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Cheating in online courses is as easy as it gets, though many students
can't even get that right. For a short time, I taught online algebra
for University of Phoenix online (better than delivering pizzas in
lean times, but not much). There is absolutely no way to know who is
actually posting the homework or tests. It was common to catch
students sharing test solutions (formatting exactly the same and
exactly the same mistakes), but even then calling them on it was
difficult. When students denied cheating, I just had to call their
bluff, give them a zero, and tell them to take it up with the
university. There are ways of checking for cheating in papers
plagiarized from other sources (turnitin.com or just a google search
for selected paragraphs), but no way to check if another person has
written a paper for someone.
I brought the issue up with school officials, but they just brushed it
off as a hazard of the environment. As a result, I do tell people to
take with a grain of salt online degrees.
Bill
William C. Robertson, Ph.D.
On Nov 15, 2010, at 5:19 PM, John Clement wrote:
Look at:
<http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/?sid=cr&utm_source=c
r&utm_medium=en>
It may not be surprising to many, but it is certainly entertaining,
and one
wonders how the professors can let this happen. Of course in large
lecture
courses there is little student-professor contact. But every large
course I
have taken has had tests rather than papers. I have no idea how
many ghost
test takers there were. But it seems that this happens even when the
professor probably has contact with the student in question.
I have caught cheaters, but usually I make the tests difficult
enough that
those who copy are more likely to copy wrong answers. Actually I have
caught cheaters on projects.
John M. Clement
Houston, TX
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