on line cheating
I would perfer to think if a student signed up for a class they would be interested enough to complete the class on their own. Would I encourage some one that was having a difficult time to seek out some one else in the class for help or tutoring ? absolutely I generally take people at their word. Maybe this is a flaw in my way of thinking. I would rather see what I can do to help a student than try and catch some one cheating. I think what I want to say is I must have not taught some thing very well or I must not have made myself as available as I should have. If a student has to cheat to pass I going to take some of that responcibilty.
That is an interesting way of looking at it Cecil. I appreciate your perspective.
Having sat in a students' role many years myself, I couldn't imagine cheating on work. However, I realize that it is now more prevalent with students and easier to do on-line. The student is in control of his/her learning experience for the most part on-line. If one cheats, then it lessens the satisfaction of knowing that you as an individual accomplished the task at hand. It cheapens the thrill of learning so to speak. It would be much more productive for the student to seek assistance from the instructor than to take from that learning experience by cheating!
I like your phrase that cheating "cheapens the thrill of learning." That is a great way of looking at it. Now we just need to help all of our students realize that!
Well, you must look at the fact that sometimes a student must take a course to complete a degree. A student may not always be excited about every course needed in achieving his or her degree.
General education courses are certainly courses that students don't always like to take because they don't recognize the direct connection to their chosen career field. I think it is helpful when the instructor is able to make connections to the student's career field whenever possible. That might be a reason why students cheat, but it is certainly not a good reason--I don't think there is any good reason to cheat.
Katie,
I just spent over three years as online student and I can tell while it is true that there are easier ways to cheat in an online environment the schools are getting really good at catching them. The school I just graduated from had recently implemented some really neat tools that they use to catch someone cheating. It is good to see it hopefully those website that sell term papers will go out of business soon.
Marcos
I agree with you...there is definitly no good reason for cheating! Nothing good is learned in that process!
While it has gotten easier for students to cheat (just cut and paste) it has also gotten easier for teachers to catch students who cheat. It would be wonderful if the websites that help students cheat go out of business, but I guess I am not keeping my hopes up. Thanks for your post Marcos.
You are right--it would be helpful if students would realize they are just cheating themselves. Thanks for your post Jennifer.
I was always brought up to believe that when you cheat, you're not only hurting yourself, but everyone else in the class (if they find out you cheated and then decide to do so themselves) and the school's reputation (once it gets out that the school allowed such things to happen).
You are right--bottom line is that no one wins when a student cheats! Thanks for your post Tim.
Whether the class is on-line, or in a regular classroom setting - given the opportunity any student WILL cheat. I am not condoning this practice, but a lot of our students are overwhelmed. Some are returning students after being out of school for many years, and some are traditional ones. I hear so many excuses,why they weren't finished with the assignment and others are just clueless as to why we think that the work submitted was plagiarized. If this is not discussed and enforced (i.e. academic probation and/or dismissal) what can we do to get the point across to the students?
http://www.fairfield.edu/media/flash/library/lib_plagicourt.swf
We have incorporated this website as a learning tool...tell me what you think about it.
Cheating is something that we have to address and creating websites like you had done is one way to teach students about plagiarism and how to avoid it. I thought the website was very good and helpful to students. Nice job and thanks for sharing it with us.
Katie,
I agree with your point of view. If a student wants to get the most out of the class then they will seek assistance. However, some students are fast with the challenges of time management and do not have the time to put into their studies. When this happens the temptation to cheat will begin to creep in.
As I am new to teaching on-line courses, I was very concerned as to the quality of education a student would receive, because of the ability to easily cheat. BUT, as I got into the course and realized there were many tools for me to use that would essentially prohibit cheating, I became confident that students that put in the effort would walk away from the course having had a quality education. There are always going to be those few students who try to do minimal work, with DL, teachers can track just how much effort is being put into the course, we can put time limits, we can make sure that everyone is participating in discussions, students will have to step it up and do the work themselves.
Unfortunately, when a student wants to cheat, regardless of online or residential, somehow they find a way. But certainly technology has come a long way in helping us identify cheaters.
Thanks for your comments Shana and good luck with teaching our first online class!
I think you have a good point there. If students are cheating, then we need to ask ourselves, what is it that we aren't doing to TEACH them that cheating is not the way? We should take some responsibility for not teaching the material and not teaching ethics.
That is an interesting idea Deborah. Assuming that a student understands what is considering cheating is an assumption. I know there are certain cultures don't have the strict adherence to citing sources that we do, and students from those cultures simply don't understand that they are stealing someone else's words and thoughts.
Is seeking the help of another person good, or considered cheating? I don't know the answer, and I want to know the answer.
Here is another question: do we know for sure if the student is the same person who is doing the work?
