I had some Honor Council cases last semester. A few students logged onto the course web site during the final exam and accessed the slides from lectures and the solutions to problem sets and old exams. (Some questions are similar enough, and the solutions are detailed enough, that they can benefit.) Amazingly enough, the students did not realize that they could be tracked. The question going forward is a simple one: Should I make the site inaccessible during the final exam?
If I make it inaccessible, I save myself the hassle of Honor Council cases, but that is a small benefit. I also protect the student who succumbs to temptation while doing his business. The sneaky students already put course material on their phones, so they won’t be affected.
I could require that all students surrender their phones before the exam (or at least surrender them when they go to the restroom), but some will claim not to have brought a phone, while others may bring a tablet or a second phone.
For what it is worth, I do not consider leaving the web site accessible to be entrapment, but I am still conflicted. Of course, if I knew that I was catching serial cheaters, I would have no qualms whatsoever.
We don’t allow any electronics during our exams - if caught using one during the exam, the student is assumed to be cheating. The students are told about this exam policy ahead of time. All bags must be on the floor. Only items allowed on the desk/table are writing instruments, straight edge, water/coffee, and depending on the course, maybe a non-programmable calculator. We ask the students to turn in their phones when taking a restroom break, and keep track of how long they are out of the room.
We had to implement these proctoring rules a couple of years ago because several students complained about other students cheating on their cells. And these were grad students - it’s probably even worse among the undergrads.
Like the tree falling in the forest, is the cheater whose cheating is thwarted still a cheater?
I would take it down. The would-be cheaters will still be “punished” insofar as they’ll get a bad grade (presuming they were counting on accessing the website).
"I made the students put their blue books on the front desk. I passed them out randomly. This is designed to keep students from writing info inside the blue book. One student asked for another: his blue book was chock full of info that would have helped someone on the final.
The students who need to cheat for the test will usually not end up doing well.
I would leave access open, but replace the slides with “You have been caught accessing class material during the exam. Please discuss this with me after the exam.”
Thanks for the comments. @bp0001: that is what DW suggested, @ucbalumnus: I have a colleague who tells the students in one class that they can refer to any source except another human being. Maybe we will all have to do that eventually.
Perhaps open book/notes/web exams may be more realistic in terms of difficult problems in real life situations (including academic research). Closed book/notes/web exams may be best suited for simpler questions where it is expected that one would know the answer without looking anything up.
I remember one final exam where they gave a closed book/notes exam of simpler questions for the first hour. Then we turned in that paper and got an open book/notes exam of harder problems for the remaining two hours. (This was long before smart phones, tablets, web pages on every subject, etc…)
I think the first question is do you care if they access the material. If you don’t, there is no problem. If you do, let them know clearly, in advance, and then block it. Kinda like closing the barn door.
I’ve had this happen too. I would take the site down. If the students are allowed to leave after they finish the exam (which is typical), it can be difficult to figure out afterwards which students are accessing the site during the exam in order to cheat and which simply accessed the site to check their answers after turning in the exam.
If you leave it up, I recommend writing the time of submission on each exam, which is a good practice to do anyway.
@warblersrule: The ethical considerations are more of an issue for me than the logistics. During the final exam last semester, my TA and I were like undercover cops. He had the photo roster up on his laptop (there were 50 students), and I had the access log up on my phone. It was almost comical. “Someone just logged on. Is that the guy who just went to the restroom?” “Here he comes. Yes, that’s him.”
Put up a page showing an incorrect solution to a problem that is the same or similar to that on the final, with a heading “Find how this solution is incorrect”. If they ignore the heading and just copy the incorrect solution…
I have been known to change formulas that were written on desks before my tests. Change a “-” to a “+”, a “3” to an “8” and so on.
But that sort of stuff is so much harder in a digital age.
ACCESSING your site during a test is against the rules, regardless of what’s on the site.
Kids in my high school cannot leave a room during an exam. And having a phone in their possession is an automatic transgression of testing policy, and a 0 on the exam. From there, it’s basically solid proctoring.
But once you let kids out of a room during the exam, all bets are off.
I don’t think you should make it easy to cheat, by leaving temptations around-- having textbooks on desks but not allowing students to open them, or something like that. But a student has to work to access the class website during an exam: they’re not allowed to use phones at all, let alone access the course site. If a student cheats like that, I say throw them to the wolves.
Each of my kids has forgotten to bring a book or notes to open-book, open-notes exams at least once, and missed enough of the “copy out of the book” questions to lower their grade substantially. But, that is one solution.
For STEM classes they were sometimes permitted to bring in a cheat sheet of formulae that they made up themselves before the exam, sometimes limited to the size of an index card, sometimes on a sheet of paper.
I am not sure how access to another human being can be blocked if students retain access to electronics, though.
Many of my daughter’s math classes in college allowed her to bring a formula sheet to tests - the sheet was collected with the exam. Many math and econ profs were very strict about calculators also - some even forbidding them - others being very specific about what was allowed. Using the calculator on your phone etc. was strictly forbidden.
Not sure. I would probably keep the website intact but mention that in the past you have caught students accessing it during the test - leading to the student’s involvement with the Academic misconduct board or whatever. But then this might give students an idea that they wouldn’t have thought of on their own.