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Remote scan of student’s room before test violated his privacy, judge rules

nytimes.com

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Re: Remote scan of student’s room before test violated his privacy, judge rules

#21

Post by titoCA321 »

josh_fyi wrote: post #15

This will mean more tests in proctored test centers like Pearson VUE. Many students and professionals taking tests cheat casually and without embarrassment: It is seen as simply an efficient way to maximize grades.

Yes, lots of testing at Pearson VUE. Many State Licensing certificates and IT certification testing is conducted at Pearson Vue. Military and government agencies also do applicant testing at Pearson VUE. Candidates seeking to apply to Secret Service show up for Pearson VUE testing center, along with military recruits and folks needing to update Cisco certificates and college students that need to take a test here or there.

Re: Remote scan of student’s room before test violated his privacy, judge rules

#22

Post by IshKebab »

p1necone wrote: post #19
Claude_Shannon wrote: post #4

It is terrible, but what is the alternative to prevent cheating? I had quite a few on-line exams by now and I've seen very creative attempts at cheating so far.

Design better tests. If you can "cheat" on a test by just googling things/looking at notes then the test isn't testing anything but rote memorization anyway.

Ok how do you design a test that's so good I can't just pay someone else to take it for me?

Re: Remote scan of student’s room before test violated his privacy, judge rules

#23

Post by p1necone »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #20
p1necone wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Design better tests. If you can "cheat" on a test by just googling things/looking at notes then the test isn't testing anything but rote memorization anyway.

A math professor (granted easier with math) at university always said, you can bring anything you want to the exam, if you can answer it with help he made a mistake designing the test. I see the same when I interview people online and I hear them frantically click their keyboard - but no help, I know before what Google returns.

Trying to evaluate a software engineer without letting them use google strikes me as being similar to trying to evaluate a construction worker by making them dig holes with their bare hands.

Re: Remote scan of student’s room before test violated his privacy, judge rules

#24

Post by rtev »

p1necone wrote: post #19
Claude_Shannon wrote: post #4

It is terrible, but what is the alternative to prevent cheating? I had quite a few on-line exams by now and I've seen very creative attempts at cheating so far.

Design better tests. If you can "cheat" on a test by just googling things/looking at notes then the test isn't testing anything but rote memorization anyway.

While preparing for a certification, I had someone DM me on the prep forums and offer to ship me an in-ear monitor and physical HDMI mole to coach me in real-time. Cheaters are nuts, there are few test formats that would survive an attack like that.

Re: Remote scan of student’s room before test violated his privacy, judge rules

#25

Post by khazhoux »

Can someone please describe this "scan" technology? The article didn't.

I'm picturing a swarm of small hovering drones sweeping their blue laser beams over your bedroom office, before one of them finishes with an accusative scan of your retina.

Re: Remote scan of student’s room before test violated his privacy, judge rules

#26

Post by pabs3 »

Claude_Shannon wrote: post #4

It is terrible, but what is the alternative to prevent cheating? I had quite a few on-line exams by now and I've seen very creative attempts at cheating so far.

Another question is; what is the alternative to tests, grades and credentials?

Re: Remote scan of student’s room before test violated his privacy, judge rules

#27

Post by gommm »

p1necone wrote: post #19
Claude_Shannon wrote: post #4

It is terrible, but what is the alternative to prevent cheating? I had quite a few on-line exams by now and I've seen very creative attempts at cheating so far.

Design better tests. If you can "cheat" on a test by just googling things/looking at notes then the test isn't testing anything but rote memorization anyway.

Exactly, I strongly believe that any test at a secondary education level should be open book. We should be testing for reasoning and capacity to apply knowledge not rote-learning.

It's also why I believe that in most cases multiple choice questions have no place in any well designed tests because it's extremely hard to create multiple choice questions that actually test the application of knowledge versus the regurgitation of rote learning.

When I was in university (grande école) in France, luckily all tests followed that format, they were open book, very few questions that needed deep detailed answers and were about interesting problems. Even finding tests from previous years and doing them was actually fun (tests were never reused).

I did an exchange in the US at RIT and most tests had very boring rote learning questions. For example in a computer graphics class: Which company were voting members of the OpenGL Architecture Review Board? Which year was the first OpenGl specification released?. I still remember those questions because I was shocked by how utterly stupid it was to have those on a test but, in general, 25 to 50% of the points of any tests was on those completely irrelevant, useless questions that anyone can google for.

Cheating is a problem for universities that never had proper testing standards. But that's a symptom of incompetence on the part of professors and of universities not making the choice to ensure that tests have to be well designed.

Re: Remote scan of student’s room before test violated his privacy, judge rules

#28

Post by PeterStuer »

sh4rks wrote: post #14
Claude_Shannon wrote: post #4

It is terrible, but what is the alternative to prevent cheating? I had quite a few on-line exams by now and I've seen very creative attempts at cheating so far.

The best way to prevent cheating in an online test is to set a strict time limit. That way its harder for them to look up the answers on Google etc. The problem then is that a student may experience technical difficulties out of their control. For cases like that, students should be able to appeal for extra time.

But this introduces a stronger bias for being fast regardless of wether you cheat or not. That is not always what you want.

Re: Remote scan of student’s room before test violated his privacy, judge rules

#29

Post by efnx »

mschuster91 wrote: post #3

The problem at the core is not spyware and "room checks", they are just a symptom - the question rather is how exams are designed and why schools and universities go to such drastic lengths to prevent cheating. Most tests are essentially nothing more than tests for the ability of rote memorization - they don't (really) check if the students actually understood the material and are able to apply it to new situations (…

I think I agree and I can't help but think that we (as a society) have our priorities backwards.

Who do these tests protect? Do they bolster the student? If so, why would they want to cheat? Is it because the information isn't relevant to their future and only the letter grade is? If a student cheats and then never encounters the natural consequences (like getting the same subject matter wrong on the job) - what was the point of the test?

The pessimist in me thinks that we're protecting industries. I would guess that an industry wants a plethora of candidates that meet a specific bar to choose from, and the information the students must memorize is inconsequential for the most part.

Re: Remote scan of student’s room before test violated his privacy, judge rules

#30

Post by technion »

khazhoux wrote: post #25

Can someone please describe this "scan" technology? The article didn't. I'm picturing a swarm of small hovering drones sweeping their blue laser beams over your bedroom office, before one of them finishes with an accusative scan of your retina.

Before the test starts, you are directed to move the camera around the room, behind your chair and things like that. The Pearson proctor made me remove paintings from the wall to prove there was nothing behind them
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