Top 8 ways students are cheating today
December 9, 2009 by Carin FordPosted in: Academics, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
Not so long ago, students relied on crib sheets and word of mouth to cheat. And while some of those methods live on, cheating today has taken a new twist.
Here’s Education-Portal.com’s list of the eight most popular ways students are cheating (in no particular order):
- Copying — Whether it’s eyes roving during a test or a so-called “study group,” it’s still copying.
- Buying papers online — It doesn’t get much easier than this. Papers on just about any topic you can think of are available — and most can be downloaded instantly.
- Cheat sheets — This perennially popular form of cheating is made even easier with today’s electronic devices.
- Take a picture — If a professor leaves a test on his desk, all it takes is the click of a student’s cell phone camera to steal it.
- “Can I go to the bathroom?” — Once there, a student can call or text friends for answers during a test.
- MP3 players — Students can put anything on their iPods — including lecture notes. And with many professors letting students listen to their MP3s during tests in order to focus and relax …
- Cell phones — Is there a better — or easier — way to store data?
- When is a candy bar more than a candy bar? — Believe it or not, some students have peeled off the wrapper, scanned it, edited the nutritional info into test answers and rewrapped the candy bar — where it sits on the student’s desk during an exam.
Which method of cheating are you most familiar with — or do you have one you’d like to add to the list? Let us know in the comments section below.
Tags: Cell phones, Cheating
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November 18th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Programmable calculators — students program equations, formulas, nomenclature information (chemistry) onto their programmable calculators. I now have to require nonprogrammable calculators for the course to minimize this method. They also tape cheat sheets into the inside of the the calculator covers, and write information on the palms of their hands. A recent survey conducted by a new station in my city indicated that 60% of the high school students surveyed admitted to cheating on their math and science exams. Cheating at the college level is becoming an increasing problem.
November 18th, 2009 at 10:56 am
It has never been more true that education is the one thing we are willing to pay for but not receive.
November 18th, 2009 at 11:04 am
I’ve seen the 8th example. They printed out the information they needed and put it on the inside of a soda bottle label. While the test took place they drank down to the information they needed.
Moral of the story students should only have the test and a pencil at their desk when being tested. Keeps honest people honest.
November 18th, 2009 at 11:17 am
There are videos on YouTube showing how to do the candy bar thing with drink cans and mechanical pencils too. I don’t allow headgear to be worn during tests. Baseball caps have the front visor that can hide a student’s eyes from the teacher, so the student can easily look over at his/her neighbor’s paper without being detected. Scarves and opaque hair nets can hide cheat sheets, which can be pulled put and hidden behind a hand that’s being used ostensibly to prop up the student’s head. I make all my students leave their cell phones at the front of the room during tests. If they don’t have them on their persons, they can’t use them to cheat.
November 18th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Paul – “It has never been more true that education is the one thing we are willing to pay for but not receive.” Do you pay for your job education?
Education is not about how well one does on a multiple choice test. Can the student apply the knowledge gained to the world around them? Teachers need to get away from the objectiveness of learning, and assess at a higher level, thus eliminating the term cheat from their vocabulary. How do you cheat in a open discussion forum? How do you cheat on a group project, with an oral presentation? Am I able to cheat at my workplace? In the past 5 years, I have not been assessed with a multiple choice test, I am assessed on my multiple decision-making skills.
Michael – “Moral of the story students should only have the test and a pencil at their desk when being tested. Keeps honest people honest.” Seriously??!!!! When was the last time you were evaluated in this manner at your job?
Cannot believe this continues to be an issue?
November 18th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Online testing: Only way to secure it is with randomization from a large bank of questions and a tight time limit. In addition to IPods, attempts to cheat that I am aware of are:
1. Several students go to one home, bring laptops. One opens the test, and as they take it some others will look up answers to questions for the test taker. The rest will copy down the questions. Other than the first student, the rest all have many or all of the questions and answers. This works unless everyone has to take the test simultaneously, which doesn’t match the model of online learning.
2. Students take turns in the class asking the teacher to “reset” the test because they submitted it by accident before they were finished, had a technical problem and their computer shut down, etc ad nauseum. During that time the test is originally open, they copy the questions. If a terst is not submitted using Blackboard, it does not record the selected answers nor amount of time the student was in the test, so you can’t check for the plausibility of their explanation. When the student(s) retake it, they have looked up the answers. To avoid scrutiny, they sometimes work in groups so they rotate who makes the request. Working together and rotating who requests also evades any course policy that limit test resets.
I was truly shocked to see that cheating isn’t a lone activity anymore – it is a cooperative group activity. Any class where students know each other is at greater risk for cheating. I have backed off of discussion groups/interactive activities in online classes so as not to encourage students to meet each other online and hatch these schemes. Keeping them isolated from each other is safer for cheating, even though it is less adventageous for learning.
November 18th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Dona – “I have backed off of discussion groups/interactive activities in online classes so as not to encourage students to meet each other online and hatch these schemes. Keeping them isolated from each other is safer for cheating, even though it is less adventageous for learning.”
Isolation is not “less advantageous for learning”, it goes totally against all sound pedagogical principles.
What is your definition of learning?
November 18th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Has it not occurred to anyone that it’s much more difficult to cheat if an exam consists only of essay questions?
p.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Preparing to cheat was, I always found, the best way to study the material for a test. You have to put a lot of thought into it. I’d prepare a “cheat sheet,” but I wouldn’t use it. Didn’t need to, because I’d spent all the time preparing it. It’s an open world. This isn’t the 19th century. It’s time to update the wisdom on what constitutes “cheating.” And there are a lot of ways to assess whether learning has taken place. This isn’t necessarily an adversarial process.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Most National Board Exams still rely on multiple choice, sadly there are some pieces of information that must be known. Discussion groups and oral reports on structural anatomy and chemical equations might prevent cheating, but will it help? Should your physicians and nurses discuss the nature and location of your injury with you or follow the protocol to treat it. Are you willing to allow oral and hands-on practice without first determining the student preparedness.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
In our organic chemistry courses, We xerox a certain percentage of exams after they are graded and before they are handed back. The students are allowed to submit their tests for regrade if they think a mistake has been made in the grading. They are told not to write anything on the test itself. If a student turns in the exam for a regrade, it is checked against any zerox we may have gotten (the exams for xeroxing are choosen randomly). Frequently students will alter their exam, and then claim the grading was incorrect. I have seen everything from an entire exam being erased and re-written, to very subtle arrows or bonds or +/- signs changed. I’ve been doing this for 8 years and not one semester has passed that we haven’t caught someone altering their exam on regrade.
Interestly, my friend is convinced this is a set-up – and that altering a regrade is not really cheating because they didn’t do it in the course of completing the exam. But if extra points are awarded based on falsified answers to test questions, how is that not cheating?
November 18th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Backed off of using discussion? I don’t even know where to go with this statement. I have to agree with the idea that integrating essay questions into a timed online exam is probably the most effective security component I have come across. It is also a logical fallacy to attempt to compare assessment in the educational system and the workplace. Education is about teaching practical application of knowledge, in many areas, but not all. Is it important to have read Hamlet if you are a computer programmer? Nope. But is it important? Yep. Education strives to impart many things beyond practical application. And I would agree that assessment does need to be done at a higher level than we/I usually do, but frankly, I’m so tied up with attempting to “assess” these days that my teaching is suffering.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I suspect that if a grade is based on a good mix of activities (class discussons, individual and team assignments, individual & team presentations, several small quizes, plus the final/mid-term), students may not find it so easy to cheat. In fact, it might be more difficult to cheat than to do the work in the first place.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
In this day of information at your finger tips….why are educators still insisting on students memorizing information???? This is the 21st century!!! Memorization is out dated!! We as educators need to find a more realistic (and fun) way of teaching.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Patrick – I completely agree. We should be teaching students to utilize information not just recite it. I see it occasionally when new students come into my research lab that look good academically but struggle to apply the things they have learned in class. The old system of preparing students ignores the reality that finding and applying information (as opposed to memorizing information and recalling it at the time it’s needed like in the math test example) is the skill that sets most people apart, regardless of the field in which they work.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
One similar cheat with the cell phone camera: the student takes a photo of the problem items and sends it to a confederate, who texts back with the answers.
While I was a supervisor, I saw this happen while the teacher was carefully looking at another part of the class during the test. I found it funny, because he was looking at a group which he regularly suspected of cheating, and the seemingly innocent student had his opportunity to use the cell phone camera.
Teachers can’t have eyes everywhere. Perhaps, the multiple choice assessments are the problem. Students think that MC tests are like Eric Berne’s “Now I’ve Got You, You SOB.” I never received a promotion based on my Multiple Choice ability, but rather on my producing meaningful work. Perhaps the MC test brings out a predictable part of human nature.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
WOW! Let’s face it, everyone cheats! Spending time trying to prevent it is like asking drivers not to stare at a car accident on the high way.
I agree 100% with Patrick “Education is not about how well one does on a multiple choice test.” So if the possibility of cheating in your course(s) exists then maybe you should take a second look at your learning objectives and adjust as needed.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Patrick – “Am I able to cheat at my workplace?”. Let me count the ways…Embezzlement, Fraud, Misappropriation, Theft of physical and intellectual property, Falsification of records, Leaving early/arriving late/taking unreported breaks…wow the list can just go on and on. (I mean, are you not assessed on whether or not you commit fraud…exactly what cheating is…or do you just work in a place where that type of cheating is NOT an option – which I doubt)?”
If we allow student to cheat in school, what is to stop them from doing so in the job which they “earn” through their degree. Without the fraudulent degree, they would not get the job and could not continue their behavior in the professional world.
Exams should test students ability to 1) retain facts, 2) process the information and use it to generate new ideas or observations 3) apply their new knowledge to the real world through critical thinking activities, and 4) express their own views above and beyond the information gained in this process. #1 is as important (even in the work environment) as #s 2 – 4. We may not be given multiple-choice tests in the workplace, but we are often required to memorize and exactly reproduce facts learned on the job. Decision-making IS vital, but it cannot be divorced from acquired knowledge..it is only together that these two factors can generate true wisdom.
I agree with many of those (including Patrick) who said that multiple choice tests are not the best way to avoid cheating (or to assess student knowledge and performance); however I think that “eliminating the term cheat from [our] vocabulary” is the most ignorant and irresponsible suggestion that I have heard all year.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
“In this day of information at your finger tips….why are educators still insisting on students memorizing information???? This is the 21st century!!! Memorization is out dated!! We as educators need to find a more realistic (and fun) way of teaching.”
Because if you do not have the base of knowledge, then higher cognitive functions that will utilize that base of knowledge cannot happen. And. . .the internet and other mediums of instantaneous information is almost always NOT available when you need to apply it. Never mind the fact that “instantaneous” information is typically unreliable. I would also question why the emphasis of “fun” is necessary in the learning process. I teach writing skills, analysis skills, research skills, along with other items, not golfing via a Wii.
November 18th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
“Memorization is out dated!! We as educators need to find a more realistic (and fun) way of teaching.”
1. The fact of memorization indicates personal characteristics such as commitment, persistence, and the ability to acquire and retain information. Whether as teacher, employer, or co-worker, I want to know who has and does not have those characteristics. If it’s not fun, tough — there are already fewer good jobs than there are good people to fill them.
2. There are still many many non-white-collar settings in which information is not instantly electronically available. I have worked in the field, domestically and abroad, as an oceanographer, hydrologist, and general environmental scientist, and I can assure you that there are still many places and times when there is absolutely no substitute, electronic or otherwise, for having the information in your mind, whether it’s to get the job done, or to reduce risk of injury or death to yourself or others.
November 18th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
One method of cheating my colleagues and I have recently discovered: students can purchase the test bank for many of the textbooks we use. We’ve had to severely limit our use of test bank software because of this problem.
Regarding the statement that memorization is outdated: I would just like to comment that in my discipline (nursing), memorization is an integral part of what must be done by students to become a safe practitioner. I would challenge anyone to put themselves or their loved ones in the hands of a nurse who has not memorized the uses and side effects of the medications being given, normal lab values, or the formulas for calculating what your intravenous flow rate should be!
November 18th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
This is just one reason why tests don’t count for much in my courses. That can really surprise students who don’t read the syllabus and see that the majority of the final grade (just like a job, another lesson) is based on showing up for class and on work every week throughout the semester.
Of course, that’s why I actually may add a test to my courses: a test on what the syllabus says. If I could spend less time saying or emailing “see the syllabus,” I would have so much more time for all the grading that comes from requiring weekly work and other components that are not so easy to grade as a couple of tests per semester. But then, my aim is not testing . . . . or even teaching, in terms of talking at students and having them talk it back to me on a test. My aim is learning.
November 18th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I do not have a problem with cheating. Each of my tests is unique and is not like anything the student has seen. Each question requires THINKING. It takes more time both in preparation and grading. Teachers who give “standard” tests are asking for the students to cheat. Test bank questionsis the lazy way of testing. The key is in the test preparation!
November 18th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
After reading all the responses I think it is obvious that different disciplines will require different testing techniques. The courses I teach do not require memorization for future careers. I give open book quizzes and very few of my students turn in a perfect quiz. I balance their knowledge with written assignments which require them to apply class theories and concepts and class presentations. I learned years ago that I didn’t want to have to deal with the cheating issue so I do as much as I can to take it out of the equation. What I did want students to do is read the material because that was not happening. The open book quizzes force my students to read the material. Many of the quizzes are turned in with page numbers on the quiz so I know they are reading the material.
November 18th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Not one of you has mentioned HONOR. I never cheated because I have honor. I would rather fail or get a low pass than cheat and have to live with it. That’s how I was brought up.
November 18th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I have found that open-book exams do away with a lot of cheating. What real life experience requires one to work without access to references? Structuring exams to test students on their ability to use references in solving problems, be they scientific or philosophical or logical, is a much better way than testing their ability to memorize and regurgitate.
My tests are usually long for the allotted time. I permit the use of laptops and all devices that can link to the Internet. Students who spend more than a very few minutes searching, or who spend time communicating with other students, don’t have a hope of finishing. I also cruise the room and look to see what’s on the screens from time to time, and the rest of the time stand in the back of the room where I can see who is doing what. Granted, my classes are relatively small – 20 to 35 students, but I have used teaching assistants and colleagues to help monitor larger classes.
November 18th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Why are “study groups” considered a form of cheating? In my syllabi, I always include language which explains to students that they are encouraged to work together outside of class.
It’s shocking to see professors claiming that “keeping them isolated from each other is safer for cheating, even though it is less adventageous for learning.”
It’s equally shocking to see professors complaining about students getting access to the standard tests included with the textbooks. Time to write a new exam!
Aaron
November 18th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
I personally don’t want my doctor to have to look up the names of the veins or arteries on the internet before he assesses me – we’ll never completely get away from memorization!
November 18th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
I have seen cheating at all levels and each time I see it, I question my teaching – what am I not teaching? why does the student need to cheat? I now write original exams with “backwards” questions – they are application based, but still multiple choice – basically I provide the short essay answer and the student has to choose what the question was! It’s an interesting testing process that really throws students, as it is not “typical”. they are allowed to bring a cheat sheet (open book would not be practical in our cramped classrooms, otherwise I would allow that also), but it doesn’t help, as the answers to these questions cannot be found on any cheat sheet I’ve every seen! Then we write original papers that journal their thought processes as the class moves along – this is often the majority of the grade and it’s not something you can buy online. Certainly this would not work for chemistry or math, but it works well for social sciences!
The goal is to teach the students, not to babysit them!
November 18th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
I like Jacqui’s idea. I am going to try to write some “backwards” questions for my own exam. Thanks for all the great ideas. My cheating story is a funny one. I usually don’t have exams in my summer classes because the time is so precious. Instead, I assign extensive homework packs that require the students to read the text for the answers. I insist that the answers be completed independently and there is no copying allowed. I do allow my students to type their answers though and submit them by email. I had one group of students who divided up the questions and each did a section and then compiled them into one. In order for me to not notice this, they each submitted the homework with a different font! I laughed my head off when these crazy fonts were converted into arial and all the lines matched up exactly.
November 18th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
To Jaime Mendoza, who said, “WOW! Let’s face it, everyone cheats!”
You must cheat and assume everyone else cheats as well. I never had to cheat. I was prepared for my tests and never crammed. I turned in the cheaters. Cheaters are morally lacking and I don’t want them graduating and getting a degree. I don’t want a doctor who cheated his way through medical school to be my doctor. I don’t want unethical business men running our economy to the ground. I don’t want scientists who will falsify data to get ahead. Etc…
To Liina Ladon, who said “A recent survey conducted by a new station in my city indicated that 60% of the high school students surveyed admitted to cheating on their math and science exams.”
If the tests are done properly, especially with more advanced mathematical equations, you can easily catch the cheaters. Most students never graded papers so don’t realize that there are many ways to arrive at a solution to complex equations. Different people will work through complex problems in different order and put down different variable names. It’s much easier than you think to isolate a cheater in physics and math if you don’t use multiple choice tests. People who copy other peoples homework will also show up obviously to the graders.
Multiple guess tests are created by lazy instructors. I’ve always hated those tests. They don’t really test knowledge because the answer is presented and you narrow down the choices by discarding the obviously wrong ones and make a quick guess.
The best instructors tend to give open book tests and tell you that you can create one or even two pages of handwritten notes. When you create those “cheat sheets” you tend to learn the information. During those tests, I rarely had to open the book or look at the notes to answer any of the test questions.
November 18th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
I’m quite familiar with graphing calculators being used to cheat. You can type in whatever you feel like and it requires absolutely no programming knowledge. But people in my major don’t stop there; why take the time typing it into your calculator when you can just scribble tiny notes on a scrap of paper and tape it on the inside of your calculator lid?
The fact is, where there’s a will, there’s a way. I don’t necessarily think that cheating has increased in the past 20 years, but has just become much more efficient. Before, someone could maybe remind him or herself of a concept or two by writing on the back of a hand. Now, people have entire textbooks copied into phones.
November 18th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Patrick wrote
“Paul – “It has never been more true that education is the one thing we are willing to pay for but not receive.” Do you pay for your job education?”
I have no idea what you mean by this, or why you seemed to assume that I thought that education is just a matter of doing well on multiple choice tests (which, as you’ll note, I didn’t even mention). I’ve never given a multiple choice test in my 22 years of college teaching, though at the same time I’m well aware that it is very possible to write good multiple choice questions that require application of knowledge.
That doesn’t change the fact that the purpose of cheating is to get a grade (or pass a course) without having to learn the subject matter. That was my point.
November 18th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
I must agree that retention is important in some areas. There are things that you will have time to look up in the workplace (to use one respondent’s example: Hamlet) and then there are things you will not have time for (Medical knowledge as an extreme example, basic industry knowledge as a more common one) What is important is that professors and teachers realize the difference.
One of the best responses I have seen to cheating on multiple choice tests was a professor who put all the questions and their answers into a computer program which then shuffled the order of the questions into 25 totally different tests. He wouldn’t tell anyone what was going on for the first test, and if he saw any “exacts”, he would take those students aside and warn them not to cheat without telling them that the tests were fixed. Some students got suspicious and stopped. Others didn’t and were taken out of the class (I assume on disciplinary action)
November 18th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
I use 2 types of multiple choice tests on the same test material.
The homework tests for credit are open book, done in groups, consulting a tutor, whatever. The purpose here is to promote learning. Students on my campus do not spend enough time and effort studying outside of classes. The only rule is not to mark an answer until the student knows why it is the best answer.
Class tests on the same material (mostly not the same questions) a week later are closed book, as traditionally. Here the purpose is to measure, for credit, what the students know. Class tests are done like a controlled experiment: rule out all soucres of information except what a student recalls or can think through cognitively. No electronic devices or ear phones of any kind allowed. No use of a restroom w/o a proctor. Mine are large, crowded lecture rooms. We know cheating in such classes is mainly visual (excluding electroninc devices), and using 2 versions in alternate seating does not work. Actual experiments show many students can read answer spots at least 2 seats away in all directions. I have solved this by designing a simple, stiff, black cover sheet, which must be kept over the scantron answer sheet until the test is handed in for grading. A slot allows one answer to be written in at a time, while all the other 49 are kept under cover. Each answer on the class test is worth 2 points, compared to 1 point for each on the homework tests, which weighs the credit in favor of what they really know. This method works well.
For instance, a student who cheats on the homework test by merely copying others work is easy to spot; their score will be no more than 10+or-2/50 on the class test (5 choices per question), compared to 48/50, say, on the homework test. Memorizing imporant facts is required, but students know there will be less than half of the test that can be answered from memory alone. Most of the questions will require cognative processing of one sort or another, after any needed facts are recalled.
The means on the class tests usually run 5-20% below the homework, depending mainly on the percentage of underclassmen in the class each semester. If material for a block is more difficult than most, both tests’ means go down.
Final grade is also based on term papers and voluntary extra credit projects. A recent one I recall was this question given in class: How many miles of DNA is there in an average hman adult, given it is in the most common form with 3.4 Anstroms per nucleiotide pair? How does this compare with the radii of the planetary orbits in our solar system? The first 5 students to hand in an acceptable answer, with their work in writing, and citing any source consulted, earn 1 or 2 points extra credit.
November 18th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
In the end, who are they cheating? Only themselves. So they get a grade they don’t deserve. Eventually what they don’t know will show up and cost them something they really want/need. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to prevent cheating or acknowledge its presence. I have moved away from research papers into journals, movie reviews and questions that force them to think for themselves. I feel these show more of what they are learning than whatever they’ve memorized and verbally regurgitated. I don’t teach science/medical classes though, so my students don’t have to know veins, arteries or other internal organs. The journals/reviews/critical thinking papers usually count for more points than any quiz or test I give. I like the Jeopardy type backwards questions and may try that myself, but I still feel that in the end the only people who get cheated are the people who don’t get the education someone paid for (themselves, their parents, a grant…whatever).
November 19th, 2009 at 4:00 am
Encourage applicability. That encourages critical thinking and avoids the inane multiple choice, T/F and short answer menu of tests out there. I, however, see the need for these types of tests for math, stats, etc., but please relegate it to those types of subjects. Students who are able to retain information long enough to spew it out in a test of this type do well. Those who need more stimulation to retain it long enough, do not do well, so they cheat. However, both groups forget the information at varying times following that type of testing.
November 19th, 2009 at 6:43 am
Believe it or not – I learned a lot by preparing cheat sheets. Clever cheating means: a) repetition of the subject matter, b) prioritizing.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:41 am
WOW, here we go again! Patrick, great comments. First, it sounds like teachers are supposed to be the new moral police. I never give multiple guess questions on my exams. I give students a mid-term and a final with applied and conceptual questions–these are handed out one week ahead of time. Typically, I will have 10-12 essay questions that require the student to think critically in order to get to the answer. Students may use the text, class notes, the internet, or other resources. In the instructions I include: “each question will take between 1 1/2 to 2 pages in order to provide a comprehensive answer.” So, I get an eight to twelve page exam back. Yes, sometimes I question my sanity when I start grading but I have seen some graduate level work at the associate level. It is very difficult for the student to “cheat” as the questions will include having them to give examples using their own life situation (which is easy as I teach sociology). In addition, I do not “assume” they are cheating. Who are they cheating? Me? An employer? I think not! If they receive a degree and get a job it will not take long for the employer to “figure out” that the person does not know the job. So, again I ask. “Who are they cheating?” Only themselves.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:12 am
First, I am not an “educator” thou I have taught. So you professionals can ignore all this. Also, I have been known to take things to extreme limits to make a point. That said, I noticed that one person feels multiple choice test should not be used. I wounder how that person would test a calculus class of 100 students. Another said that memorizing is outdated and should not be required. Well methyl and ethyl are both alcohol so here, have a drink. Perhaps if a student can turn on a computer and sign onto the internet, give him/her a BA or BS degree. If they can google any subject, give them their masters. If they can log onto a liberal website, that is good enough for a PHD. Who really cares if the student knows anything about history. We can always make the same mistakes again and learn in real life instead of some boring and stuffy old classroom. I am off the soapbox now so flame away.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:45 am
John, educator or not, your methyl/ethyl reference says it all!
November 19th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I have done Open Book/Open Note Exams (but TIMED), 50 questions/50 minutes almost since I began teaching 18 years. I began doing this after a cheating episode.
I tell the students how to study for these exams, and I “tweak” the questions from the test banks. With the advent of texting, one of the first things I noticed in my face-to-face classes is that students can’t text fast enough to cheat. They may get a few questions answered by texting, but they will fall behind on time and NOT get finished. So they get those unanswered questions wrong and end up failing the exam.
In addition, out of 750 points total for the course, only 150 points are assigned to exams which lessens the pressure for students who do not test well. I use unique in-class activities and exercises and presentations to make up the rest of the points of each course.
November 19th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Re: “WOW! Let’s face it, everyone cheats!” (Jaime Mendoza)
Speak for yourself!
November 20th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I teach at a community college. Many of my students really don’t care enough about their grades to bother cheating. A surprising thing that we have observed here is that our Honors students have been caught cheating at a much higher rate. After all, they’re the ones who care most about their grades! The sad thing is that these are the students who are most likely to move on to a prestigious 4-year school.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
the honors students cheating? doesn’t surprise me. I’m a physician and it was always the “gunners” I suspected and saw cheating. Look in all areas of adult life/work and we see the cheaters – Wall Street, Martha Stewart, Dick Fuld (scoundral, thief, and liar) Enron, Madoff, Science research fraud, etc. Interesting maybe impossible study would be to ask these adult big time cheaters if they cheated in school, when, and how much.
November 20th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
I teach a college success freshman class to new and at risk students. I have prepared weekly quizzes and have ended up letting students complete them as take home exams. Why? I would rather they learn the material knowing they have some exposure to the content than have them “memorize” just for the test. Interestingly, a few still get wrong answers even though I mention that with a take home, everyone should get 100%. Afterwards, we correct and discuss the questions and answers. This may not be practical for science and math type subjects but the learning outcomes have been more achievable and doable for the student learners. Preparing them for a variety of test items, whether true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blanks and short answer essay questions ensures a combination of the students having to use critical, analytical and creative thinking process. And even if “cheating” took place for the objective items, did they learn the material? Perhaps and an inadvertent way of preparing them for the real workplace? More research fodder?
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:08 am
It was great to read so many thoughtful comments about how to handle cheating and cheaters in school.
From my POV, the reason we give/take tests is the same reason we refrain from cheating on those tests. There are many times in personal and professional life when I have to rely on my own resources, on what I know myself and what I can wrestle out of my memory. What my students hear me say is this: “If there were any way we could get you all to study, without giving you the tests, we’d just let you study and we’d never test. Studying for the test is what is it all about. That’s where you learn. The test is only important because we don’t know any other way to push students beyond their comfort and joyful zones. And that’s what it takes to learn.”
In the mid-90s I had back to grad school in order to get my own social research degree so I could figure out how to read for myself the research literature responsiple for so many nutty ideas being passed along as education gospel. Keep in mind those were the days where a PhD student in the social sciences could actually hire a statistician to manage the quantitative portion of dissertation research. This was not considered cheating.
Computer applications hadn’t quite shifted from the mainframe to the PC get, although they made the leap during my time back in school. But since that nitty-gritty research was the part I’d come back to school to learn, I didn’t skip any steps during all the preliminary work that goes into a finished research project. So what was my reward?
After I had submitted the second draft of my finall resport, my dissertation committee decided I needed to change my model. That meant that I needed to add a variable here and take out a variable there. That meant setting up the statistical run again and then running it again. It was the proverbial “Do it over!” But because I had done every step myself, and because I had kept great notes for myself on what it was that I had done, I could reset and rerun the model in about six days. Today you could do it with just a few key strokes, in those days we weren’t using computer punch cards, but we were using a strange mix of PCs networked to the mainframe and still had to walk three blocks to pick up printouts from the night runs the mainframe made for lowly grad students.
To set up my model in the first place had taken steady work with a variety of people who had the skills to know what I needed to do and to teach me how to do it — but I did all the “work:” the keyboard pounding, the decision making, and the record keeping. That had taken the better part of three semesters. The six days on the second run was because all that how-to knowledge was now mine. That’s where my determination to know it all myself paid unexpected dividents.
I don’t bother my students with my grad school tale. But I do tell them about the night I spent with my sister in law on Memorial Day weekend at Vanderbilt Hospital in Memphis TN. She is a micro-biologist and I had just finished up a post-doc in gerontology at UA Birmingham, where a huge component of human physiology is involved in the course work. My wonderful teachers had leaped at the chance to use me as a control (a comparison) in their testing efforts since I was old enough to be the grandmother of my “traditional” classmates. Our assumptions were that there was nothing wrong with my motivation or my study skills, and that my testing skills and anxieties were within normal range, so if I couldn’t keep up with the younger crew on those tests, the limitations had to be in my own mental capapcity to pack the knowledge into my brain. The tests were designed to sort out the high end as well as the low end of the class. My scores were always within the A-, B+ range, the shining young stars always beat me out. None of us were cheating because we were all so measurment crazy: real numbers meant more to us than padded numbers. (Any yes, several of the also rans believed we were all nuts.)
But all that wasn’t my reward. It was that night I spent in the Memphis hosipital with my sister-in-law. I was asleep on the cot in her room when she woke up about 3:30 in the morning. She’d had a bout with cancer and was back in the hospital due to a blood clot in her lung. Right then she wanted to review everything we knew about what was going on in her body at the cellular level. So we reviewed the details of circulatory system, immune system, nervous and endocrin system all at the same time, as each pertained to her case. In the dark. Without notes.
That was a real test. But that was the test my academic tests had prepared me for, and I passed it. I had the knowledge to enter a technical discussion with a micro-biologist in a tight place and, in converstion with my eyes shut, “check her work,” i.e. give and take in question and answer until she had gained the reassurance that she still knew what she thought she did. (And I was stunned at my own capacity to remember the crucial stuff, under pressure). That’s why we do test, to check what we know. That’s why real student continue to really learn.
My sister-in-law faced her doctors (and the decisions she need to make) with confidence the next day and I am happy to report she has been living happily ever after, ever since.
Fran
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:06 am
What ever happened to the “honor” system?
Personally, I don’t care about the cheaters. Not at all. They aren’t cheating me, but are cheating themselves. To me it’s worse to treat eveyone as a cheater than to let the cheaters cheat themselves out of an education. Besides, there are always CEO positions for the cheaters, and they may even be elected president one day. Sigh…
November 25th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Hi, folks:
I’ve been a tenured college teacher for 26 years, so I think I’ve seen and been part of virtually every attempt to cheat known to students. I was also a student myself for 9 years of college, so I’ve seen that side, too.
Here’s my conclusion: students will be tempted to cheat if the environment that’s set up by the teacher makes for an unrealistically difficult challenge. So, I write all my exams and assign all my papers so that students feel excited and empowered to explore the subject and do the best that they can, without crushing stress and anxiety. How? ALL my tests are open book, open note, and I encourage all students to bring a cheat sheet to class. In fact, if students want to, they can submit their cheat sheet along with their test, and I’ll grade the cheat sheet for up to 3 Bonus Points on the test. Working hard to put together an effective cheat sheet is an excellent way to learn the material. It requires the ability to discriminate between the core concepts and the unnecessary, and using critical thinking skills for organization. I also encourage every student to re-do every test grade. No grade is set in my grade book until the student tells me that they are done working on it. I will even help student re-do a test, in my office, as a tutor. They still have to write the new answers and EXPLAIN each one in their own words, but if they can to that, they’ve learned the material. As for papers, I make sure that the topic I assign must be written about in such a very specific way that it is impossible to buy one or copy it on-line. I give students a basic heuristic that they must follow for each paper, which is unique to that subject/topic, and will not be found in any paper mill on-line.
Cheating hasn’t been an issue in any of my classes in many years; students really enjoy my testing process; they say that they learned more in my classes than any others they’ve ever taken, and actually liked being in class.
November 28th, 2009 at 10:45 am
@Thom …. I wish i could have taken your classes. You are absolutely right!!! BRAVO! All teachers should try this. When i was allowed to use a cheat sheet i found myself not even using it as much as i thought i would. I had spent so much time perfecting this cheat sheet and re-writing it to fit the most info, that the concepts stuck in my head! I especially like your idea of grading tthe cheat sheet…Nice one! Teachers…TAKE NOTES from Thom!!!
Let the students be and you will be surprised. Have like 100 questions in 60 minutes…or something like that so that the open book can’t be done cold. You must have studied to know which pages to flip to fast. I especially liked these ones…super speedy testing. First answer in your head is usually correct, but you can flip a page to confirm. It’s a nice rush and a good feeling after the test is over…not a stress bomb until you get the results.
If open book isn’t your way, then may i suggest standing all the students in the front of the class with their hands on buzzers and an audience to cheer. Only way to avoid cheating that i see.
Good luck all you hard core teachers. Who cares if i cheat. Don’t stress…Just kick me out for academic dishonesty….i deserve it! But then again i am paying your salary…so maybe just put me on probation…hehehe.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I am alarmed by the people who seem to think it’s the teacher’s fault for not making learning “fun”. Whatever happened to integrity? We are teaching these kids about a lot more than our content area. I think cheating is disgusting. I BEG to differ. Not “everyone” does it.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Could anyone give me some tips on dealing with cell phones in their classes? Any tips will be greatly appreciated…
November 30th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Callie, for the past several years during tests I’ve told students that they need to turn their cell phones off (though some leave them on vibrate inadvertently, and this does provide a little comic relief during tests from time to time) and put them up at the front of the room — on the chalk rail, on a table if there is one, or on my podium. They take their tests, then pick up their phones as they leave. If someone leaves one behind I take it to my office and send an e-mail to that class section describing the phone. Nobody’s ever lost one, and it puts a stop to cheating by phone. If they don’t have them in hand, they can’t use them. This is in my syllabus, as well as the fact that if they’re caught during a test with a cell phone in their possession, they’ll get an automatic zero for the test, no exceptions, no excuses. (”I forgot I had it with me” falls on deaf ears, in other words.) This has worked out very well.
Some students have said, “But my other teachers don’t do this.” My answer has been, “Evidently your other teachers don’t realize what students can do with cell phones!” I’ve had high-pitched ringtones demonstrated for me by young folks who can hear them, where people around 35 or older can’t. (sort of like a dog whistle, in principle) Perfect for surreptitious text messaging. I’ve also seen a student type the lecture notes for an entire period into his phone, when he forgot to bring pen and notebook one day. He easily could have called that information right back up during a test , and whatever else he might have chosen to type into that phone. But if the phone’s sitting up front for the duration of the test, none of this is possible.
I also put a disclaimer in the syllabus disavowing any liability for damage to students’ cell phones during tests. If a student wants to make sure nothing happens to his/her phone during one of my tests, then he/she can simply leave it at home.
December 1st, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Another, especially disconcerting technique is the “oral examination”. Personal experience in a large university setting found that foreign students had a tendency to sit together and “talk” – whisper in their native tongue amongst themselves during tests while other students were wondering what was being said (cheating).
December 1st, 2009 at 10:02 pm
It’s really great to read so many thoughtful comments. My favorite “fun stress” test was a final exercise I used to wrap up a basic stats class in sociology/criminology (undergrad). Fundamentally, if you can read a P-value you can interpret pretty near all stats commonly reported in the social sciences and education journals. So, using a powerpoint show with questions and answers, I’d line the whole class (maybe thirty-five students in a computer lab) along the wall and then run through the show like a spelling bee. ALL a student had to do was read the reported statistic and P-value and say whether the result was statistically significant or not. I had four shows with about thirty five questions each and the shows got progressively more difficult (more info with the reported statistic).
I’d run the exercise for practice on the next the the last day of classes and for real on the last day of class. In the for real exercise, the last student standing got $20. Nobody else got anything except by the end of it they’d all finally caught on to how to interpret the stats that indicate statistical significance. (This is something that many many graduate students have to look up in order to remember.)
The exam that followed the next week was entirely “open.” They had networked computers in front of them, notes, cell phones, everything. And they could also consult each other. They were to access an SPSS database, select several variables, and run a correlation or regression analysis. In the meantime, they used powerpoint to draw up a path diagram to illustrate the cause and effect relationship between their variables as stated in an appropriate research question with accompanying formal statements of their research hypothesis. And all along they shift everything into a composite Word document that gives a mini-research report, where they report finding and — draw conclusions about the statistical significance of their results. Each student picked their own variables and turned in their own report, one copy printed out, one copy posted electronically.
They had two and a half hours.
We all knew that the specifics of the computer skills they needed would change in the coming years, but the amazing thing, to me (I’m sixty-three and formally retired now), is that all my students always managed to develop their research questions and analyses on the fly, complete their reports, and post their work in the time alloted. What was happening? Their comfort with the technology allowed them to overcome serious math phobias. They caught on to the thrill of the chase, and it usually came together in that final contest on the last day of class, when they saw that stats boils ALL those numbers down into just the two you need to make a decision with. And the only decision you have to make is so easy: which number is bigger?
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:12 pm
If we consider cheating and stealing as similar failings….
I used to work in an industry that dealt with a lot of cash, but paid the bulk of its employees minimum wage, thus theft was always a concern. The Home Office sent a security team to teach the company’s managers how to limit/eliminate the problem. One thing they said has always stuck with me.
“20% of your people will always steal. They will justify it, (the boss is an idiot, the job pays too low, etc.). 20% of your people will never steal. If fact, they will resent being put into situations where they could be liable for someone else’s thievery. The remaining 60% are affected by management. If management maintains an honest system then stealing will be minimal.”
Works the same with cheating on tests. Be active in the classroom—don’t sit at your desk grading papers while the students test.
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
I am a college professor and there is not one of the methods listed here that would not be almost totally eliminated if my colleagues would better police the exams and provide CLEAR rules as to what students can and cannot do. For example…allowing them to “Relax” by listening to their MP3 players during an exam is an example of how silly we have become and what some will allow…..I never have a problem because I allow no such things to cross the door.
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:18 am
Cheating on exams:
Cheating in introductory science and math exams is very common due to adjunct instructors’ inability to create their own exams. I took a course with an adjunct professor in which more than 1/4 of class was cheating with iphones and blackberries. The professor was acting dumb intentionally because he was afraid to make any move. He had no graduate degree and lacked research skills. It was very evident that he was either using old exams or some source to which students had access to. I was very upset with my grades when compared with the students’ who would never show up for the class and towards the end of semester, he was asked to curve good students’ grade…
I think the US university system needs to get rid of all the adjunct faculty who can’t create their own exams..
December 24th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Tap tap tapping.
Some student use an updated version of Morse Code. They’ll tap on their desk the question number under the guise of nervousness. A co-conspirator will return the answer. This usually works best with multiple-choice quizzes.
December 29th, 2009 at 9:45 am
[...] Top 8 ways students are cheating today [...]
January 6th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Haha. These are neat kinda, now I have soo many ideas. Not really, I’m kidding. But what my friends do is type the answers on a word document then change the font to 2pt or 1pt. They use that for Spelling and memorization stuff. its really funny…
January 6th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Of course we all know there will be students that will cheat if given the opportunity. As many people have already stated, varying testing methods can prevent or lessen the occurance of cheating. I knew a physicis teacher that not only allowed study groups and discussion during tests, but had students take the test in small groups of four. He called this process “mastery”. He had completely different questions for each group to eliminate the opportunity for students to share the questions with their classmates after they had completed the test.
The next part is what is genius about this process- he would call the entire group into his office and provide them with blank sheets of paper to show their work (which he kept in his posession after the test). He would then ask each member of the group one of 4 or 5 questions he prepared about the core concepts they were being tested on. The grade the individual received was dependent on the entire effort of the group. No student wants their classmate upset with them for not doing their part so every student made sure they were prepared for ALL the concepts they would be tested on.
If the group had not “mastered” the concept, they did not pass the test and would not pass the test until the could effectively show they had learned the concept being taught and apply in a practical matter. Students are given 3 lab sessions to pass master the concept. At re-test the students are only tested on the concepts they haven’t “mastered”. Of course, each time they re-test the concept is the same but the question is different. He wanted to see if they understood the thought process behind the question and if they could correctly apply the equations used to arrive at the correct answer. If they do not pass within this timeframe they receive a “0″ for that test.
Granted, this was a high school teacher, so he had lab 5 days a week. It would be difficult for a college instructor/professor to do with lab being held only once or twice a week. But the results were amazing; more times than not, groups mastered the concept within the first testing session. Very rarely did a group require all three sessions.
January 14th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
i dont understand why yall on here tripping. you all like you never cheated on ant test. maybe if you would give Reasonable tests that arent 4 and 5 chapters long we wouldnt cheat.
sincerey a t-89, writing on desk, small scraps of paper student