On the Frontlines of the Battle Against Cheating
January 18, 2010 | ama83
It’s despicable, it is unfair to others, it can have bad effects, and it does not seem to be enforced too strongly. Cheating is an all too common act that still exists from elementary to college students. The lazy, unconfident, or unprepared students try to beat the system by earning credit in school though they do not actually know the material or do the work that the teachers assign. Try as they might, though, there are only so many precautions that the school system can take in order to reinforce honest behavior among their students.
Although it is rare to actually hear of a student getting caught cheating, that does not mean it is not going on all of the time. It’s not easy to catch a good cheater. Either students are getting way better at getting away with their wrong doings or schools are having a harder time keeping up with the crafty students. Technology seems to play a big role in cheating, though I would definitely say there are some other strange methods I have experienced that seem almost impossible for instructors to catch.
On the chances that a student is caught, and if the teacher actually takes the necessary actions required, the student is charged to the fullest extent by being expelled and possibly having the experience go on their permanent student record. The warnings are all over the place – in the syllabi, the teacher’s lectures, the school’s policies. Yet, there are still some desperate souls who push their limits, putting the school’s cheating detectors to the test.
Some very common ways of cheating are obviously by using the internet. People buy essays online or do random searches on their specified topic, copying and pasting parts of various people’s own writing and opinions. Honestly, this all sounds like more work than it is actually worth. If a student is doing that much research on their topic, wouldn’t it just be simpler to put all that information into their own words? Besides, teachers are currently using a method of punching in lines from students’ papers into a search engine, which easily shows whether those words have been plagiarized or not.
The problem can also come when a student is writing a hand-written essay in class, but is allowed to bring in a laptop for other uses. I have seen this issue in labs where students are meant to complete assignments within so much time, but are allowed to bring in their laptops. This problem could be simply solved by banning laptop-usage in the classroom.
And – to continue my original rant on cell phones in the classroom – cell phones are definitely a strong leader in the ability of students’ cheating. Not only can students go online with their phones and commit the same treacherous act as they would on their laptops, but cell phones also allow students to contact other people through texts. Since the phones are small and texting is quiet, it really is the easiest way for a student to cheat – provided they have a reliable source of information. This is just one more reason why cell phones should be banned from the classroom.
Friends would not be friends if they didn’t help you cheat… right? Having an accomplice in class is a very common case of cheating. Sometimes, it is easier to catch this kind of cheating since teachers begin to notice some correlation between the students who are helping each other out. It can get more difficult, however, when the ones who are cheating happen to be twins.
I once had a set of students who were siblings and looked almost exactly alike; however, I did notice a slight difference in the quality of their work. While one would always get a higher grade than the other (one would get a B or C and the other would get a D), every once in a while the roles would switch and the other twin would one-up the sibling. Though I had my suspicions of them swapping papers to help the other sibling from failing the class, I could never actually prove it. Unfortunately, their handwriting was too similar.
Obviously, there are some forms of cheating that are nearly impossible to catch. Instructors do their best by separating students during tests, but allowing students to take their midterms or final exams home just allows students opportunities to turn in someone else’s work as their own.
Cheating has come a long way from simply looking over another student’s shoulder for answers. Perhaps schools should be looking into newer means of discouraging cheating. Does anyone know of any other methods to fight against cheating techniques?
Cheating is terribly, and very unfair to those who have studied hard and long to get their grades. This may seem severe, but I believe they should get an F for the class!