College students are learning hard lessons about anti-cheating software
voiceofsandiego.org
College students are learning hard lessons about anti-cheating software
1–10 of 317 posts
Re: College students are learning hard lessons about anti-cheating software
#2I have never once seen this software meaningfully work in any reasonable manner other than be a massive privacy violation and be a massive waste of time for the GSIs being forced to go through a timestamped log of every time a student blinked.
How about writing open-book tests in ways that are impossible to cheat on if you don't understand the material? You've had almost a year to adapt.
Why outsource student PII to a developing country sweatshop? This all seems absurd to me, it's been much easier to just write a one-liner inline script to hook blur, focus, visibilitychange, and onkeydown and log the userid when the event happens.
Re: College students are learning hard lessons about anti-cheating software
#3I have never once seen this software meaningfully work in any reasonable manner other than be a massive privacy violation and be a massive waste of time for the GSIs being forced to go through a timestamped log of every time a student blinked. How about writing open-book tests in ways that are impossible to cheat on if you don't understand the material? You've had almost a year to adapt. Why outsource student PII to…
>> How about writing open-book tests in ways that are impossible to cheat on if you don't understand the material? You've had almost a year to adapt.
So in a remote test situation, explain how this is possible without use of these software. I can think of many scenarios where a second person can be in the room and doing the exam.
Re: College students are learning hard lessons about anti-cheating software
#4I have never once seen this software meaningfully work in any reasonable manner other than be a massive privacy violation and be a massive waste of time for the GSIs being forced to go through a timestamped log of every time a student blinked. How about writing open-book tests in ways that are impossible to cheat on if you don't understand the material? You've had almost a year to adapt. Why outsource student PII to…
>> How about writing open-book tests in ways that are impossible to cheat on if you don't understand the material? You've had almost a year to adapt. So in a remote test situation, explain how this is possible without use of these software. I can think of many scenarios where a second person can be in the room and doing the exam.
I can also think of many scenarios where group project-based assessments can be completely done by someone else. I've seen people pay others to physically attend as them, pre-COVID, literally hand over their student ID to be physically present and take a test. You can't really stop all of them.
Re: College students are learning hard lessons about anti-cheating software
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> How about writing open-book tests in ways that are impossible to cheat on if you don't understand the material? You've had almost a year to adapt. So in a remote test situation, explain how this is possible without use of these software. I can think of many scenarios where a second person can be in the room and doing the exam.
I can also think of many scenarios where group project-based assessments can be completely done by someone else. I've seen people pay others to physically attend as them, pre-COVID, literally hand over their student ID to be physically present and take a test. You can't really stop all of them.
That's no reason to lower the bar even further.
Re: College students are learning hard lessons about anti-cheating software
#6IMO, the problem isn't the software. It's how humans are using the software.
The software itself shouldn't have any control over the student's grades. A person should have to review the flags and actually find some wrongdoing. Not just push 'yes' and walk away.
Re: College students are learning hard lessons about anti-cheating software
#7I see online synchronous 1-2 hour exams as a mistaken result of the "let's emulate in-person teaching in a remote setting" mindset.
You don't succeed in remote teaching and learning by trying to make it as close as possible to the in-person setup. You have to treat it as an entirely different problem.
Consider the synchronous exam. It is a perfect method of grading in-person. It is hard to cheat and all people take the same test in the same place. It is as fair as it can get.
In an online setting however, people can face all sort of troubles in a few hour window in their home. Your internet might stop working, neighbor might be making too much noise etc. Everyone takes the exam in a different setting and it is as unequal as it can get. It is also practically impossible to prevent cheating.
Re: College students are learning hard lessons about anti-cheating software
#8There has to be a point where students will revolt against the abusive behavior of universities in the US right?
Or is this just another social pathology that we need to rethink?
Re: College students are learning hard lessons about anti-cheating software
#9Running essays through searches for similarity is one thing, this de-facto remote polygraph is quite another.
Polygraphs are bullshit and basically select for submissive behavior, which I suppose is what these institutions are looking to reward, but it is conspicuous that nobody called these surveillance schemes what they truly are: degrading.
Re: College students are learning hard lessons about anti-cheating software
#10From the many students I know, I can tell you that cheating is rampant in online learning. The average GPA has gone up 0.3 points at my alma mater. I don't think people understand just how widespread it is.
This software isn't ideal but there's no good solutions here short of major rethink of how these classes, and possible all of the college, is structured.