Students cheat — with a little advice from YouTube and some free time they can successfully turn ink pens, rubber bands, adhesive bandages and plastic bottles into crypt sheets to use in a pinch during exams. With new resources like Wikipedia, iPods capable of uploading documents and calculators, students are finding it easier than ever to skip studying for exams and avoid hours spent in the library working on research papers. And as students’ cheating techniques become more savvy, administrators are challenged to stay one step ahead.”You’ve got to think of [it] as a game of cat and mouse,” said Harley Anton, assistant director of Centers for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. “Every time students come up with a new way to cheat, we come up with a way to combat it.”According to Student Advocacy and Accountability, in the 2007-08 academic year 323 students had their academic integrity questioned. During the same year, no students were expelled from the University, 12 students were suspended for academic dishonesty and 255 students were reprimanded for academic dishonesty.Twenty-two accused students were found not responsible for academic dishonesty.There are 34 academic dishonesty cases pending review.The University’s punishment for “academic dishonesty” depends on the student’s intent and the severity of the action said Eric Norman, Student Advocacy and Accountability director.Undergraduate students are traditionally given a failing grade for the first assignment on which they cheat, Norman said. Depending on the size of the assignment, one failing grade can mean failing the class. A second violation traditionally means suspension for one year, Norman said. But again the severity of the offense is considered.”A student that hacks into the University’s mainframe is going to be expelled from the institution,” he said. TECHNOLOGIESThe advent of the Internet and cell phones opened a world of cheating opportunities to students. David Lindenfeld, history professor, said Internet sources like Wikipedia and Noteswap.com — coupled with the ability to buy research papers online — have “revolutionized” cheating for students and professors.Lindenfeld said a paper’s style is usually the best indicator of academic dishonesty, and professors now have the advantage of being able to type a portion of questionable text into a search engine to find out if the portion is plagiarized.”The quantity isn’t increasing as you look over time, but the way in which it’s accomplished is [changing],” Norman said. “It’s very easy to cut and paste from an online source whereas before you had to go to the library, photocopy it and type it in.”Plagiarism is the easiest form of cheating to catch, Norman said.”In a test environment, sometimes it’s hard to check if a student is cheating,” he said. “We have to run a statistical analysis to see how this student performed compared to the people around him.”The University has two computer labs run by the Center for Assessment and Evaluation. The main computer lab, located in the basement of Himes Hall, has about 400 computers, hundreds of variations available for each exam and dozens of motion-activated video cameras capable of capturing suspicious behavior.”I know a lot about cheating,” said Chelsea Schilling, psychology junior.Schilling said the location of the test can help enable students to cheat. She said Lockett Hall is “full of cheaters,” and the seating system in computer-based testing centers helps students to know if they’ll be sitting close to cheating partners.”If someone starts acting suspicious, we can at that point make an effort to keep a closer eye on them,” said David O’Brien, assistant director of CELT. “We can also put several different cameras on them at several different angles.”While exams using paper and pencil administered in classrooms have a limited number of variations, computer-based tests have an infinite number of variations, O’Brien said.Exams administered in the labs have a large bank of questions to choose from and can mix the answers to the questions, Anton said.O’Brien said the labs administer exams in a wide variety of subjects at the same time, and there is a low possibility two students seated near each other will be taking the same exam. About 12,000 people took final exams in the labs in spring 2007, O’Brien said. The department does not track the number of students suspected of cheating in the labs.Students testing in the labs aren’t allowed to access electronic devices like cell phones and iPods, O’Brien said.”When something happens that appears to be outside the procedures, we report that to the professors, and the professors take that from there,” said Bobby Matthews, CELT director.Matthews said the Center for Assessment and Evaluation’s primary goal is to “do everything we can to administer a fair test to everybody.””If a student is operating at an advantage through a violation of the procedures, then that’s something the University needs to know about,” Matthews said.REASONS FOR CHEATINGStudents often make plans to cheat in the final hours before a test.Norman said students cheat because of a lack of planning, to cheat the system or because of test anxiety.David DuTremble, music and dramatic arts junior, has a friend with a penchant for cheating.”He’s lazy,” DuTremble said. “He admits it all the time.”DuTremble said his friend uses information from other peoples’ papers and tries to attain answers by asking people for help. DuTremble said his friend has never been reprimanded for academic dishonesty.”Pretty much nobody else cares,” DuTremble said. “He takes advantage of his friends.”Josh Carley, mass communication junior, said many teachers require students to remove their hats before an exam is administered.”A lot of people are taking their hats, and they take their answers, and they put them undeneath the top of their hat,” Carley said.Elise Madara, pre-veterinary medicine sophomore, said students might feel the pressure to cheat on assignments with a heavy weight on the final grade, in classes where the professor uses the same test year after year or when they think an assignment can be easily blown off.Matthews said cheating is an “epidemic,” and few things can be done to deter students from attempting to cheat because “if [students] are going to try to cheat, they’re going to try to cheat within the framework the test is being administered.””If you don’t know it’s going on, you can’t do much about it,” said Dana Brown, physics and astrology professor.—-Contact Lindsey Meaux at [email protected]
Cheating goes high tech
September 29, 2008