The Chronicle of Higher Education reported this week that in a new 1,200 page bill before Congress “is a small paragraph that could lead distance education institutions to require spy cameras in their students' homes.”
Many are concerned about the privacy issues involved in such a measure and that somehow distance learning institutions would be treated with harsher anti-cheating requirements than traditional classroom-based universities.
I am still shocked at the extent students will go to in order to cheat on an exam.
The obvious question for this guy is “if you're smart enough to know Photoshop and to go to this extent to cheat on an exam, why not just learn what you need to know for the test?”
Students in my classes who were aware that I was going to run their papers through TurnItIn.com, an anti-plagiarism solution, have still used students papers from the previous semesters in the hopes that they won't get caught. Of course, some might argue that they were looking to get caught, when they made such little effort to conceal their academic dishonesty.
I hope the debate continues and that we seek to protect students' privacy while maintaining academic integrity and ethics. If we're not talking about it and fighting to keep the quality of our programs sound, the Coke can bottle guy wins and learning loses.
