Franklin & Marshall Student: Cheating is “universally easy and rewarding”
Plus, TV in Florida quotes K-12 teacher, "The cheating is really bad. It’s kind of rampant." Plus, ICAI releases program details for annual conference.
Cheating is “universally easy and rewarding”
Rohail Spear, a student at Franklin & Marshall College (PA), wrote an opinion piece for his school paper, The College Reporter, (February 14), in which he called for the school to universally adopt open book and open resource assessments.
Spear said that step was necessary due to cheating, which he described as “universally easy and rewarding.” He called his plan, “The Cheating Curve” and wrote:
If your camera is not required to be on, cheating is as easy as looking up everything you need in your textbooks, notes, and on the Internet. Even if your camera is required to be on, you can still get away with strategically taping notes on your walls or keeping your textbook flipped open to a specific page off-camera. Students who seize this opportunity can benefit enormously, especially in classes primarily relying on skills such as memorization and vocabulary.
Then the student repeats the squeeze and rationalization that rampant cheating has on students who don’t cheat, saying,
Ironically, students who choose the virtuous path are being punished, whereas students who choose to disobey the rules are being rewarded.
Further, Spear says students who cheat will,
99% of the time, never be caught because it is simply too difficult for teachers to tell if their students are cheating over Zoom.
If you follow academic integrity, it’s a very common story.
CBS in West Palm Beach: "The cheating is really bad. It’s kind of rampant"
West Palm’s CBS station ran a story (February 12) with the simple headline, “Pandemic makes cheating easier for students.”
It quotes a high school teacher who would not show her face or use her real name. She’s the one who said, "The cheating is really bad. It’s kind of rampant."
CBS12 also reported:
When they’re virtual learning, students can have multiple browser windows open, text with classmates, or just have their textbooks and notes right in front of them.
And the teacher watching on the other side of the camera has no idea.
The station asked the teacher whether there was, “more cheating going on now because of online learning.” She replied,
Oh, yeah there's more cheating because of online learning.
Notes: The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) has released its program for their forthcoming, 2021 Annual Conference. You should check it out.
In the next “The Cheat Sheet,” a French news service takes a look at people in China making good money by writing papers and taking online tests for foreign students in Europe and Australia. Plus, Cal State LA has a very public cheating flare up. Plus, more Chegg cheating at Purdue? Yup. And at NC State too.
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