I teach engineering at a large Midwest public university. Last fall I caught seven out of 51 students cheating on an exam by relaying information via their cell phones. (At least 4 of the 7 had iPhones.) All seven are no longer at the university. At the time I had no policy regarding cell phones, etc. use during exams.
Our department has purchased 100 cheap non-programmable scientific calculators. So now I have a policy for my exams that all electronic devices (computers, cell phones, mp3 players, etc.) must be in a zipped up book bag or on the table in the front of the room. I loan them the department calculators to use during the exams. This seems to work - at least for the problem I had. The calculators didn't cost much (around $10 each in the quantity we bought, I think).
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I teach engineering at a large Midwest public university. Last fall I caught seven out of 51 students cheating on an exam by relaying information via their cell phones. (At least 4 of the 7 had iPhones.) All seven are no longer at the university. At the time I had no policy regarding cell phones, etc. use during exams. Our department has purchased 100 cheap non-programmable scientific calculators. So now I have a policy for my exams that all electronic devices (computers, cell phones, mp3 players, etc.) must be in a zipped up book bag or on the table in the front of the room. I loan them the department calculators to use during the exams. This seems to work - at least for the problem I had. The calculators didn't cost much (around $10 each in the quantity we bought, I think).