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How do you stop online students cheating?

bbc.co.uk

31–36 of 36 posts

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#31
post #25

The simple answer to the question, "How do you stop online students cheating?" is that you don't. You discard the idea of "cheating" altogether. In days not so long past, rote learning was important because, in many professions, there was no way to access the source data within a reasonable amount of time within the arena where that information would be useful. A trip to the library in the middle of the workday was g…

> Doing so would at least validate how quickly students are able to gather and synthesize information to arrive at correct conclusions - a skill set that will serve them well even in today's rapid-access-to-information world.

That only works if you can prevent the student from simply hiring an expert to take their tests for them.

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#32

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…

But you haven't only hurt yourself. You've also (potentially) hurt the company that hires you based on the degree, or whatever qualification, you have - sure, you can say it's their fault for hiring based on it - and you can hurt the establishment that gave you the qualification as people lose faith in them.

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#33
post #32

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…

But you haven't only hurt yourself. You've also (potentially) hurt the company that hires you based on the degree, or whatever qualification, you have - sure, you can say it's their fault for hiring based on it - and you can hurt the establishment that gave you the qualification as people lose faith in them.

That is my point though, if you remove the expectation that the grades mean something, then there is no reason to cheat in the first place. The problem is that we uphold the establishment as having some kind of meaning, not that people are able to game the establishment.

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#35

Quit worrying about it. All cheaters get is a grade, or certification or diploma. Worry about teaching people. Worry about people learning. Quit measuring people. People will cheat, and maybe they are great scam artists and will be able to cheat through the rest of their life. Those few and the others who screw themselves by not learning aren't worth being concerned with. Spend (all) your effort on those who want to…

Awarding diplomas to unqualified individuals degrades the value of the diploma. Schools can't afford to risk their reputation; they must assess students in some way.

Diplomas are already degraded and degrading.

Schools are worried about reputation and their profit. My point is they should be worried about teaching.

Re: How do you stop online students cheating?

#36
post #17

Another application: How do you stop remote workers from slacking off?

Paying them in milestones basis.

That helps only if remote workers are able to motivate themselves sufficiently without supervision. Some people fail to work remotely because without the boss to keep them in line they fail to motivate themselves.
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