Non-Technological Ways to Combat Cheating?

blackcoot asks: "I'm currently T.A.ing for a required senior level class in algorithms. Having just graded the latest set of homework, I'm amused / sickened (can't make up my mind on that one) at the level of cheating. Slashdot has covered automated cheating detection in the past here and here, but I'm hoping to find some (necessarily nontech) ways of encouraging students to be a bit more honest (or at least a little less spectacularly stupid in how they cheat). I've been reporting the cheating as I've found it to the relevant profs, but it doesn't seem to be having much of an effect. Any suggestions?"

Comments

Nano-Technological Ways to Combat Cheating?

[IainHere]

I misread the title, and thought we were talking about nano-tech.

I'd come up with a couple of interesting ways to combat cheating with it before I realised my mistake:

1) Have nano-robots floating around in your blood stream (and eyes) taking account of everything you see and write. If they witness you cheating, turn you into grey-goo.

2) As above, but instead of mushing your entire body, just take control of your hands to write "I AM A CHEAT!" all over the paper.

3) Since the above isn't actually possible yet, just *tell* the students that it is, and they've been injected with the "truth or die" serum.

Something I've seen in the workplace

[MarkusQ]

Here's a trick I've seen in the real world that gets the results you want in short order:

• Tell them teamwork is required (this cuts communication down right off the bat).

• Implement some form of zero-sum grading; e.g., you are going to award N points for each problem / assignment, distributed among the correct solvers as you see fit. Make sure they understand the system.

• If you suspect cheating, give half the points to the cheater (the one who you think copied, not the source) and divide the reduced remander among the rest of the students.

• Act like you don't notice when the cheaters fail to show up for the next few classes, or limp, etc.

It works best if their livelyhood is on the line, but the effect should be sufficent even with grades.

-- MarkusQ

Yeild to the inevitable

[aminorex]

"Cheating" is a *good* thing. Why would you
deprive future software engineers of what might
be their *only* opportunity to work as a team
in a realistic simulation of a workplace environment
before their graduation?

If you wanted to make things more realistic, you
would let everyone google for their test answers,
give 'A's to your friends, and randomly pick
fat people to fail.

Re:YOU CANT WIN YOU CANT EVEN BREAK EVEN AND

[fuzzybunny]

Funny enough, when I was at Cal Berkeley, we had a massive final for some bogus filler class (Anthro 10 or something like that.) We shared the old Harmon gym with the final exam for the horrible grueling freshman physics weeder course.

These guys were so hardcore that, when someone set off the inevitable fire alarm, while we just sort of ambled out for a smoke and a chat, the physics TAs ran around screaming at their herds like a bunch of USMC drill sergeants. "BOTH HANDS WITH BLUEBOOKS AND TEST MATERIALS OVER YOUR HEADS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM SINGLE FILE LINE OUTSIDE NOW GROUP AROUND YOUR TA MOVE MOVE MOVE!"

During that exam, the physics proctors nailed about 3-4 guys fairly loudly and publicly, including at least two ringers. Not a pretty sight.

Re:Impossible Question

[The Clockwork Troll]

I'm a TA for an advanced Fourier systems/elementary graph theory class at MIT.

I tried this technique - giving students near-impossible problems - but inevitably some janitor comes by and solves the in the dead of night.

Damn you night janitor, damn you.