Cheating+Mechanisms

Influence of Technology
Technology has supported a newer, simpler means of cheating even more efficiently. Students can store information on calculators, communicate through instant message during open exams via laptops or photograph and/or text test information through cell phones. Internet clearinghouses archiving tests, papers and course material are prevalent including Cheathouse.com, Papers4Less, 123helpme.com, collegetermpapers.com and many more. There are even "shadow scholars," anonymous writers who are paid to write papers, assignments and even theses on demand.

Cheating Methods
The following are some "classic" cheating methods posted publicly by college student on facebook forums and on Youtube.

-Students write notes on a sheet of paper. Using blank sheet, press down firmly on the paper with notes. Take out the apparently blank sheet of lightly transferred notes during the test. -Print crib notes directly onto a coke bottle label. The label can be easily designed on computer. Attach the label to the coke bottle and use during test. -Students may iron-on answers onto a shirt or hide answers beneath a shirt. -Hide paper in clear-tube pens/pencils. -Sit on index cards with answers. -Write answers on arms or legs. -Sit in a V shaped pattern during testing. -Store answers in an open back pack or binder which the student steps on to open during a test -Taping answers underneath desks. -Storing notes in the clear tube pen. -Storing answers in scientific calculators, not just (graphing calculators) -Hiding ribbons of paper with notes in the seems of skirts. -Writing on rubber bands -Hiding notes behind labels on a water bottle. -Students leaving the room review notes.

Cheating has become precise art which is constantly refined by a community that openly shares their ideas on Youtube. Simply search "ways to cheat" in a Youtube search, and you will be amazed either by the ingenuity students have in their skills, or the audacity which students have in publicly displaying their tips. Students can also find suppliers of tools to cheat more efficiently such as cheatpens.com, a small company that specializes in modifying pens with roll-out sheets of paper or UV-lights to revealing hidden notes on blank paper written with invisible ink. What is disturbing is that these are kids teaching other kids to cheat.

**Motivations for Cheating**
Much of this behavior is motivated by student's seeking to "learn the system" acquiring successful grades in order to "beat the curve." "Everything is a about the grade that you got in the class. Nobody looks at how you got it," says a business student at a top U.S. university. This lack of integrity permeates into businesses and government to breeds economics disasters, compromised infrastructures and even fatalities.

Perspectives on Cheating
A definitive assessment of the prevalence of cheating within an educational institution does not exist. So far, at the University of Florida, a combination of tactics have been employed to assess the level of cheating, if prevalent, on campus by involving deans, faculty and students in the following manners:
 * 1) campus wide surveys
 * 2) focus groups
 * 3) discussion if Dr. McCabe, expert in the field (01-19-11).

College of Dance and Performing Arts
Not all schools view cheating similarly. The UF School of Performing Arts defines cheating as "cheating ones self." Failure to practice becomes evidence in a student's evaluation. This failure affects a student's recruitment potential. There is no official measure of cheating in the arts. Students are therefore more compelled to work independently.

College of Business
I spoke with Dr. Brian Ray, Associate Dean and Lecturer in Leadership and Ethics. Professors can request exam rooms with 2-3 person spacing, use several versions and many proctors to stave off occurrences of cheating. The activity of SmokingNotes and Einstein Notes is prevalent in large core courses and can be ideally deterred if a) class sizes were smaller, b) evaluations were more rigorous. The general aim is to design courses to so that students using such notes can not pass with higher than a C. It is an unfortunate circumstance, but as present an issue as paper mills. The mechanisms for cheating are equivalent to standard in-class cheating methods. Suggestion to the task force: since the reporting of academic dishonesty is unknown across campus, Dr. Ray recommends to publicize the offenses and the subsequent consequences in the alligator. Example: Student caught cheating on an exam, penalized with 1 year suspension. In contrast to West Point, where suspension leads to loss of tuition dollars, the student incentives to remain honest are low at UF since school is virtually free. Perhaps if students and faculty were aware of the systems taking place to prevent cheating, honest students will feel more confident in the system and professors may become more supportive as opposed to policing futile issues.

College of Fine Arts
Dr. Dixie Neilson, professor and Graduate adviser, reported very low incidences for cheating in the Fine Arts Department among graduate students. Students are encouraged to emulate the styles and works of famous people. They are then evaluated annually, demonstrating a marked separation from distinguished work. A distinction is expected n the 3rd year. Dr. Neilson claims that most fine arts graduate students take their studies very seriously. A similar pattern of emulation is indirectly experienced in other studies. For example, engineers tend to learn by example. However, the creativity of solving problems beyond those similar to examples may need to be encouraged among students.

Cheating using Online Assessment
The ease of facilitating teaching and assessment through online technology has many benefits including reduced cost and administrative effort (e.g. proctoring, grading). However, it is suggested that incidence of cheating increases as the level of communication between examiner and examinee decreases. Some major issues concerning long distance cheating are summarized below: 1. __Advanced exposure to assessment__ answers by which enlightened students supply keys to future test-takers. Dangers include small pool sizes for questions and students logging in as the instructor using spyware, hacking software or social methods for revealing passwords. Example: a student can send self-executable spybot software disguised an a casual email to detect and transmit entered passwords. 2. __Abused retakes of assessment__ using excuses such as loss of power, crashing a testing server, or altering the system clock to change testing dynamics. 3. __Unauthorized assistance during an exam__. This includes accessing supplementary material during an exam, contacting/hiring persons to consult or take the exam. Please refer to a review by Rowe, 2004 suggesting preventative measures.

However, there is more recent competing data that suggests cheating is actually less prevalent online and more an issue of age. The claim is that younger students have a higher tendency to cheat that older students.

There is an active debate regarding the assessment design of online courses. Some courses without proctored examinations have questionable legitimacy and have conceivably higher cheating instances.