Eight Arrested in Miami for Cheating on Certification Exam
Eight Arrested in Miami for Cheating on Certification Exam
Plus, nearly 150 have bar exam results voided over cheating in Toronto. Plus, Chegg and Course Hero sponsor education podcasts. Plus, cheating is an equity issue.
Issue 164
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Eight in Miami Arrested for Cheating on Elevator Repair Exam
With all that’s going on with Chegg and Course Hero and in New Zealand and Australia - here’s an even bigger headline: people in the United States were actually arrested for cheating on an exam.
I seriously don’t know the last time that happened. It may be the actual first time. Ever.
The news is easy. Prosecutors in Miami-Dade issued arrest warrants for eight people for paying an impersonator a few hundred dollars each to take their required online certification exams in elevator repair.
Because I lived there for a decade, I can say that of course it was in Miami. Of course. But let me also say - freaking elevator repair. Next time you get in one, go ahead and tell me cheating is not a big deal.
But the headline really is that arrests were made for cheating. In the United States. I am kind of in shock. India arrests people for exam and academic misconduct all the time. You see it in China. In Africa on occasion. But this - this is a purple unicorn sharing a calorie-free chocolate fudge sundae with a fuchsia mermaid.
The charges, the prosecutor said, were fraud and “cheating.” So, I asked the prosecutor’s office what the Florida law on “cheating” was and here it is:
Cheating.—Whoever is convicted of any gross fraud or cheat at common law shall be guilty of a felony of the third degree
That’s it. That’s the whole law. Seems very open-ended to me, but it also seems that everyone who pays for answers to an exam or buys an essay for a college course is breaking it.
Two other quick notes here. One, the exam was open-book, open-note and online. I don’t know how many times it needs to be pointed out that going “open-book” in your exam is not a solution to cheating, but it’s not a solution to cheating. Two, the cheaters were busted by the local union, which reported the cheating scheme to authorities. The lesson there is that strong professional organizations matter - people are gatekeepers of integrity as much or more than exams are.
Anyway, since one of the best ways to prevent cheating is to make it clear that cheating is caught and punishment is real, this will likely have an impact. Hope so.
148 Have Bar Exam Results Voided in Toronto Over Cheating Scandal
For most of the year, investigators in Ontario have been looking into cheating on the bar exam - leaked exam materials that compromised the exam and led to cheating, to be accurate (see Issue 100).
Well, news is this week that 148 examinees have had their test results voided and received other penalties over the inquiry. From the press release:
21 candidates were advised that their examination result(s) are void.
These candidates received a "fail" result for the void examination, which counts as an examination attempt.
126 candidates were advised that their exam result(s) are void and their registration in the licensing process is also void.
Individuals whose registration is void are no longer candidates in the Law Society's licensing process; all previous examination attempts along with the completion of any form of experiential training, such as articling, are void.
Individuals whose registration is void are unable to re-apply to enter the licensing process for a period of one year. In addition, the rendering of this administrative decision must be disclosed should they apply at any point in the future, at which point they may be subject to an investigation concerning whether they are presently of good character.
Good. And 126. On the bar exam. And I love how they linked it to “good character.”
Once again, we see that strong professional organizations are good integrity checks.
The press release also says:
the Law Society received information and cheating material indicating that there was examination misconduct being facilitated by a third-party tutoring company.
Boy, “exam misconduct being facilitated by a third-party tutoring company.” We’ve never heard that before.
Course Hero, Chegg Sponsor Education Podcasts
It seems no issue of this newsletter is complete without mentioning the advertising and marketing efforts that cheating providers indulge in to appear to be legitimate education providers. It’s an onslaught of insidious and persistent and expensive deception.
Two of the biggest names in cheating facilitation, Course Hero and Chegg, are tossing money at infiltrating the conversation by sponsoring or launching podcasts now. So, you know, be aware.
Chegg first.
In April I guess, Chegg launched an in-house podcast called “The Spotlight on Higher Ed Podcast.” It’s hosted by “veteran journalist and higher education policy expert, Ben Wildavsky” and has put out, according to the homepage, 14 episodes.
That’s fine, I guess. But what’s remarkable to me is that education leaders are turning up to be interviewed by Chegg, to clearly promote and legitimize them. The show’s first guest was - no surprise - Paul LeBlanc, President of Southern New Hampshire University. LeBlanc is a Board Member and shareholder at Chegg.
But the surprising list of guests on Chegg’s lust-for-legitimacy podcast tour includes:
US Under Secretary of Education, James Kvaal
American Association of State Colleges and Universities President, Millie Garcia
Charles Isbell, Dean of the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology
Princeton University instructor Ann Kirschner
Chancellor of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, Daniel Greenstein
University of Austin founding president, Pano Kanelos (the school isn’t really real yet, just FYI)
There were also a few folks from think tanks, one journalist, people from education organizations. You can see the whole list at the link above if you’re interested.
That these people from these schools and education leadership organizations would appear on a Chegg podcast means that the education establishment is doing a pretty lousy job of educating its own members about academic integrity in general and about Chegg in particular. At least that’s what it says to me. And it’s a shame.
Even though it’s taken a different route, Course Hero is in on the education podcast game too, sponsoring episodes of “Future U Podcast” hosted by authors and pundits Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn. Their most recent offering, which was “made with the support of Course Hero” was an interview with:
Temple University president Dr. Jason Wingard
Like I said, shame.
Proctoring Executive: Cheating is an Equity Problem
Dr. Ashley Norris, an executive at Proctor U (Meazure Learning), had a recent column in AL.com (the state paper in Alabama) in which she makes the case that academic misconduct is a matter of education equity.
Hard to disagree.
She says of cheating today:
Increasingly often, the cheater has purchased their advantage. They bought exam questions ahead of time off of the internet. They hired an impersonator to sit an exam for them. They hired an essay mill or used AI to write their paper. Or, they paid for a service that would quickly return answers to homework questions or exam questions. In more and more of these cheating examples, an exchange of money has taken place in order for the test-taker to gain an advantage on their exam and over their peers.
This is how cheaters are driving a deeper wedge between those who have and those who have-not.
True.
She continues:
There’s another multi-billion dollar business sector of cheating providers staring us straight in the face: mega companies masquerading as student helpers. These cheating companies use innocuous sounding taglines and descriptors like “homework help site” and “study aid.” Make no mistake, these companies are cheating providers. They break the rules by giving students answers right in the middle of their test. These cheating companies post the exams for academic courses and credentialing exams and also supply all the answers, simply when asked for them.
Again, true.
Cheating as inequity - rich students can buy their answers or work - is an often ignored aspect of today’s cheating culture, co-fueled by seeking advantage on one side and profit on the other.
The piece is worth a read.