Colleges Stepping Up Anti-Cheating Technology

Bruce Schneier's blog highlights a New York Times piece on high-tech methods for detecting student cheating. Schneier notes, "The measures used to prevent cheating during tests remind me of casino security measures." "No gum is allowed during an exam: chewing could disguise a student's speaking into a hands-free cellphone to an accomplice outside. The 228 computers that students use are recessed into desk tops so that anyone trying to photograph the screen — using, say, a pen with a hidden camera, in order to help a friend who will take the test later — is easy to spot. Scratch paper is allowed — but it is stamped with the date and must be turned in later. When a proctor sees something suspicious, he records the student's real-time work at the computer and directs an overhead camera to zoom in, and both sets of images are burned onto a CD for evidence." The Times article quotes from research published a few months back suggesting that the more you copy homework, the lower your grades.

Comments

Re:I say let them cheat

[BitZtream]

Everyone you listed was upset that they caught someone cheating, not at the cheating.

Academia regularly cheats just like anything else, just because they get all pissy and pretend its a horrible thing doesn't mean they are any different than politicians, just better at it, since they've obviously fooled you.

Re:No mime chewing of gum either

[refrigeratorpanic]

does that make you a sociopathic moron that has a problem with authority derived from your inability to see that cheating hurts honest students who get pushed down the grade curve and degrades the university's reputation, or are you just an idiot?

Re:Why would Bruce Schneier worry about this?

[Kagura]

For that matter, when did Chuck Norris become Chuck Norris?

Wow, your jaw must be sore from asking such a stupid question.