Srabasti,
Bottom line is cheating is bad. Students will not learn what it takes to make it in the working world.
Shelly Crider
I am more concerned about cheating in an online classroom than I am in a traditional classroom. It is really easy to cheat in an online classroom because we do not have a way to monitor if the students are doing the assessments by themselves or not. Thus, if I were going to design my online classroom, I was going to have a component where students were required to take at least one assessment in some monitored area (test-centers, etc).
Cheating is bad because cheating does not help students develop the necessary skill and any country needs skilled workers.
Thank You,
Srabasti Dutta
Bruce,
I like how you mentioned pointing out the excellent student. Yes, we need to keep an eye out for the slower student, but good students need that pat on the back as well. Turning in original work is a great time to convey to the student how good they are doing.
Shelly Crider
I think we need to be “very†concerned about students cheating in both environments. Cheating is cheating regardless of the environment where it occurs. First, I think that we need to recognize the vale and importance of online education (due to technology and the right support mechanism) with the ability to connect students globally--there is great value to this interaction. However, many students have the perception that online courses are easier that the traditional classroom. Consequently, students must be made aware of the demands required from online classes. Additionally, online course requires discipline and may students fall into the procrastination category and soon realize that they cannot complete the course in a timely manner and result to cheating. In many cases, online students are also ill prepared to meet the challenges of the online environment and without adequate “support†students tend to resort to cheating; that is, cheating is much easier and much simpler with internet access. Nonetheless, it is incumbent on the instructor to “spot†the struggle student (just as he/she can spot the excellent student) and provide the necessary assistance. This can prevent cheating, since many student resort to cheating because of thy do know the course materials.
Allison,
We see so many issues in society about cheating. We would like to help teach why it is important to be on your own!
Shelly Crider
Christopher,
Makes you wonder how these students will get jobs and be able to perform!
Shelly Crider
You should always be concerned about cheating and integrity of an individual. If two students are taking the tests side-by-side and sharing answers, that should be consider just as inappropriate as within a live class.
Some online classes have controlled for this by using webcams/microphones to monitor the student when taking the test. The webcam becomes the proctor.
We should be very concerned with students cheating in the online classroom. In fact, the issue can be considered even more serious as entire sites have been created to allow students to share assignments. I personally believe it is easier to cheat online as the web provides a faster and more anonymous method to gather and use material completed by other individuals.
amanda,
I love your ending statement! I have asked that very question myself!
Shelly Crider
Shelly,
Cheating is cheating whether you are online or in class. It should not be tolerated. Now it does get harder to catch a person when cheating online, but it can be done. Essay papers seem to be the hardest item to keep a student from plagiarizing. But with online checkers this will help to curve this epidemic of laziness. Students need to understand up front that what they do shows their character of who they are and if they choose to cheat that says more about them then the actual action of cheating. Also they should understand that it does them no good to cheat because then they will not understand the material. So if you do not understand the material what was the point of trying to take a class to learn it?
Amanda
Nicolas,
Why exactly?? I never could figure this out as you simply do not retain content when cheating.
Shelly Crider
Diane,
It is nice to know that this is addressed in your design of the course!
Shelly Crider
traditional or online environment, cheating is cheating! the question is why the needs for cheating? short and long term effects of a cheater who moves on to real life and cheats on the job...
I believe cheating online is much easier than in the class room especially when everything is electronic. Cheating is always an issue on-line and that is why turnitin is such a valuable resource.
I have been designing online course for a few years and cheating is a topic that we discuss when designing content. We design the courses so that those who try and cheat have to answer to their decision i.e. (if one chooses to copy and paste an answer, we follow with extra response for the student to reply...also we design conditional activties. The student is not allowed to go on to another activtity until an objective is met. This can be accomplished through quiz scores. For example, we place a time limit and if they fail a test or quiz the student is routed to new information. So essentially, if the student chooses not to have integrity from the start more work will be created for them.
Diane
Danita,
I do think that students think we instructor do not check their work in the online environment which gives them the idea cheating is easier.
Shelly Crider
Andrew,
I love to hear my peers speak of morals, role models, and passion. This is passed right along to the students.
Shelly Crider
Bruce,
That is true. Students will get out what they put in. Let's give them something worth putting in.
Shelly Crider
Tony,
Me too!! I like your passion.
Shelly Crider
Cheating is the same whether online or onground classes. The student is to be held to the same academic integrity that they would be held to in a classroom.
