Comments on: Cheating Tech

By: alex

alex — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 03:19:05 +0000

Early on, I resisted this, but in the large classes, I now allow them to bring in a 1 sided 8.5 x 11 sheet. I collected these at my last exam, and some of them approach pure art in miniature, containing full notes from the class in microscopic hand printing. The main reason I did this has less to do with their performance on the exam, and more to do with providing an incentive for going over their notes again. In fact, most of my exams have that aim: not so much showing me what they know and how they’ve integrated it, but creating a reason for thinking more seriously (especially in groups) about the material of the course.

Our university is likely to go with a site license for turnitin as well. I convinced my dean to pay for me to give it a spin for a year, and now the university is doing a more extended pilot. I recognize some of the concerns with its use, but I loved being able to concentrate on improving students writing, while generally not having to worry that I was actually correcting some random 3rd party’s work. (Of course, students are increasingly turning to turnkey writing services, but at least this requires *someone* to do some creative work.)

I like the “reduction by plagiarized amount” approach, by the way. It does away with deciding how much is too much.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 02:32:01 +0000

I have a colleague who lets each student bring in an index card with as many notes written on it as they can fit and gives them exams that are all application, so knowing definitions and facts is not enough to do well. He says it has reduced anxiety and cheating without improving overall test scores.

My university has a site license for turnitin.com and i have all students turn in papers there. I penalize the plagiarists by doubling the percentage they plagiarized and deducting it from their total and filing academic misconduct charges with the college. One offense is not a big deal, but when they get busted twice and the paperwork’s been filed it gets ugly at levels that are (thankfully) out of the individual instructors’ hands, and at three times they are in really serious trouble.

By: alex

alex — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 05:03:25 +0000

I’d love to do that, but how many people do you have writing? As much as I would like to, I just can’t see doing that with huge courses. This semester it’s a take home 24 hour exam, with essay questions that require more thinking than regurgitating, but I’m not looking forward to turning aroun 392 written exams in a week.

I’ve been doing oral exams (with groups of 3 or 4) in my grad theory courses for a while. Generally, the responses have been really good. This year, only one of the groups did particularly well, and I suspect that is a reflection of how I handled the class rather than any of their deficiencies. I do generally ask, in that class “What do things mean and why?” and have them answer in the voice of a given theorist. The performance requirement of an oral exam generates high stress, but I’ve been very happy with the outcomes most years.

By: jason

jason — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 02:34:41 +0000

That’s very interesting to hear. I caught 6 students plagiarizing papers. I had proof. And when I interviewed them, and researched it, I concluded that there was nothing intentional. They take a special course and away they go. There was no question in my mind that I’d assumed that they knew what I was talking about when I told them how to document sources. They all clearly thought they were doing it right; no reticence or trying to hide what they’d done. But they’d been taught wrong. I have never taught frosh before… just third year and above. it was a shock. I know I’ll teach them right next time.

But when it comes to exams, I don’t have cheating. I give them the question a week in advance, and require a one page, double sided, cheat-sheet in 12 point times. I don’t care about memorizing facts, but what sense they can make of facts in a sustained piece of inclass narrative composition. If they can’t write on the facts, they don’t know the facts. And I can require a good bibliography, and proper APA referencing. Makes life a dream. Oh, and the other option is giving an insane question. My fav for my 3rd yr environmental science class was: Dracula, discuss.

Got great responses.