Yes. All students in regular classes and online will find a way to cheat.
I disagree. We should be concerned about cheating in all environments. I have in the course of my career seen cheating in the workplace by coworkers who game the system forcing the rest of us to pick up the slack. The only truth I have discovered is usually the student cheats from someone who is no smarter than they are. It may be harder to detect in an online environment with mathematics questions as they can use the internet resources to answer questions and copy them. The only way one could tell in that case is if the answer was on a level beyond the scope of the class being taught.
We should always be concerned about cheating, if not more in an online environment. In a live classroom setting cheating occurs, when there are people who could possibly catch them, so in an online environment the urge may be even greater. Timed exams and discussion posts may help, but our concern should still be there.
I definitely disagree! Cheating is certainly a concern in the online environment. I feel that cheating may be easier in an online environment due to the fact that the curriculum rarely changes and the assignments remain the same year after year. As an instructor, I have had to report numerous students for academic dishonesty because of plagiarism. In one instance, a student submitted their assignment to the wrong forum and another student copied the work exactly and turned it in. In another instance, a student attempted to use a friend's paper from a prior course that I taught. All I can say is thank goodness I have a great memory otherwise, these students would have succeeded.
I feel that whether it is online or on ground, cheating should always be a concern. I feel the online instructor must be even more vigilant since it is so much easier for the online student to cheat.
All instructors must be aware of the possibility of cheating in an online environment. I have just finished reading a series of articles on online cheating. First of all, cheating in an online environment is not greater than in a classroom. I also learned about new ways that today's students use including cell phones, photos of tests.
Cheating is always cause for concern. It compromises the integrity and quality of education we are providing. Plagerism seems to be one of the more common methods of cheating, both online and in live classrooms. It is every instructor's responsibility to help students understand what constitutes as plagerism and why it is wrong.
I agree that cheating may be the same, no matter if it is in an online class or in person. I agree as well with some of the other posts, that it is important to emphasize to the students that cheating in the short term may get them a grade, but it will not serve them in the long run.
Cheating is cheating yourself, you are paying for an education and not taking advantage of that, or allowing someone else to gain from it is actually cheating yourself. John Eliassen
We should always be concerned with cheating, online or traditional course. There are steps that can be taken to curb cheating such as timmed exams and only allowing access once.
I think if students feel prepared for the exam then the urge to cheat is diminished, if not removed. It is up to teachers (hence the name) to teach and provide for knowledge transfer to hlpe this situation.
I totally agree. At some point in time...cheating catches up with you.
I'm always talking to my students about cheating because they need to understand that although it may save them time, they are really cheating themselves in the end. The temptation to cheat online is no different than in the classroom, and it still has a negative impact on their learning.
I think we should be perhaps more concerned about cheating in an online environment because it is maybe a little easier to be tempted to do so because students may think they won't get caught because there's no one looking over their shoulder. I think we need to alert students early on in the course that their work will be checked to ensure that it is their own.
Cheating is never OK, not only morally and ethically but also because it does not benefit the student in the final analysis. Plagiarists will not graduate with the life skills/ competencies/ effectiveness to be successful because they have not mastered the material.
I am convinced that cheating catches up with one eventually. Lastly, cheating must destroy self-esteem at some level since the individual knows that they didn't really earn what may have been gained from cheating.
I face cheating at least one every course in an online environment. Either by copying directly from a website or where both students submit the same file with the same answers on a project they worked together.
My question to everyone is what safeguards can be put in place to minimize online cheating.
You are right, our students need to be aware of the value in knowing the materials we are assessing. I think that for our olders students they understand this more than some of our younger students.
It doesn't matter if it is online or not, we must always be aware of the possibility of students cheating. I'm often concerned about students cheating online because I provide feeback on all assignments. If students know each other then they could possibly share the answers with their friends and their scores could be improved based off of my feedback. I am also concerned that students who repeat the course may have some of the correct answers from the last time they took the course, as the material only changes with new versions of the book.
Unfortunately I have had a few students who have cheated by doing a search and finding the answers to the problems online and just copying and pasting the answers. It is sometimes harder to catch these types of cheating, but it does happen.
I'm somewhat in the same boat. Instead of allowing them to retake the exams I allow my students to redo their assignments based on the information I highlight as incorrect and the comments I make on their submission. I have noticed however, that sometimes the revised assignment is worse than the original so I always make sure that my students receive the higher of the two scores so that their hard work is rewarded. In addition, I do not count off for late work in extinuating circumstances. For example I had one student bringing home their premature baby from the hospital and couldn't get the assignment in on time due to the baby's health issues.
What are some ways you can detect a cheating student?
I absolutely disagree. Cheating in any type of learning environment should be heavily discouraged. If students cheat on assignments/exams than they are actually cheating themselves. When a student cheats what type of learning are they actually doing or are they even learning?
This question actually reminds me of an episode of Hannah Montana on Disney Channel. The main character's brother gets the answers for the exam and writes it all over his body...to make a half hour show concise he actually learns the material by having to write the answers many times.
Personally I do not want my students to learn by having to "write" the answers many times. I would rather have my students learn by be active participants in the class and asking questions. I know I spend many hours a week tutoring my students in a one-on-one basis to be able to accomodate each learning style.
Every student learns differently because everyone is different. To help address and be able to embrace the differences in my students I make sure to take the time to "meet" with them. I even provide my students with the instant messager information since I use my cellphone for that. By offering many modes of communication and by being willing "to go the extra mile" hopefully my students do not feel the need to cheat.
