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Source: www.thesun.co.uk/

The eternal temptation for students to cheat has gone high-tech. The old-school exam cheating methods from the past like sleeve method, toilet tank method, foot signal method, tissue cheat and the dictionary cheat are considered naïve and had been replaced by new generation methods that include mobile phones and other sophisticated technology. Cutting and pasting from the internet and sharing homework online like music files also worries teachers. Pupils can buy on-line exam cheat equipment, like for example a concealed ear-piece to receive information.

Cheating is a form of dishonesty and is generally considered unethical, nevertheless American research shows 74% of students at some 4,500 high schools admitted to serious test cheating, and 97% copied either homework or question papers. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland more than 4,400 people were caught cheating last year and an official figures show a 6% rise in cheating. As mobiles started to provide internet access, they became one of the biggest problems for examiners.  Mobile phones enabled students to take photos, swap notes and search the web.

Schools and universities are trying to combat this abusive behavior and have already responded with their own efforts to crack down on it. Schools buy detection equipment to trace devices being used secretly in exam rooms. In Britain it was agreed students should sit exams in metal-lined rooms to block mobile phone signals. Airport-style security scanners should also be installed to prevent pupils from taking in phones and other equipment. One college in Florida, USA installed industrial camera systems in examination halls to track students. When a teacher sees something suspicious, they record the student in real time and the images are burned onto a CD for evidence.  Students are not allowed to chew gum during an exam as chewing could disguise a student speaking into a hands-free mobile to a peer outside.

Around 55% of colleges and universities now use anti-plagiarism services that require students to submit papers to be vetted for copying. However, using technology shouldn’t totally replace educating pupils from an early age about why cheating is not appropriate. Students will always be tempted to cheat, and the more sophisticated the cheating becomes, the more efficient the education against cheating as well as detecting it will need to be.

Tags: Anti-plagiarism, Britain, Cheating, Cheating on Exams, Technology, USA