Houston, We Have a Problem

Cheating incidents double at University of Houston, spike in Europe

Two recent news reports highlight the ongoing and dramatic increase in cheating.

Cheating Referrals Double at University of Houston

According to the student newspaper The Cougar, (January 15) the number of cases of “academic misconduct” at the University of Houston doubled in 2020 compared with 2019.

Just 204 cases were reported in Fall 2019, but that number has spiked to 489 in Fall 2020, the first full semester of mostly online class instruction.

To combat the cheating threat, Provost Paula Myrick Short told The Cougar that the school, “encourages the use of problem sets for exams so that the likelihood of two students having identical problems is remote,” Short said. “We also encourage tests to include enough problems that students would have little time left to evade proctoring software and check online for answers.”

While those approaches may help deter cheating, they will are likely insufficient to limit it significantly given the tools most students use. In fact, making tests longer is more likely to hobble students who do not cheat instead of those who do.

The article notes that the University uses Turnitin and Blackboard Respondus Monitor software.

Cheating Also Spikes in France, Switzerland

Swiss news site Swiss Info reported (January 23) on students upset with online proctoring solutions. Importantly though, cheating is already “a serious problem” in Switzerland and France.

Students exchange exam answers via Facebook messenger and take pride in their “cheating skills,” according to newspaper Le Figaro.

And

The Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) reported in December 2020 that 148 students were suspected of cheating [at Zurich University of Applied Sciences].

That paper, NZZ, also reported that a further 190 “cases of fraud” were recorded this year by students cheating at The University of Zurich. It also reported that efforts to deter cheating at Applied Sciences school included “random questions, questions that cannot simply be googled, case studies coupled with time pressure.” Though it said, “Obviously it was of little use.”