'll know the level of knowledge each student has in the course.
The first day of every mod as part of my syllabus review and rules and regulations, I make it very clear where I stand on cheating. I also add a positive point that each and everyone of them is intelligent and that cheating is only hurting them. I let them know that all I ask is that they give me their best effort. How ever I let them know that by looking at their tests I will know if they truly studied. The day of the test I go over the rules about cheating and share some of the different experiences I have had with students cheating and how pointless it was to cheat. Then I have them pull up their sleeves and give me a high five with a clap and they laugh and their are energized to give it their best shot. The story behind it is I had a student that wrote all the answers on her hands. That is why they get a kick out of the high five plus it motivates them to give it their best try
It is important to establish initially the penalty for students so they are aware of the consequences. Also it is important to provide as much necessary information for students on upcoming assignments and/or quizzes. Finally communicate with the students as well as show that you're accessible for further discussion on an assignment.
Also clearly define the expectations of the test,spead the students out around the class and definetly make a point of what WOILL happen should a student cheat ,doing it in a soft tone and making sure the class knows you trust they wont,and if it does happen unfortunatly this is what I the teacher must do!!!!
We can reduce student cheating by not allowing students to have their cellular phones, ipods, etc... when they are taking an exam. My nephew, who is in high school just informed me the other day that there is a number you can text any question to and they will have an answer back within seconds. He says that it is faster than looking things up on the internet.
I simply observe them for odd behaviors. I remind them that cheating is a code of conduct violation and that there is really no point in getting a license to be a healthcare professioanl if you cheat as you will lose it anyhow if you have that mindset. I only have twenty-one students in my program right now and I am familiar enough with their work I can spot dishonest efforts.
I often have large classes in small rooms and when there is a test they are always very close together, making the opportunity ripe for cheating. What I do is I require that they remove all books and begs from the tables so that I can see them clearly. I hope provide them with a blank sheet of paper which has "cover sheet" typed in a large font on the front. I tell them that they are required touse this to cover their tests as they go. That way I can glance around the room pretty easily and if I see that big font "cover letter" I know at least that no other students can copy off of them.
One of the things which amuses/bemuses me is that sometimes the effort the student takes to cheat is greater than the effort to actually do the work. From the instructor viewpoint, it can also be a lot of work to prevent cheating.
In many cases, in the institution in which I work, a number of these provisions, like not leaving and coming back, are a matter of school policy, and therefore easier to enforce. In general, I find cheating more likely, both on-ground and online, in the submission of written material rather than in the execution of a test.
A slightly funny story, which really has nothing to do with cheating, but which shows how making things seem dissimilar may be actually perceived as such. One of my colleagues used a test with an integrated answer key, using a highlight to indicate the correct answer to the question [this was, obviously, a MCQ]. In one case, she accidentally released the highlighted version to the students, instead of the test version. A signmificant number of students still got a number of questions wrong, even with the answer clearly highlighted!
One of the A-1 Ace ways to reduce student cheating is to have a hands-on practical done by the individual student -- the student is under direct observation, and cheating is nearly impossible.
Where cheating is most prevalent is on the submission of written work -- I have even had two students in the same small class turn in the identical paper with just the name changed. I pointed out to them that this was almost as insulting as it was stupid. So another way to reduce cheating is to reduce the amount of unmonitored written work. This is, I know, a counsil of perfection, because unmonitored written work is a staple of the working world.
So another way to reduce cheating is to use a service like TurnItIn.com -- and student objections to this are bogus, given the statistics on the amount of cheating involved.
In IT, I always like to say there are two sorts of knowledge -- in the one case, you work with it every day, and you would remember it even if you were 3 sheets to the wind; while in the other, it represents knowledge you only use once or twice a year, but When You Need It, You Need It Bad. What matters in this latter case is not *knowing* the material, but *knowing how to find it*, which justifies open-book (and other resource) examinations, and that also reduces cheating.
There are two broader questions here, one of which at least strikes to the heart of higher education. In the university setting, we stress the importance of originality of work [and arguably justifably so], but in the working world, all that matters is results. If I mash something together from a couple of Web sources in answer to my boss' request, and he is satisfied, then I am not cheating, I am being efficient!
The second, much deeper consideration: our most effective way of reducing student cheating is to make them not *want* to cheat. Creating such an aversive climate in turn suggests we consider the basic truth of economics -- people are motivated by incentives, so we need to create and sustain incentives against cheating.
I also "scramble" question and answer choices on examinations for both objective and subjective questions. During an exam, I stay near the back of the room.
One thing I do during the first class session is show students (on the LCD projector) the "Advanced Search" feature on Google. I copy a string of text from Wikipedia or another online resource. Then, I close all browser windows and clear out the cookies and temporary files. I reopen the browser, go to Google's "Advanced Search," and paste the text string into the relevant search box. Most of my students do not realize how easy plagiarism is to catch these days. Then, I do a brief ten- to fifteen-minute "primer/clinic" on plagiarism, using handouts from two or three college labs explaining what does and what does not need to be cited.
Although this does not constitute cheating on a test or copying someone's homework, it is relevant to the classes I teach.
To prevent cheating, I have printed four variations of the exam with the same questions in a different order on each variation (i.e. Question 1 on Exam A would be Question 13 on Exam B, etc.). I will also walk the room while the students are taking the exam.
Most importantly, on day one they are made aware of the Zero Tolerance for cheating.
But, where there's a will there's a way and somehow these creative minds will spend more time trying to figure out how to cheat than they will on actually studying. It's unfortunate, but it does happen and all we can do everything in our power to prevent it.
