j.love@napier.ac.uk
Thu, 5 Nov 1998 13:41:26 +0000
From: j.love@napier.ac.uk Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 13:41:26 +0000 Subject: [ifets] Distance credits and cheating
Distance credits and cheating
I am happy to see some discussion initiated from Alan's letter
regarding the worry of distance cheating. I sent Alan a reply but
after reading some of the posting I thought I'd share my thoughts here
too.
I like the "Claremont Model" and I will suggest it to our Department
when we get around to discussing distance credit and the problem of
cheating. Indeed, it is a problem that all distance learning
institutions must address. Someone (I forget who) posted a rather
negative response to the Claremont method and made some good
alternative suggestions, but I don't believe those suggestions solve
the problem(s).
The Problem
Distance testing makes it easier to cheat! It takes guts to look
someone in the eye when you turn in someone else's report and say it
is your own work. Imagine how easy it is to type your "dishonesty" to
someone you never met. The "depersonalisation" of distance learning
makes the "crime" easier to commit.(Both emotionally and technically.)
If schools do not have methods to verify that the student earned the
grade then the value of that institution's degree will be diminished.
It was suggested that one can get credit on-line via UCLA without all
the fuss of verification. I don't know about UCLA but they would be
very foolish to allow that to happen. Indeed, if UCLA gives credit (or
degrees) without verification of who has earned them, UCLA is going to
get in a lot of trouble (eventually) from the organisations who
provide their accreditation. All it takes is someone to abuse that
trust and the UCLA model will fall apart. (My immediate reaction to
reading about UCLA's on-line credit is that I will now question any
UCLA graduate as to exactly how the credit was earned and discount
their "quality" if the testing was by "trust". Fair? Maybe not, but I
don't want to hire someone whose only academic achievement may have
been to pull the wool over UCLA's eyes! And neither will any other
employer.)
Honesty is a great policy but trust is a silly policy. At least with
regard to accreditation.
Examples I Know That "Work"
Heriot-Watt's MBA program (where I earned my MBA by distance learning)
forces the student to get his/her entire grade through a single
"sitted exam" for each of 9 courses. It costs to set up the exam, but
they do it to keep it "honest". However, a single exam for each
course/grade sure puts a lot of pressure on the student! (Phew!)
The Open University (where I am now a student) uses "we trust you
methods" (home tests and projects) plus a single "sitted exam". That
takes the pressure off the students (a bit) but it also means that the
way the grades are sliced between "sitted" and "nonsitted" scores
makes for an interesting mix. Going into my sitted exam I had enough
points accumulated from my "home assessments" that I needed only 30%
to pass! Naturally that would have sent off alarm bells at the Open
University ("Why did he get a 30% on the final exam but was pulling
80's and 90's from the home assessments? Hmm.") Whether the University
would have had the courage to really question such a disparity is
arguable.
The Open University "homework" is very specific to the course and
takes a great deal of time to complete. (I put about 8 hours into each
of my 4 home tests for a single course.) I would have had to hire a
"ringer" (in this case a computer science graduate) to do the work for
me and it would have cost me a fortune! Great disincemtive unless you
have lots of money.
Solution and Conclusion
Ultimately, I think distance learning programs (delivered by the
internet, or snailmail, etc.) will have to arrange that their
student's go to a testing center (school) and sit the exam(s) in
person. The value of home assessments should be structured such that
failure on the "sitted exam" would outweigh the scores accumulated
from "home assignments".
Perhaps, each distance program will arrange to have an official
testing company do the work for them using tests that the school
provides. Each year there are "distance" tests given in every major
city. (MCATs, SAT, GREs, just to name the obvious American ones. I
think they are run by ETS.) Arrangements could be made but it will
cost. Indeed, I see verified testing procedures as the most costly
part of developing a distance learning program because these costs do
not fall (much) as enrollment increases (Unlike the development costs
of producing the distance learning materials.)
The worry is that if we (distance teachers) allow cheating to occur,
it will. Not excessively but enough to hurt distance learning (in
general). It wouldn't be hard for an "investigative reporter" ("60
Minutes" investigating UCLA or "Cook Report" investigating the Open U)
to stir up a lot of trouble by posing as a student and fraudulently
receiving credit (perhaps even a certificate or degree). What a great
news story!
Alan, good luck in your research into this. (You've opened a can of
worms!) I look forward to reading your report.
Sincerely,
Jamie
---------------------------------------------------------
Forum website: http://ifets.gmd.de/
Email address for sending message to everyone on the list ifets@gmd.de
Forum's contact person ifets-info@gmd.de
Join/Leave Digest or Normal List http://ifets.gmd.de/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu 05 Nov 1998 - 15:25:18 MET