One of the on-going discussions about online education is a chronic debate about cheating.
What’s cheating? Sure, paying Kurt Vonnegut to write a book report on Slaughterhouse Five the way Rodney Dangerfield did in Back to School is probably beyond the edge. What about looking up the answer online? Or asking Bob? If Connectivism is a valid construct than knowing who to ask becomes an important skill. For years, education has given a wink and a nod to the notion that it’s less important to know a fact than to know where to find the fact when you need it. What’s that do for cheating? How can you cheat? If your goal is to assess how much knowledge about a subject that a learner might be able to bring to bear on a problem, then ask him/her to solve a problem. Few people can cheat a “performance” task where most people might not even realize they were cheating a “knowledge” task.
phaedrus » Blog Archive » Assessment at a Distance.
This discussion makes me tired. It’s so pointless, but it does serve the purpose of casting doubt on the validity of online learning.
What are the factors that promote “cheating?” Are they realistic? How is the perception different from the reality?
October 24th, 2008 at 9:42 am
I think that if you give most people the opportunity to find an answer, reguardless of whether they should or not, they will take advantage of it. I have had online classes before when I have been instructed to complete a test without using a book or notes. I wonder how many people followed those guidelines? I think that in the real world, people don’t have all of the answers, and that’s ok. But, the real test is knowing how to get the answers that you need.
October 24th, 2008 at 11:07 am
the mere fact that no one is neccessarily standing over you telling you not to cheat lends itself to cheating, no matter if its a distance ed course or a traditional classroom. people will do whatever they think is neccessaRY to get ahead, whether they learn or not. it comes down to what is more important-actually learning content or getting a score on an assignment.
October 24th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
If teachers would stop giving such boring tests cheating would not even be an issue. All of this read the text, take notes, and spit out the info is pointless. What does it prove? Short term memory does not require too many skills.
I do not see anything wrong with looking up info online. It’s there, use it. I do not consider that cheating. I think that if students had more choices on how they were assessed then this post would not even be an issue. Instead of writing a book report why not let the students do something a little more fun like making an art project about the book or act out as a character from the book? I think you could tell more from these projects then a book report. I do a lot of one on one assessments with my students that contain a lot of show me stuff. I can tell more about a student knowing what 4+4 is when they model it for me than just simply memorizing the facts.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:25 am
I sat across my State Rep. a couple days ago. He stood up and gave a brief talk about putting the T back into teaching and getting rid of testing. I don’t think that will happen but nice thought. As for cheating I find that if you have the resources and ability to find the answers why not. I remember things better if I search throught the web and look it up.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
I think that we would want to have our students thinking they are doing something we don’t want. They might think they’re cheating by looking up things during a test or using other resources. However, as a society we should want individuals to learn how to use their resources around them during the informational age.
October 25th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I think that cheating has many different aspects. If we are looking at someone elses work (say our friend sitting beside us) and copying word for word then that is cheating. However, if we are researching online to find the answer to a problem I don’t call this cheating. Most of the time I find that I learn more when I do inquire about things online. A lot more information is given to me than simply what I am looking for. As we go into the real world we learn that our “tests” aren’t given as multiple choice or open response, but rather as things that we are allowed to research and learn from (this is where it is important to know our resources)…and this sometimes means learning while working with other people.
October 26th, 2008 at 10:16 am
In my job when I need an answer I go to a co-worker, battle buddy, online source, whatever I can find to get the answer. Is this cheating in my job? Word for word plagiarism. That could be cheating, its not your work, but someone else’s. The student is deciding the moment they turn in something that wasn’t their own what their learning will be. There is very little that most people write that is their own. Most is something that they have collected and stored away and use it later - should those thoughts be in APA format?
October 31st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I agree with what Ashley said. So what if you don’t the answer, if you can look it up. I think that asking peers fpr help stimulates the learning process, and I allow for collaboration in my classroom. Now, I don’t want one student doing all the work either. I also think that looking up answers is a skill that students need to learn.