Preventing Networked Gizmo Use During Exams? 870
bcrowell writes "I'm a college physics professor. My students all want to use calculators during exams, and some of them whose native language isn't English also want to use electronic dictionaries. I had a Korean student who was upset and dropped the course when I told her she couldn't use her iPod during an exam — she said she used it as a dictionary. It gets tough for me to distinguish networked devices (iPhone? iTouch?) from non-networked ones (calculator? electronic dictionary? iPod?). I give open-notes exams, so it's not memory that's an issue, it's networking. Currently our classrooms have poor wireless receptivity (no Wi-Fi, possible cell, depending on your carrier), but as of spring 2011 we will have Wi-Fi everywhere. What's the best way to handle this? I'd prefer not to make them all buy the same overpriced graphing calculator. I'm thinking of buying 30 el-cheapo four-function calculators out of my pocket, but I'm afraid that less-adaptable students will be unable to handle the switch from the calculator they know to an unfamiliar (but simpler) one."
Re:Well not sure if this is the right approach but (Score:3, Informative)
> Well, I am not sure that this is the right approach
Der... ya think?
Jamming cellular signals is a federal crime.
What a jackass.
Not trying to be a spelling nazi.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Tough (Score:1, Informative)
Actually, the USA has no official language.
Re:Well not sure if this is the right approach but (Score:5, Informative)
Watch your big mouth son:
Contact the FCC for permit applications and waivers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_jammer [wikipedia.org]
Re:Open Notes & Well-Designed Exams (Score:2, Informative)
Except, oh, the GRE, or the MCAT. Which is why 90% of the students in this guy's class are there.
College Policy? (Score:3, Informative)
Community-college math instructor here (CUNY). The first thing I'd ask is: What's the policy (if any) at the college level? Here I'm supported by an official, clear-cut policy at the college level: all electronic communication/media devices have to be shut off and put away while in a classroom (a policy I enforce strictly during tests).
So basically that means dedicated calculators and nothing else -- square root function required minimum in my stats class. I think that's an inexpensive requirement, they're like $1 at Staples or something? Graphing calculators okay for the rare student who has one. The few students with electronic dictionaries I see are small dedicated devices for that, and that's allowed. But phones as calculators, totally prohibited; iPod media player as calculator (or anything), totally prohibited. Not absolutely foolproof, but pretty clear to me.
Pen. (Score:5, Informative)
I hold a PHD in physics.
-A pen is enough. In physics exams students should prove they can transform formulas symbolically. Typing in number can be done by people at the cashier desk. Graphing calculators are a disease.
-Everybody who wants, can take in a standalone mp3-player - these are cheap.
-Regarding the dictionary - these exist in paper and are cheap - and faster than an ipod.
Most important: who uses sophistication to cheat and i caught should be removed from the studies immediately.
Just say no. (Score:5, Informative)
If you can't hack using a standard 4 function calculator, than you can't hack physics either.
I also hate to be rude, but most universities require that students speak and read english. While I can appreciate the fact that a Korean may not have the best grasp of written English, I also think it that individual's responsibility to learn the language or work outside of class to create notes in his or her native language. I sat through a number of situations in school where I was struggling with difficult material while foreign students were either talking during exams in their language, "sharing calculators" or similar, blatant examples of cheating that went unchallenged due to the political situation at the university.
After being written up in the campus newspaper, one professor "took a stand" by curving everyone's grade up one letter grade, essentially bribing the class into submission.
Re:Open Notes & Well-Designed Exams (Score:5, Informative)
However, as awesome as your post was, it didn't address the problem at all.
Having been in the same situation before, (Can I use my iPhone - it has a calculator on it, and you said a calculator was ok...) my suggestion would be to hit the dollar store and get a pile of cheap-ass scientific calculators. Then, do an exercise in class a few times before the first exam that requires their use. That way, you can outlaw all the networked devices, but people aren't using a foreign device for the first time under the pressure of a test. No, it won't be as familiar as their everyday tools. But at $1 each, you can even encourage people to take them home and practice on them if concerned. The ones I bought for my classes lasted a few years easily, but again, for the price, I wasn't too worried about them.
You don't need a $80 graphing calculator for most things. Unless you've built your curriculum around the use of one, you should be able to test adequately with a $1 calculator as the main computational tool.
Re:Pen. (Score:4, Informative)
You're overlooking the obvious - a lot more students take the first year "survey" physics courses, and many of them are from other disciplines. In Physics 101/2/3, they probably are doing a lot of problems that require (or at least are much easier with) a calculator.
I think the honor system is the best approach. I assume you're walking around, or your TAs are, during the test - it's pretty easy to tell a student who's performing a calculation from one who's doing a Google search on the problem at hand. As long as you've told them ahead of time that network access will not be permitted, I'd think you're good.
Re:Well not sure if this is the right approach but (Score:2, Informative)
It actually wouldn't be very hard to do it. A Faraday cage isn't so impossible to build.
There is paint available with a high metal content (hopefully not lead) which should do a pretty good job. Don't forget, the floor (if there's a floor under it), and the ceiling must be covered too. The windows would also need to be covered.
Alternatively (or in addition to), putting a fine wire mesh, with holes a fraction of the wavelength (come on Ham folks throw in the right numbers), were added to the walls, ceiling, and covering the windows, it would kill the connections.
If cheating on the class is such a big deal, they'll continue to find ways to subvert the schools control. If the worlds best Faraday cage was built in the room, with the most refined jammers, the students will just find another way to cheat. Since the exam has to be on knowledge they've accumulated during the course, they already know the materials that they need to sneak in. They may go back to the (oh my gosh) traditional writing the answers on their arms, shoes, or small notes. It's not the technology that needs to be fought, it's the fact that students will cheat.
Way back in high school, I was a teachers aide for a little while. I remember grading two girls tests, who sat beside each other. Every question on the test, right or wrong, was identical except for one. The girls threw a fit. I quietly mentioned to the teacher about the obvious cheating. I was given the tests back, and they were disputing the one that I thought they had marked differently. When it was given back to me, the question was now identical. Unfortunately for them, I had made an error, and the one I marked right was actually wrong. Oops, you both fail. There was no real action taken against them. The teacher knew exactly what happened, so the two girls were not to sit beside each other in that class for the remainder of the school year.
The question becomes, how do you catch cheating, and/or prevent it? That's up to the teacher and the school. Expulsion? Forced retaking of the semester/year? A smack on the knuckles with a wooden ruler (bring on the nuns!)
the poor delicate creatures (Score:3, Informative)
>but I'm afraid that less-adaptable students will be unable to handle the switch from
>the calculator they know to an unfamiliar (but simpler) one.
isn't being a student all about being adaptable?
migawd! coddle them much or what?
Re:Well not sure if this is the right approach but (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Open Notes & Well-Designed Exams (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Open Notes & Well-Designed Exams (Score:4, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_States#States_and_territories_that_are_officially_bi-_or_trilingual [wikipedia.org]
There is no official language of the United States. At the State level some states do, many do not, and some are officially bi or trilingual.
Refusal to accommodate students with language issues may be illegal in some states.
Some students may be disabled perhaps requiring Braille or some other input devices. The parent would fail steven hawking in a physics exam.
we live in a multicultural society and you are restricting your own development as a rounded individual if you ignore this. At the least learn a second language preferably one which will be useful to you. Not only will it take you places your brain will be exercised developed and expanded.
Re:Communal Calculators (Score:3, Informative)
Question 4) Integrate x*sin(x), graph this curve. If you were to express this as a Taylor expansion, what would the first three terms be? [wolframalpha.com]
See the problem now? If you can't pass calculus with a tool like that, you're not ever going to pass any math class. Between the ability to do each part of the integral separately, and the ability to google "integration by parts", if you are connected to the internet, you pass everything.
Re:Open Notes & Well-Designed Exams (Score:2, Informative)
...And while, in the 'real world', you virtually never have to solve a problem from memory alone, you *do* have to solve a problem without help from peers...
I call BS. In the real world, you should be calling on peers for any problem worth solving, if needed. "No man is an island" and all that. Far too many people have the attitude that they have to solve every problem that comes their way, and they all too often end up with a half-assed solution that sort of works. Learn to communicate people! That's what civilization is all about after all.
Re:Why do the complicated expensive solution? (Score:4, Informative)
The distinction between draconian and "needlessly irritating" is made with good reason. No notes for students tests memory, not comprehension.
That being said, I don't know why this joker can't just have a few grad students roaming the room proctoring the exam like every other institution does. Combine this with a "one strike and you're really, honestly out" policy and your problem is solved. Make it obvious that failing a class is less of an issue than being kicked out of your school.
Actually, now that I think about this a bit more, I think a better "ask slashdot" question would be how could you predict the students most likely to deserve an extra amount of "attention" during exams. At a guess I'd say it would be the ones who have inconsistent grades, as opposed to, say, a steady C- GPA. But then I aced the classes I was interested in and failed the ones I wasn't, so maybe it's not a great idea.
The problem with asking slashdot is... (Score:3, Informative)
You'll get a bunch of geeky hi-tech answers from people who've never left the basement.
I say get paper dictionaries and basic calculators then ban *all* electronic devices. Warn them beforehand.
If they can't figure out a paper dictionary and four function calculator it's a safe bet they were going to fail the exam anyway.
Re:No calculators (Score:1, Informative)
Er, you misunderstood the question: you could escape by breaking the ice and swimming (before hypothermia kills you), you could wake up from the dream (frictionless? really?), you could wait for spring for the ice to thaw, you could wait for snowfall and use that for friction, you could yell and hope to trigger an avalanche (nearby mountain required), or you could put an elephant in the way- allowing dozens more solutions... I could go on, but the point is the problem required no knowledge of conservation of momentum, only your basic pond survival skills.
Not to mention the small detail that depending on the size of the pond, throwing away a shoe might give you only a few meters of a slide, after which friction with the air will slow you down again. (unless you are also in a perfect vacuum - in which case being alone on a cold frozen pond is the least of your worries)
A better solution would be to use muscle power and air friction to move: use your hands as an air-rudder, as if you were rowing or swimming. Or just consistently breathe in one direction - this will take a bit longer.