Barnes, Don (D.J.Barnes@massey.ac.nz)
Fri, 6 Nov 1998 09:01:27 +1300
From: "Barnes, Don" <D.J.Barnes@massey.ac.nz> Subject: [ifets] Design of courses to make cheating less useful to the student Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 09:01:27 +1300
I have been following the debate on "cheating" as a lurker for some time.
It seems to me that by using a system like Webct where you can monitor
student activity and where you can include regular small assignments a
significant number of which have to be completed and submitted you can
provide a system which makes it hardly worthwhile for a student to find
someone else to do the course for them. Some of the assignments would be
selected randomly based on the student's PIN or ID number and made
compulsory. The student should be required to have accessed the system on a
regular basis and completed - even if not marked as such, a minimum number
of the example exercises in the form of tutorials.
I am not a proponent of the systems whereby you have to complete a certain
set of exercises in a given module before you can move on to the next. I
have always found this an incredibly frustrating exercise if you enter a
course with signficant knowledge but have to complete a series of trivial
exercises before you can get on with real learning. Therefore, I would be
against structuring a couse in this way but would allow student's choice on
at what level and when they took the "compulsory" exercises and these would
be of a comprehensive nature testing a wide range of understanding and
capability. The objective would be to see that the student was capable of
integrating the skills learn't and applying them to a new situation or a
problem solving exercise.
We have been working this way with an internal course, gradually moving away
from the traditional memory tests. The examinations are already open book
and open computer, which provides a challenge in setting questions which are
different from last years, for example, since students may take past
examinations and the model answers for those papers. We have introduced
relatively realistic assignments which are challenging and which are not
linear in their solution. They happen to be statistical analysis exercises
with computer simulation. Student evaluation of the course now gives it a
high rating even though it never has been a popular course.
No anti-cheating system that I have seen is 100% foolproof, but it seems to
me that we can minimise the risk - even on line.
Professor D J Barnes
Professor Manufacturing and Quality System
Institute of Technology and Engineering
Massey University
Private Bag 11222
Massey University
Palmerston North
New Zealand
Telephone +64 6 350 5264
Fax +64 6 350 5604
Email D.J.Barnes@massey.ac.nz
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