From Higher Ed Morning:
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.
As long as teachers continue to rely on basic levels of assessment, then cheating will occur. If a student can pass your class by cheating, then you are doing a disservice to that student.
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.
When will this stop being an issue?
