do colleges frown upon online classes?
Blue-- I could have done that but I kind of want this person to succeed. And I still would be cheating because I’d be doing work in their name. Plus I’ve got more important/enjoyable things to do! They are passing their regular courses, but wanted to boost the gpa and take fewer classes the following semester. Well I’m not doing it for them! But I could see where some one could start a business taking online courses for people unless proctored tests are given. Or a parent could take a course to get their kid through Gen Ed requirements.
Luther, APUSH was in the classroom. I took AP Psych and AP GoPo online. I did not take the AP Psych exam because I just wanted to focus on the GoPo exam, because I knew I would have to do a lot of self-studying. I also heard AP Psych was a very hard exam. This seems like a myth though because everywhere online people say it’s one of the easiest ones. However most of these people probably took it in the classroom, and since it’s a rather engaging subject, they learned a lot, whereas online, I learned next to nothing.
Test and quiz questions are recycled so I am able to open my previous test in another tab and find the correct answer. About 1/4 of the questions on any given quiz or test are recycled so it makes for pretty easy grading.
I do cheat on online tests out of pure laziness or because of time constraints. For example in my school, we have online Foreign Language, which is extremely easy to cheat at. You have another tab open with vocabulary translations, a google translate tab and pinyin converter, then you are set.
The only online class where cheating is much more limited is in online english classes. The most proactive teachers about cheating will give you assignments where you write about personal experiences, where it is blatantly obvious if you cheated.
Cheating in a foreign language class is just stupid. Eventually it will catch up to you because it’s cumulative. Some test or oral exercise will demonstrate that you haven’t learned anything.
“One of the real things that cause this, in my opinion, is the required courses that students simply view as a necessary hurdle they need to cross in order to get to the more interesting advanced courses. The solution to this would either be to make all courses interesting (not gonna happen) or change requirements and things around. This cheating problem in online classes doesn’t look like its ending soon.”
This EXACTLY. I’m taking Physics I online over the summer. It’s a necessary prerequisite to AP Physics (obviously). Why didn’t I take it in school? The teacher for Physics I in my school is terrible. She assigns time-consuming projects and lots of busywork. My friends have said that AP Physics is a better class, with a better teacher. I’m taking Physics I online to escape taking it in school. If the class was interesting, engaging, and fun, I wouldn’t have a problem with taking it in school. But by all accounts, it isn’t. That’s why I’m taking Physics online; that’s why many people elect to take required courses and annoying prerequisites online.
My time in online classes have proven to be positive, I’m sure some cheated but it was mostly adult students returning to school, so their outlook is somewhat different. With all of the posts and interactions with the professor sometimes it seemed more difficult than going to a physical classroom!
Do you guys know if all the US colleges restrict International students (F-1 visa) to take only one online class per semester or it’s just the college I go to.
[The</a> complete journey of an Int’l student…](<a href=“http://www.f1studentjourney.blogspot.com%5DThe”>http://www.f1studentjourney.blogspot.com)
The Chronicle is a solid source on higher education but it misses the point that many Universities have placed measures to avoid cheating on exams etc. For example; exams are written in proctored environment at other university/college examination centers with camera surveillance and ID verification. College people are smart, and now they are making the exams/midterms combined, worth more or less 50% of the course grade to bust those who are cheating. So it depends on the college really and how they tackle it but colleges are catching up with cheaters and coming up with innovative solutions to cheating to stay ahead of the game…
Yes. Especially if the professors cheat, themselves, by using questions already posted online, which is what I have dealt with and am currently dealing with!
Regards,
BettyfromCA
I earned my MBA online. Due to the ways that most of the classes were structured, there really wasn’t a lot of opportunity to cheat. Most of my courses factored in participation and project grades (a bigger issue with projects is that you always have that one member who is like dead weight…but that a whole different issue). In my quantitative courses (finance, accounting, statistics), you could do Google for guidance…but you would still know which formula to look up. The tests were timed, so there was no way you could figure out some concept that you didn’t previously practice and/or understand. Some of my courses that were writing intensive utilized that “Turn It In” application, which scans your paper and compares it with online and previous sources to find plagerism.
Personally, I never quite understood the point of cheating anyway. You work super hard to find a cheat…why not just try to really learn the material? Face to face classes are not immune to cheating. Most online courses are designed where exams are meant to be open-book. I’m sure almost anyone who went through college had an open-book exam and most likely did not get 100% just because it was open book.
Food for thought!
This is why coursera will never give real college credit, despite being an amazing opportunity to take free classes from some of the best schools in the world.
I attend a community college in South Carolina that offers a few online Associate degrees. I have been required to go to a campus(be it a satellite or main campus) to take midterms, tests, and finals. I would not attend a college that did not require proctored testing. I want to know that I am learning the material.
I’ve developed and taught online courses. I also have an instructional design background.
Course developers understand that online testing = open book test and collaboration. This is not necessarily a bad thing unless tests are the only types of assessments in the course. Open book tests can be useful to at least encourage students to engage content, and use resources in a meaningful way.
Course developers are encouraged to reduce the grade weights of online tests, and to use other types of assignments in order to assess student performance. For example, students can give presentations and participate in discussions in order to demonstrate the ability to synthesize information and respond with original answers.
Some institutions provide better support and training for online faculty and course developers. Some online courses and many institutions truly suck and fail, but many are wonderful and successful.
It’s very easy to cheat online. I’ve taken a few online classes and it really easy and also quite sad.
It depends on the University. Mine had so many assignments and timed quizzes every week that even with the book you would not be able to answer all the questions if you had not read material or did the research.
At some level, it’s your own fault if you pass an online class by cheating and do poorly in another class that requires it.
Penn State World Campus has been quite rigorous. The professors really make you work for your grades but I appreciate it because it forces me to learn the material.
I take online classes for mostly convenience, 3 people with 1 car. Not to mention no driver’s license. I would say it depends on the degree and the type of person your instructor is. My test didn’t even give me any time to cheat, I just winged them, some were just too easy, there was no need to cheat. On one class though I could understand why she would do it to quizzes however I was mind blown to find one of my online classes let me take the midterms and finals again, and showing the answers after the first completion.