Reciprocal Information System

When I was much younger, I was told (and believed) that cheaters never prosper, that cheaters are always caught in the act, and that the disgrace is life-changing. That was then; this is now. Cheating is rampant, its own reciprocal information system, especially with the inclusion of electronic devices in the classroom. The only person who is hurt by cheating these days is the ethical student who refuses to cheat.

It’s quite easy to cheat because the schools have made it easy to cheat:

• At the university level, there are “clickers” for students to check-in for attendance purposes. One person can activate several clickers and no one is the wiser; thus, even students who are not in attendance are in the official records as present. This practice only stops by having specific in-class assignments that are based on attendance and not available as make-up work with just enough points to affect an end-grade. Those who are signed in but don’t take the quiz and/or participate in the activity can be assumed to be not present and dealt with during office hours.

• Students are encouraged to have tablets and/or cell phone access to websites that the instructor uses so the student can be in the moment with the classroom instruction. That same access, however, is also available during exams, which makes it much easier to score higher grades without studying. Thus, the students who are taking the quizzes photograph them with their cell phones and send the quizzes out to all their friends who have a later section—either that same day or a semester later—of the same class. A professor should be smart enough to see both attendance and points trending higher toward the end of the day – but few of them care enough to make it more difficult for students to endgame the system by having multiple versions of the quiz or activity.

• Textbooks are readily available on line, which is a cost-saving advantage for today’s students; however, the textbooks come with the test bank, so students can pass any class simply by using the test bank to take tests. Far too many professors rely on the same materials class after class/semester after semester. Thus, students with limited English skills, students who regularly don’t attend class, and students who are woefully unprepared for college-level assignments pass college-level tests with college-level vocabulary and syntax that they probably cannot read and comprehend.

• Papers and projects from last semester’s class are reworked for this semester’s class when it’s taught by the same professor who gives the same assignment. It’s much easier to earn an A by rewriting someone else’s A paper than it is to start from scratch, especially if your English language skills are barely into the “low literate” level. Amazingly enough, this tact is free if you share the same background; i.e., Chinese students give other Chinese students whatever it takes to pass a class with an A grade.

Professors are proud of the achievements of the students – based on grades on the tests and papers – and seemingly don’t understand that a student may be cheating to earn the grade because it has become so easy to cheat. It’s much easier to justify cheating to earn high grades than it is to risk failing by not cheating, especially for international students with limited English language skills. The pressure to earn high grades is never-ending for international students whose culture values high achievement.

We assume that students will not cheat because they may be caught and punished, but that is simply naive. Not cheating when everyone else is cheating is simply a poor business decision.