I currently teach in an on-ground environment and beleive that cheating is a very serious offense. If a student feels he/she needs to get through a class by cheating, they will continue this behavior again at some point in time. I do not believe cheating should be tolerated in any form. I have heard stories about on cheating while taking courses online and would hope there are ways to discourage this because students must realize they gain nothing from this behavior.
I had to take a step back and really think about this question. A majority of my post-secondary education was conducted at a military academy where the consequences of cheating (in addition to lieing and stealing)were pretty severe. Not only was there the public shame brought upon the individual and his family, there were at times financial and service obligations. In that environment, cases of cheating were the extreme exception, not the norm. Now, as a "civilian" I need to recognize that I am working with a different population - no more or less ethical, just different. At a minimum, if I conduct a class on line I will publish a statement at the outset stating that all work needs to be accomplished by the student - a statment with a digitized signature. Cheating is here to stay. I think addressing the issue upfront and relaying expectations will help keep the majority of folks on track.
I tend to think that we need to ask better questions to avoid cheating. It is much easier in this day and age to "cheat." That is to use other students posts or outside material to cut and paste into answers. So we have to carefully construct assignments that need to be individualized to be successful. This also supports the idea of applied or application based learning.
Jon,
According to me, cheating is a possibility at both the levels. Students can cheat in classroom environment as well as online. But I feel that cheating online is easier because of the surfing options available. There are books, websites as well as a lot of journals that could be used for the purpose.
Timothy,
Great point on Turnitin.com (I just wish you could still use it for free ...)
Jon
Patrick,
Good points - it is getting harder to manage, but its also becoming more important to.
Thanks,
Jon
Jenny & Rob,
I agree - its certainly a problem, just the methods used have changed. Projects and papers are a great way to make this more difficult (and are better indicators of student learning anyway).
Best,
Jon
Donna,
Good, and I partially agree. Cheating is certainly a serious issue, but I think that it is just as serious in both modalities (students just have different ways of doing it).
Thanks,
Jon
Maintaining academic integrity in an online course is just as important as maintaining it in a traditional class. Cheating may be harder to monitor in an online course because students within the class can collaborate through other email addresses which the school cannot monitor. Originality Verification software such as Turnitin.com and Blackboard’s Safe Assign provide valuable tools to the online instructor and to the student to insure that documents submitted for grading are original in content.
The challenge for instructors who teach the same topic over and over is to ensure that details about assignments vary from section to section to prevent students from developing an ‘answer pool’. The problem with cheating whether it is in an online format or a traditional format is the impact that action has on the instructor. When I encounter my first instance of cheating I began to develop a cynical view of my learners. It took some effort on my part to realize that not all learners cheat.
Asynchronous learning environments lend themselves to cheating when one student stands in for another or use of inappropriate aids or banned texts are used. Cheating occurs at all level of college -- ground or online -- but resources such as Turnitin.com and other devices have helped to level the playing field in recent years to some degree.
Of course, an instructor should be concerned about cheatin, because cheating demonstrates, on the part of the learner, a fear that they do not understand the content. We want our students to have a sense of confidence and assurance that they are competent individuals.
To reduce the likelihood of cheating there are a number of strategies an on-line instructor can employ. The first, and foremost, is ensuring the students have had ample opportunity to use/apply information presented. One can also provide quizzes to boost confidence and act as a review.
Rob, I agree with your idea about including more project-type work and writing as a way to limit student cheating. There will always be some students who try to devise ways to teach, but I think you're right to suggest that some of the responsibility then falls to the instructor to help to prevent that.
So, I disagree with the statement posed by Jon at the beginning of the forum. Cheating is a problem online and in the classroom. But I don't think it's a hopeless problem.
DISAGREE!
Cheating compromises the objective of learning, therefore there is relevancy in being concerned about online cheating. Remember, how back in the 1990's there was widespread copyright infringment and students where copying but not documenting their sources.
I believe, cheating can only be monitored through the design of course assessments such as multiple test versions or variating question types just to mention a few. Also,cheating should be prohibited in the syllabus!
Rob,
Great points - I agree that the best thing to do is going with some more detailed, original projects instead of MC questions ....
Jon
It is easier to cheat on-line and instructors should be aware of it and watch for it. We have cheating policies and they are severe, so we want to make sure that cheating occurred before we make a charge. It's painful for the student and the instructor.
I feel a majority of cheating (and the pain of punishing it) can be can be avoided by including more writing or projects in the testing and by educating students about the cheating policy and about the losses that a student accepts when they cheat. Even if they aren't caught, they're not attaining the education they are paying for and they're not developing the knowledge and confidence they need to be successful. If they know the rewards of not cheating and the consequences of cheating, they are much less likely to succumb to the temptation.
We should always be concerned with cheating in all learning environments. It is prohibited and there should be consequences when students are caught. For online assignments and tests, they should be timed. This forces the student to study and prepare and not take the easy way out and rely on the course materials/textbooks, etc.
For the online environment, I have found it to consist of ample busy work. If a student is doing the busy work as required, there is no need to cheat on a test/quiz. This could apply to the traditional setting as well.
Although no system is fullproof, a student who chooses to cheat does him/herself an injustice. Especially if they are required to pass exams to become certified in their field of study.
Cheating has become a major problem in online learning environment. But student who cheats, actually depriving him/herself in future and will definitely face problem when get into the real world work.
Great points - thanks for sharing! - Jon
Great points - thanks for sharing! - Jon
Rachel,
Really interesting points - the more we can do to make the the work unique and interesting helps.
Thanks,
Jon
