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How do you stop online students cheating?

bbc.co.uk

1–10 of 36 posts

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#2
I'd say you can't. People are always going to try to game the systems and that's why a certification given to you in person is always going to be more credible than something gained online.

I think ultimately the rigor for actual "testing" is going to have to come from whoever is accepting applications from these types of degree holders, sure you might be able to apply to graduate school with them but you'd probably have to sit an additional test that "standard" degree holders wouldn't or in the case of a job interview there would have to be a bit more rigor in testing the applicant.

Cheating on an online course right now seems so...pointless, the only reason for them at the moment is to enrich yourself and learn something but if people start accepting them in the same way we accept a standard degree we'll see a massive drop in the value of all degrees.

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#5
You don't need to stop the cheating if there is no reason to place value on the outcome in the first place. It seems the deeper problem is that marks have come to have meaning outside of their intended purpose: To provide a gauge to see your own level of understanding. Eliminate that and the purpose of cheating vanishes. If you score 100% on a test, but walk away knowing you have no knowledge of the subject matter, you've only hurt yourself.

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#6
Two things which I remember having a significant impact on the amount of 'collaboration':

Marking against the other members of the class. I remember one project where the performance of the code was under test and the fastest 30% got an A, the next fastest 10% got a B etc. There was little incentive to help anyone else beyond the most naive implementation.

Group projects, avoid the problem of collaboration by openly encouraging it. Also has the benefit of improving the real life skills everyone will need. Allowing members of the group to rate other members makes it obvious when someone has simply ridden on the coat tails of the other members of the group.

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#7
I think it is the wrong question. As Seth Godin says in his talk at TEDxYOUTH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXpbONjV1Jc "if something is worth remembering it is worth looking up." Tests should be open note, open book, all the time. If you can cheat on the test just by googling the question, the right question isn't being asked. It is time we ask our students to start thinking critically and not just have them bubble in memorized facts on a scantron.

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#8

You don't need to stop the cheating if there is no reason to place value on the outcome in the first place. It seems the deeper problem is that marks have come to have meaning outside of their intended purpose: To provide a gauge to see your own level of understanding. Eliminate that and the purpose of cheating vanishes. If you score 100% on a test, but walk away knowing you have no knowledge of the subject matter, y…

This. There would be no reason to cheat in school in general if it was not for the fact, that nobody cares anymore about "knowledge" - grades are the points that get you to better high school, better university, better job.

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#9

Two things which I remember having a significant impact on the amount of 'collaboration': Marking against the other members of the class. I remember one project where the performance of the code was under test and the fastest 30% got an A, the next fastest 10% got a B etc. There was little incentive to help anyone else beyond the most naive implementation. Group projects, avoid the problem of collaboration by openly…

Those are two things I remember hating every time I saw them implemented. In my experience, members that ride the coat tails of other members of the group always get far more credit than anybody else in the group gave them.

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#10

I think it is the wrong question. As Seth Godin says in his talk at TEDxYOUTH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXpbONjV1Jc "if something is worth remembering it is worth looking up." Tests should be open note, open book, all the time. If you can cheat on the test just by googling the question, the right question isn't being asked. It is time we ask our students to start thinking critically and not just have them bubbl…

My college calculus professor typically allowed use of notes on exams, which he justified as follows.

-- I kinda expect the guy designing a bridge to lookup the correct formulas and not expect that he memorized it correctly. (paraphrased, of course)

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