Colleges Chase as Cheats Shift to Higher Tech

[Placebo]

At the University of California at Los Angeles, a student loaded his class notes into a handheld e-mail device and tried to read them during an exam; a classmate turned him in. At the journalism school at San Jose State University, students were caught using spell check on their laptops when part of the exam was designed to test their ability to spell.

And at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, after students photographed test questions with their cellphone cameras, transmitted them to classmates outside the exam room and got the answers back in text messages, the university put in place a new proctoring system.

"If they'd spend as much time studying," said an exasperated Ron Yasbin, dean of the College of Sciences at U.N.L.V., "they'd all be A students."

With their arsenal of electronic gadgets, students these days find it easier to cheat. And so, faced with an array of inventive techniques in recent years, college officials find themselves in a new game of cat and mouse, trying to outwit would-be cheats this exam season with a range of strategies — cutting off Internet access from laptops, demanding the surrender of cellphones before tests or simply requiring that exams be taken the old-fashioned way, with pens and paper.

More...

As a college student, I can assure you that cheating really is out of control!

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Maybe a new system of evaluation is needed in colleges

Most college testing is nonsense. The idea that college is for the education of future scholars has long been bypassed and replaced with a system of higher-level vocational training differentially available depending on one's family's position among the elites.

In other words, a learning maze for upper-class (and, temporarily, middle-class) rats. To prepare them for their race.

--p!

[Igel]

4. The problem is that it's both.

That bachelor's degree gets you into tech jobs, says you're trainable for other things, gets you into professional degree programs, and into research-oriented programs.

[Nikia]

9. Most exams at my college, graduated in 2000

Were essay based and written in blue books. We had an honor code, which was taken seriously too.
When I took Italian, the professor who was Italian said that in Europe, they had oral exams which did really do a good job of revealing whether you knew the material or not.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. When I went to college, we had an Honor Code. The exams were not

proctored, that is, watched by teachers and/or administrators. However, students were relied upon to turn in others who were cheating. I'm not certain how often that happened.

But as it were, the exams were so difficult, that I can't imagine how one could "blackberry" answers. We had outright take home/open book exams, that's how hard they were.

I agree with the contention in the original post, that enough time spent studying (or just reviewing what was gone over in class at least) would have given a passing grade. What these kids want however is an exaggerated grade point average for their transcripts when they go into the job market. C's won't do. Just graduating from a name school won't do.

And aside from the morality of cheating, it does give one pause if one has worked hard for a 3.8 or so average and one's neighbor attained the equivalent with one-half or less the work you dedicated, let alone getting the same sheepskin with the recognition that comes with it.

[sam the dawg]

3. Exactly.

Students who cheat often place ahead of those who do not in the gpa "race."
Particularly true since grades are "curved."
Honest workers pay many times the price in terms of energy, effort, time etc. ---
Work ethic dead.

[Igel]

5. Any idea how an honor code would work these days?

We had one at a school I went to, and we took it seriously. Every assignment, every test, has an honor pledge that must be signed by the student in order to be accepted for credit. It basically said, "If I cheat, screw me ... hard ... oh, and thank you."

If you were caught cheating by a classmate and there was evidence to back it up, there was a Honor Court. They could expel you, suspend you, or revoke the grade and credit for that course. And they did, usually coming in with a more severe penalty than the faculty recommended. The upside: faculty and proctors were not allowed in the room during tests.

If you saw the cheating, and didn't turn the person in, you weren't off the hook if somebody else did. Because if you provably knew about the cheating, either because it was in your dorm room or because you watched the person doing it during a test and were observed watching it, you were an accomplice. Just the suspicion that somebody saw that you observed cheating was enough to drive people to report violations.

My wife was on a UCLA version of the same committee; few cases were brought, but those that were were taken very seriously. The university she works for now has an Honor Court; she turned a couple of students in her first year. My wife's recommendation was that the homework assignment, something like 1% of their grade, be revised to an F and they be given a formal warning. She was stunned when they were summarily suspended for the following semester and the their grade for the GE course they took from my wife was set to "F"--with note in the transcript that it was mandated by order of the Honor Court for cheating.

[karlrschneider]

7. Pretty tough stuff! (see my post #6) I can't recall a single instance

of cheating reported in high school...my college had no official policy or procedure for dealing with it and I have no memory of it ever being an issue. But there weren't even pocket calculators in those days, let alone cell phones & wireless internet gizmos. ;-)

[Nikia]

8. There was/still is a Honor Code at my alma mater

There is an honor council. The mildest punishment that they give out is an F on the assignment or test and a deduction of 2 letter grades in the class. Depending on the weight of the assignment or test, that often results in failing the course. The typical punishment is failure of the course. The honor counci has suspended and expelled students, though, especially repeat offenders.

[karlrschneider]

6. Heh...my HS instituted an "honor system" when I was a senior

(maybe junior, not certain...it was a few centuries ago), we were supposed to write the 'pledge' at the top of every test paper, it was approximately
"I swear on my honor that I know of no cheating on this test"...anyway I went to the office supply and had a rubber stamp made up. A couple of my teachers bitched about it 'cause it wasn't in my own handwriting but I kept using it anyway. Most people thought it was cool. ;-)