To Stop Cheats, Colleges Learn Their Trickery

[groovedaddy]

ORLANDO, Fla. — The frontier in the battle to defeat student cheating may be here at the testing center of the University of Central Florida.

No gum is allowed during an exam: chewing could disguise a student’s speaking into a hands-free cellphone to an accomplice outside.

The 228 computers that students use are recessed into desk tops so that anyone trying to photograph the screen — using, say, a pen with a hidden camera, in order to help a friend who will take the test later — is easy to spot.

Scratch paper is allowed — but it is stamped with the date and must be turned in later.

When a proctor sees something suspicious, he records the student’s real-time work at the computer and directs an overhead camera to zoom in, and both sets of images are burned onto a CD for evidence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/education/06cheat.html?th&emc=th

[jody]

1. The real cheat is colleges that give credit for online courses in which students take all tests

online and instructors have no idea who actually completes the test.

[liberal N proud]

2. So far from the days of dumpster diving for copies of test

Or the files at the fraternity house.

Cheating sounds too easy today.

[Trillo]

3. All this will accomplish is selecting for even better cheaters.

They'll catch some of the less sophisticated ones.

Additionally, there's the unintentional (or intentional) lesson-of-example: a mindset among graduates that surveillance is generally a good solution to be applied anywhere and everywhere, thus making a police state.

[jody]

4. And "even better cheaters" have a future in politics. n/t

[Catshrink]

5. How to cheat on any test

There is a series of youtube videos showing some very clever ways to cheat. This will get you started:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91lQK5SCzlQ

But sorry, kids, teachers know about youtube, too. Don't let me catch you!