Organized Crime in India Giving Up Selling Drugs to Sell Test Cheating
Plus, Course Hero's teacher friends. Plus, a university unveils exhibit on cheating.
Issue 137
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Criminal Gangs in India Pivot from Running Drugs, Human Trafficking to Test Cheating
The U.K. paper The Telegraph has a detailed story on organized crime outfits in India.
The subhead of the story is the story:
Organised criminal gangs turn their backs on traditional drug and human trafficking operations for the lucrative test cheating market
It’s a good read and continues:
India’s education and employment tests have become riddled by cheating, as organised criminal gangs – dubbed the “exam paper mafia” – are turning away from traditional drug and human trafficking operations.
Instead, they are taking advantage of record levels of unemployment and a higher-education system that has far more applications than spaces. Their profits are booming as they sell blank exam papers and arrange “solvers” to sit tests in place of students.
And goes on:
Now, barely a day passes without another breaking story on exam-based cheating in India. On Wednesday, in India’s financial capital of Mumbai, an investigation was launched after hundreds of accountancy students claimed their exam papers had been leaked.
And:
in northern India, gangs are increasingly opening new private examination centres in remote areas to obtain copies of papers that they then distribute across an entire district. By the time the leak is traced, the centre has been shut down and another one set up elsewhere.
It's a practice which doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon, especially as modern technology is opening up new avenues to cheat. A Google search for “exam cheating devices” and “exam cheating gadgets” displays a host of online companies selling bluetooth equipment on same day delivery across India.
True. It’s also true that exams and cheating in India are different than they are in the U.S., for example.
Though I did find it interesting that, from the article again:
73 per cent of Indian university students admitted cheating in their examinations.
I’m not sure cheating rates in the United States or England are in the 70s, though there’s good evidence it’s not that far off from 73% in some settings and situations.
But mostly I found it interesting that there was so much money to be made by cheating exams that it’s now apparently more profitable than selling drugs, at least in India. Maybe in other places too.
Course Hero Summit This Week - Who’s In?
That regular, odd Course Hero “Summit” is this coming week - July 28 and 29.
That’s the one that entices educators to appear with the cheating company to discuss “learning together” or something. But it’s really a PR play to appear to be a legitimate educational provider instead of the “academic fraud” site that Course Hero actually is (see Issue 42 or Issue 97).
When Course Hero did this same thing last year, I shared the list of attendees from the academic universe (see Issue 44). Various leaders of non-profits and a few pundits attended too, but I focused on the teachers.
This year, with the cringe curtain about to go up on another “summit,” it feels like a good time to take a peek at who’s signed on to share the stage with the cheating profiteer and loan their credibility and institutional integrity to Course Hero:
Michael Sorrell, President, Paul Quinn College
Gaye Theresa Johnson, University of California, Los Angeles
Michelle Miller, Northern Arizona University
Kelly Pope, DePaul University
Roberto Montoya, Colorado Department of Higher Education
J. Luke Wood, San Diego State University
Mary McNaughton-Cassill, University of Texas at San Antonio
Catherine Ross, The University of Texas at Tyler
Laura Summers, University of Colorado Denver
Fabiola Torres, Glendale Community College
Alka Arora, California Institute of Integral Studies
Stephanie Speicher, Weber State University
Ben Wiggins, Shoreline Community College
Jonathan Chin, Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Malynda Mabbitt, South Dakota State University
Teresa Foulger, Arizona State University
Cynthia van Golen, Delaware State University
Rachel Reed, Arizona State University
Paulette Stevenson, Mesa Community College
Marianna Burks, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Norma Hernandez, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Jill Purdy, Cedar Crest College
Emily Dosmar, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Kate Elgayeva, University of Minnesota
I know I’ve said this many times but somewhere soon a student at one of these schools is going to get caught using Course Hero to cheat and they’re not going to understand why they’re facing academic consequences for using a service seemingly endorsed by teachers at their school.
I will also add - again - that I am sure that most, if not every single one, of the schools being represented above bans using Course Hero and/or the services they sell. Many do by name.
To prove my theory, I did a quick search of just one school above, at random. And yup, the University of Nebraska - Lincoln bans:
Knowingly helping another student violate these Standards, including, but not limited to, sharing an instructor’s teaching materials without permission.
Unauthorized distribution, electronically or otherwise, of an instructor’s course materials.
This is, quite literally and specifically what Course Hero does (see Issue 92). It rewards students for uploading course materials then sells those materials to other students. In April, Course Hero held a contest - any student who uploaded at least ten documents could win $15,000 (see Issue 106).
Plus, of course, Course Hero straight sells on-demand answers to test or homework questions. Ask a question, any question, get an answer in minutes - even during an exam.
And, by the way, Course Hero says it has 44,478 “study documents” from the University of Nebraska Lincoln available for download right now, for a fee of course. The documents contain plenty of quizzes and tests and essays and labs, many helpfully marked “solutions available” or “get answer to your question and more.”
Torrens University Unveils Cheating Exhibition
According to this news blurb, Torrens University (AUS) has put together and put up an exhibition on cheating and academic misconduct called, “The Face-Less Crowd.”
The exhibit:
highlights various types of academic integrity breaches
And:
The Face-Less Crowd exhibition features 25 works by Torrens University Design students. Each piece reflects real-life experiences and sentiments of students and is aimed at heightening awareness of the dangers of academic cheating.
They range from personal experiences of blackmail and extortion by online cheating operators to realisation of the value of earning a degree with integrity.
I love it.
Professor Alwyn Louw, Vice-Chancellor of the University:
says the issue is one of the most pressing concerns in the sector – despite the efforts by government and regulatory authorities to crack down on commercial cheating services
The professor said:
“But these cheating services are getting more sophisticated and insidious. We need to do whatever we can to maintain academic integrity that is so critical to protecting the reputation of Australian Higher Education.”
They are indeed getting more sophisticated and insidious. I use those exact words all the time.
With awareness of misconduct a central element of countering it, this feels like a great idea and something other institutions may consider replicating.
Note: Coming up, probably tomorrow, a Special Edition of The Cheat Sheet. Get your popcorn.