Bill Braun (medprac@hlthsys.com)
Fri, 06 Nov 1998 07:45:09 -0500
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 07:45:09 -0500 From: Bill Braun <medprac@hlthsys.com> Subject: [ifets] Cheating: Problem or Symptom?
Is cheating a problem or a symptom of an underlying (not visible) problem?
If you were asked to solve the "problem" of cheating but were told that you
couldn't approach it through the design of the testing process, what
approaches would be effective?
Bill Braun
At 09:01 AM 11/6/1998 +1300, you wrote:
>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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