Professors, Administrators to Speak at Chegg "Student Summit"

Plus, nursing students in Louisiana cheating. Plus, cheating increases in Texas. Plus, the NYT covers the cheating at Dartmouth Medical School, which you already knew about.

Issue 24

Chegg Sponsors “Student Summit” - Professors and School Leaders Sign On

Cheating provider Chegg is sponsoring something called a “Global Student Summit” this week in partnership with the previously reputable Varkey Foundation.

It’s not puzzling what Chegg gets out of such an arrangement. What is a mystery is what, aside from possible sponsorship funds, the Varkey Foundation gets and whether the money is worth partnering with the most notorious academic dishonesty profiteer. I cannot say, and they won’t. No one at the foundation has responded to my inquiries.

But the most baffling is why anyone in academia would lend their name to such an embarrassing endeavor. And yet, there they are. A gallery of teachers and administrators smiling under the Chegg logo - a service no doubt banned by the institutions they represent.

The list of speakers is in the link above but schools represented at the Chegg/Varkey conclave include Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard Business School, Dartmouth (more on this below), University of Oxford, and University of Helsinki. Additionally, Paul LeBlanc, President of Southern New Hampshire University, himself a well-compensated board member of Chegg, is also speaking.

More on this to come.

New York Times Covers the Cheating at Dartmouth Medical School

On their prestigious Sunday pages, The New York Times covered the ongoing cheating scandal and Dartmouth Medical School. Their headline: “Online Cheating Charges Upend Dartmouth Medical School”.

That’s great. It’s a big story with outsized consequence - whether school leaders will really defend academic integrity. It’s the kind of story that deserves national attention.

As a diligent reader of “The Cheat Sheet,” you knew about the cheating at Dartmouth Medical almost a month ago as it was the top story in the newsletter of April 12.

Diligent readers will also note that Josh Kim, the Director of Online Programs at Dartmouth, is, in the middle of this national online cheating scandal, listed as a speaker at the Chegg conference mentioned above. Like Chegg, Dartmouth has not responded to requests for comment.

Louisiana Nursing Students Caught Cheating

A local TV station in Louisiana has the story of “widespread cheating” at Southern University’s School of Nursing. According to their reporting, the school said

Thirty-one students out of a class of 137 were involved in this incidence. Unfortunately, due to a glitch in the on-line testing program, the cameras were off for a brief period. Some students were aware that the cameras were off, and against testing guidelines used their cell phones and notified other students through a group text message that the cameras were off and that they could cheat.

The cameras were off for 30 minutes. In that time, nearly one in four test-takers coordinated cheating. So much for the idea that remote proctoring does not prevent cheating. The minute the cameras were off, the cheating started.

And, in case you glossed over it, nursing. These are aspiring medical care providers, cheating their way to being licensed. That, with the cheating above at Dartmouth Medical School, may rightly terrify you.

Further, the news story says all 137 nursing students had to retake the exam. Like most incidents of cheating, the penalty is on those who did not cheat and a pretty mild consequence for those who did.

Cheating on the Rise in Texas

The Texas Standard, via Texas Public Media, has the story of increased cheating reports in Texas. It’s pretty straight forward:

Houston Baptist University, the University of Houston and the University of Houston Downtown say they saw an increase in academic dishonesty cases during the transition to online learning during the pandemic.

The article quotes Camilla Roberts of Kansas State who is identified as, “with the International Center for Academic Integrity” saying,

So it’s not that more cheating has occurred it’s just that more of it is being reported

First, I’m not sure that’s better. That you’re catching more cheating because you’re now looking for it more only means you weren’t doing too good a job before. Second, that’s not true. There are hundreds of examples of cheating increasing overall as well as in the past year.

In the next “The Cheat Sheet” - Even undergrad cheating is up at Dartmouth. Plus, more on that Chegg “Student Summit.” Share “The Cheat Sheet” or sign up below.