Jared Stein's List: Cheating in Online Education

• 95% of the   students who said they cheated were never caught
• cheating increases with the age of   the student at least through age 25
• people who feel   more "distant" cheat more (George and Carlson, 1999; Burgoon et   al, 2003)
• it is often easier to cheat online (since what or who the assessee   brings to the assessment cannot be seen),
• distance-learning programs often   lack tradition
• the ignorance of many instructors and administrators of the possibilities   for cheating in online assessment

  • much of it _willful_ ignorance
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• professors who do distance learning don't see cheating as a major problem
• assessment should be continuous so it is less cost-effective   for students to cheat (Bork, 2001)
• continuous   assessment almost inevitably overemphasizes a student's short-term memory
• Some anecdotal   evidence (Kaczmarczyk, 2001) suggests students today cheat less in distance   learning than with traditional instruction. This may be because new technologies   typically first attract smarter and more motivated users with less reason   to cheat
• Problem 1:   Getting assessment answers in advance
• a different danger is that students may be able to log in as the instructor   and read the answer key themselves
• Problem 2: Unfair   retaking of assessments
• Problem 3: Unauthorized   help during the assessment
• Such tests are an imposition on the students and will need to be minimized   in number because of their logistics. Hence much is riding on the outcome   of these traditional assessments (since a bad score should surely override   great scores on online assessments in which we are not sure who is taking   the test); students will be under pressure, some students perform unfairly   poorly under pressure, and this is a good incentive to cheat.
• Define cheating   and encourage honesty.
• Know the assessment takers.
• Understand what students face.
• Maintain assessment security.
• Proctor the assessment.
• Control the assessment situation.
• Make the assessment a learning experience.
• Use constructed-response test formats.
• Use varied test formats.
• Avoid situations that encourage cheating.
• Plan for the unexpected.
• Entrapment.
• Human-proctored   traditional paper-and-pencil tests with traditional security procedures   should be used for major assessments in distance learning.
• human-proctored tests taken   at a computer are a second-best choice
• draw questions randomly from a large pool and reorder them
• automatically and routinely compare answers given by students   on assessments
• Countermeasures for cheating should be a consideration

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• cheating methodologies mutate eternally
• the assumption that cheating online is easier fuels the debate for those who are predisposed to question the online trend across the board

• All students taking tests for online courses will need to bring a photo ID and a password to a testing center.
• professors are starting to call up students at random to see whether they have grasped the study material. "They can tell whether that student is dealing with the work," Maeroff said.