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Cheating’ s latest look
University officials work to stay ahead of advanced attempts to beat the system. By Dallas Bastian
Emerging technologies are opening the door to new ways of cheating, academics say.
The University of Adelaide experienced the issue first-hand when it was reported that 12 fifth-year medical students allegedly took screen grabs of exam questions using iPads.
A comprehensive investigation into the incident has been launched, Adelaide medical school dean professor Alastair Burt says.
“ The university takes any form of plagiarism and cheating very seriously and is working closely with staff and students as part of the investigation,” Burt says.“ All students are bound by rigorous academic integrity rules and are expected to uphold the highest standards commensurate with a Group of Eight university.”
Google Glass, internet-enabled wristwatches and even cameras in pens are some of the other technologies that have been used to get a leg up in exams, and online courses have even caused concerns over whether students’ work was their own. But University of South Australia professor Wing Au says whilst technology can provide more tools for cheating, that isn’ t cause to remove it from classrooms.
“ I think the risks are manageable,” Au says.
He explains that new technological developments have been used to minimise the risks of cheating as well. For example, video-conferencing can be used to establish identity and for further questioning and text comparison programs can prevent the lifting of material from the web.“ We have to use technology to deal with technologies,” Au says.
Professor Marie Carroll, pro-vice chancellor of academic affairs at the University of Sydney, adds,“ There are always going to be opportunities to cheat. We can’ t eliminate risk, but we can mitigate it.”
Carroll expects high-tech cheating to be an increasing problem in the future, but says universities are putting much effort into keeping up.
As Au explains, new technologies have presented cheating issues for decades, as when calculators with new capabilities allowed students to skip steps. He says just like these issues were discovered and rectified, so will the new technological threats be addressed.
Au acknowledges that new technologies will present themselves thick and fast.“ Once we think of dealing with a particular situation, there will be newer technologies that come out.” The key to keeping up, he says, is educating the users of the technologies to engage with them in an ethical manner.
“ We have to really work with the users to prevent it from happening further,” Au says.“ It’ s part of the responsibility in this digital era. We will continue to use technologies that are evolving and developing very, very quickly. We do have our set policies and procedures to deal with such behaviour.”
Carroll also says the benefits of devices being used in classrooms and on exams outweigh the risk, and that education is now technology-enabled and there is no turning back. However, she says there are clever ways of assessing students that navigate some of these issues.
The prevalence of sit-down, closed-book exams makes cheating more likely, she says.“ There are other ways in which you can assess what students know that don’ t present the opportunity for technological dishonesty,” Carroll explains. For example, she says it would be preferable to use assessments in which students are able to use resources and get tested on their critical, creative, intellectual input, as that way“ all the iPads in the world” couldn’ t give them the answers. n
10 | campusreview. com. au