4 NEWS
SANTA ANA COLLEGE el Don/eldonnews.org • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2015
PART II IN A SERIES ON WAYS STUDENTS CHEAT
APP / The smartphone has replaced the rubber band, pagers and the Palm Pilot, becoming not just a more efficient way to study, but also to cheat. / Photo Illustration by Jose Servin / el Don
S
High-Tech
Meets Low Ethics
Digital technology helps create
new forms of cheating
BY ANDREW MATA / el Don
martphones, computers and
websites are now more than
just resources for learning,
note taking and research.
“I’ve seen plenty of students
use their phones on test days and
they’ll probably continue to do
it because they haven’t gotten
caught,” Santa Ana College student Eduardo Varela said.
About 40 percent of students
admitted to cheating by using
digital and online tools, according to a study by Concordia
University in Wisconsin.
“This number doesn’t surprise
me, but I don’t think they have
the intention to cheat. Students
put themselves in a position to
cheat by putting off their work,”
SAC English Department Chair
Matthew Beyersdorf said.
The advent of the Internet
allowed students to lift passages
or entire papers from the Web.
Enterprising entities, such as
Cheathouse.com and Schoolsucks.com, act as clearing houses
for term papers.
But as schools find their
own ways to counter cheating,
including using programs like
Turnitin.com to root out plagiarism, methods have increasingly
become more elaborate.
Some students, taking advantage of the lack of face time in
online classes, hire others to take
the classes for them.
Onlineclasshelp.com and
boostmygrades.com are services
that guarantee an A or B-letter
grade for their clients.
“In order to prevent people
posing as other students we use
hybrid classes, with in-class dates.
We also use in-class assignments
to learn how students write and
if they turn something in that
doesn’t represent their work, we’ll
know,” Beyersdorf said.
In the past, creative students
used such techniques as the
rubber-band trick. After stretching the band, students fill it with
anticipated answers or math and
chemistry formulas.
The smartphone has made the
practice all but obsolete. Students
can take photos of notes, access
Wikipedia or their notes through
Google Docs.
The problem of students using
Photoshop to edit labels and
nutritional information on soft
drinks to include answers and
formulas has prompted professors to ask students to clear desks
of everything except a pencil.
“I’ve seen a student do it for a
quiz and the teacher had no idea
the label had formulas,” SAC
student Stephanie Guerrerro said.
At SAC, there are multiple
levels of discipline ranging from
a zero on the assignment to expulsion for repeat offenders.
“If a student is caught cheating
it’ll be put on record for future
reference, and if they get caught
again they’ll meet with me for
their punishment,” Associate
Dean of Student