The Choice: A MacArthur P. Chanute Story

Over the years as a private eye, I’ve learned a few things. One is an old saying,

“People don’t cheat by chance, they cheat by choice.”

I have a love/hate relationship with cheating. I don’t like when people do it. But cheating does provide me with a fair amount of business. Which is exactly what happened when Professor Vernon came to see me.

The good professor had just finished teaching his first online class. He was not happy about it. While always “generous” with his grades, he was dismayed when almost all of his students finished the course with perfect scores. 100 Percent on all quizzes and exams. Perfect scores on all homework assignments. In fact, only one student had less than a perfect score, and only because he missed a week of class due to some incident with a sombrero.

Not sure where else to turn, he appeared on my doorstep.

He looked a bit peaked, and as it was about time for lunch, I took him to a little Chinese place around the corner. We ordered. While waiting for the food we sipped tea and I asked him about his class. How was it set up? What were the assignments? Formats of Quizzes? All the usual questions…

Instead of answering me he brought out his laptop. A few clicks and his class appeared. It was just as I’d suspected.

The class was asynchronous: no set meeting times or live lectures. Students could log on and work on the class whenever they wanted.

Students were given a window of several days to do weekly quizzes and exams. All the quizzes and exams were fully auto-graded. Every question was multiple choice, true-false, or fill-in-the-blank; and the computer scored them all. The students got feedback right away.

The “assignments” were similar; windows of time students could do their assignments. But it wasn’t really “work.” The assignments were multiple-choice questions…just like quizzes. Or, there were “Yes/No” questions in which the Professor asked if they read the chapter. Again, all were automatically graded.

The few written assignments he had were short; students were able to answer them in a paragraph. And the Professor commented on what high-quality writing the students demonstrated.

When I asked him about content, he told me he’d gotten all of it from a textbook publisher. Quizzes, questions, etc....all downloaded verbatim from the publisher.

So it was a pretty sweet deal for the Professor. Content to copy and paste and make everything automatically graded. Nothing to do but put your feet up on your desk and sip coffee.

But there’s a price to pay, and that’s why the Professor came to see me.

As the food began to arrive I began to give him everything he needed to know to turn his online class around.

• Don’t release feedback until all students complete the tests. A student who takes the exam on day 1 of a three-day window, can share with others who have yet to take it. Also, only give feedback on incorrect answers. This also limits the leakage of text content.
• Use Plagiarism Checker. With any written assignment, use a plagiarism-checking program. All universities have them now. If your students are writing above their skill level, there’s a good chance they are “creatively acquiring” their content.
• Use Video Replies. Many of the LMS’s allow students to record themselves in response to an assignment. Have them video themselves giving the answer. You’d be surprised how many like the format (thanks Tik Tok), and you’ll see that it’s the actual student. Also, a bit more difficult to plagiarize when presenting.
• Do not use questions directly from the publisher's text book. Having verbatim questions from texts make it easier for students to find them online.
• Create Higher Order Questions. Shy away from multiple choice or true/false questions. Create questions that require synthesis of knowledge or problem-solving. Questions that cannot be easily copied.
• Use practice tests. If there are only a small number of quizzes and exams, the pressure to do well increases, as does the incentive to cheat. By providing tests that have no, or low, points towards the final grade, does a couple of things. It allows students to become comfortable with the test format in a low-risk environment. By having points spread out over more tests, it reduces the pressure to perform.
• Gentle reminders about cheating. Most universities will have an honor code paragraph buried in the 20-page course syllabus that no student reads. Instead, the professor should put out little reminders here and there about cheating. An occasional post about plagiarism or an announcement about the honor code.
• Positive Reinforcement, Look for opportunities to be positive. When giving feedback on an assignment, slip in phrases like, “Your original thinking is outstanding” or “That is a creative approach…well done!”
• Leverage LMS Functions. There are features and functions in Learning Management Systems that can hinder cheating. Page blocking: not allowing other windows or tabs to be opened while the test is running. Not allowing the test takers to go back to previous questions. Randomized the order of questions and answers. These are not foolproof, but they can make it harder, as well as putting students on notice that possible cheating is being looked at, thereby discouraging it. Randomizing also mitigates unconscious bias with question patterns.
• Use Cams to proctor tests. This can be a bit “1984-ish” but many Learning Management Systems now have the functionality of using webcams to monitor and verify who is online taking a test.
• Create questions that require personal input, such as "Tell me about a time you had to..." People are more likely to share personal experiences, therefore less likely to cheat.
• Run plagiarism and AI checkers available through the university.

It took a while to go through all this, and we ate quite a bit. But in the end, the Professor felt optimistic about redoing his class. Even as he realized it would take a bit more work on his part.

The server brought fortune cookies along with the check. Professor Vernon opened his, and the little slip of paper turned out to be the perfect ending to our lunch…

The first time you cheat me, be ashamed. The second time it is I who must be ashamed. ~ Chinese Proverb

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