As it has been for decades, academic cheating remains prevalent in higher education — but now even more so because of advances in technology, according to industry and academic experts.
An example of that — and the changing nature of misconduct as more and more students take classes electronically from a distance — emerged late last week when University of Iowa officials disclosed an investigation into at least 30 students enrolled in online courses who might have tried to cheat by having others take their tests.
ProctorU, a national proctoring service the university uses to provide identity verification for several of its online courses, detected “potential irregularities” during an exam. Those irregularities involved discrepancies in verifying the identities of test-takers in one or more exams and — in some cases — multiple courses.
UI officials are reviewing those cases to determine the next steps. UI spokeswoman Jeneane Beck said students who cheat or try to cheat face suspension or expulsion, but wouldn’t discuss details of the investigation.
Beck said the UI has many procedures in place to protect academic integrity and will “continue to adjust those procedures as necessary.”
Today’s academic misconduct is not limited to online courses — although technology often is involved.
“There is more sophisticated cheating than there was 10 years ago, period,” said Iowa State University professor Arne Hallam, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “Whether there are more because of online exams, I don’t know.”
Hallam said he sees as many students trying to cheat during face-to-face exams as during online exams — most using some form of technology, including snapping photos with smartphones or sneaking peaks at notes stored on their devices or obtained by texts.
The number of ISU students found responsible for academic misconduct reached 200 in the 2014-2015 school year, up from 108 in the 2010-2011 period.
Iowa’s public institutions are divided on how to respond to and what practices to adopt around increasingly popular online offerings.
The University of Northern Iowa, for example, is undergoing a review of online testing services. ISU has opted to use proctored centers for most online testing instead of web-based services like ProctorU, used by the UI.
ISU students enrolled in online courses are encouraged to take exams at a testing center either near their location or on the Ames campus, according to Hallam. On test day, students must show identification, sit at one of the computers in the room and log onto their account for the class they’re taking.
One of the proctors in the room also logs on to gain access to the exam, and the test begins. Students aren’t allowed to use outside materials — although ISU doesn’t make them lock up phones and other belongings before entering the room.
“While exams are being proctored, we have students who walk around the room on a regular basis to make sure no one’s got their phone open and is trying to read notes on their phone,” Hallam said. “It’s a cat-and-mouse game. But we work at it really hard.”
ISU allows students, on a case-by-case basis, to take tests at other locations — like high schools and public libraries — or using web-based proctoring services.
Hallam said those options can be harder to track.
“Does the person put them in a room and check on them to make sure they don’t pull out the phone?” he asked. “It’s not as good as our people in our room.”
In a statement, ProctorU Chief Strategy Officer Jarrod Morgan said his organization partners with more than 800 institutions internationally to ensure integrity of online programs. The service uses a multistep process to verify student identity — including assigning a person to watch the students via webcam, checking their ID, taking a photo, verifying their internet address and monitoring keystroke patterns,
Like the UI, UNI uses ProctorU for its online courses. Spokesman Scott Ketelsen said the institution continually reviews its practices.
“A working group that includes faculty members is in the process of reviewing additional online testing services to compare features, advantages and disadvantages,” he said. The group expects to present recommendations in the fall.
“Distance education and the notion of expanding access to educational opportunities through distance education are a permanent part of the landscape of higher education,” Ketelsen said.
Iowa’s Board of Regents, in fact, has a “Distance Education Strategic Plan” seeking to “extend the campuses beyond their physical boundaries to meet the learning needs of state, regional, national, and international audiences.”
Iowa’s public universities in a recent regents report describe plans to grow online education opportunities — with UI creating 113 new online courses, bringing its total of online courses to 557.
UI enrollment of distance education-only students was 2,595 in fall 2015, up from 2,343 in fall 2014 and 2,185 in fall 2013, according to the report. Total regent enrollment for students taking distance education-only courses reached 5,559 in the fall, up from 5,187 in fall 2014.
Although institutions are being forced to take extra precautions, technology isn’t necessarily the enemy, according to ISU’s Hallam.
“In some ways it’s easier to cheat in an online exam. But it’s also easier to detect cheating in an online exam,” he said.
Last semester, for instance, ISU followed up on a student who was supposed to be taking a test at a high school but was logged in from a home instead.
On the other hand, ISU discovered during the spring semester in a roundabout way that an international student had used a firm to participate in online discussions and presentations.
“The only reason we caught them was they quit paying the firm, and the firm notified us,” Hallam said.
Doug Bull, director of ISU’s online testing centers, said technology has enabled the university to improve exam-giving practices. Administrators, for example, changed the way questions appear on the monitor to minimize the likelihood students will try to take photos of the screen.
And, Bull said, tests that should take only 20 minutes but previously would have consumed an entire class period now are easier to limit.
“This is guiding us toward better practices,” he said.
©2016 The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
