Cheating Students Use Technology, Too
Students have tried 'invisible' earpieces and customized papers
In addition to repurposing the labels on soda bottles, students continue to explore other new avenues in cheating.
Customization. While some students busy themselves plotting ways to manipulate documents and trick antiplagiarism software like Turnitin.com, the Internet is inundated with places where lazier students can order custom "plagiarism-free" essays on any subject. These papers could be a major problem in classrooms because there is no way to identify them. One site touts a staff of hundred of writers who will even attempt to duplicate students' writing style. But professors say they can generally tell that students are plagiarizing when they use concepts and style too sophisticated for their education level.
Wi-Fi tech. Teachers are increasingly on the lookout for wireless earphones that could allow students to share answers via cellphones or prerecorded messages on MP3 players while keeping such devices out of sight. These "invisible" earpieces have starting prices of about $120 and can go as high as $600, depending on range, battery life, and volume control.
Too far-fetched? Not for the police in east China who this past summer caught students using this technology to cheat on the national college entrance exams. Similar incidents have occurred around the world. Even more elaborate techniques involve pen and button cameras that connect wirelessly to a computer and send real-time images. Beyond being ethically compromised, student cheaters have officially watched one too many James Bond flicks.
Reader Comments
Tony Lee
I was late getting an on-line assignment in, so I copied and pasted part of an article with the intention of going back to edit and give credit per MLA or APA. But when it got down to 15 minutes, I could not take the excerpt out because it would cause my answer to be disjunctive, so I left it in and hoped the professor wouldn't notice. I had no intention of cheating or plagiarizing, but we all know about good intentions. Well, she busted me and gave me a zero, with an admonishment that would turn to a fail and report to the Dean if it happened again. I was thinking my professor was a grade NAZI - but found out she was a highly unforgiving professional with the highest expectation of academic ethics... and she was Jewish. Oops. I never let that happen again. All the effort for nothing to gain but a big zero, disgraced, and a threat of excommunication. I think it was rather extreme for a couple of paragraphs out of a 5 page assignment, but it was what it was.
"But professors say they can generally tell that students are plagiarizing when they use concepts and style too sophisticated for their education level.
This may be true but without evidence there is little they can do and administration does not support accusations without evidence. Increasingly students are aware of this.
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