Ask Slashdot: How To Allow Test Takers Internet Access, But Minimize Cheating? 330
New submitter linjaaho writes "I work as lecturer in a polytechnic. I think traditional exams are not measuring the problem-solving skills of engineering students, because in normal job you can access the internet and literature when solving problems. And it is frustrating to make equation collections and things like that. It would be much easier and more practical to just let the students use the internet to find information for solving problems. The problem: how can I let the students access the internet and at same time make sure that it is hard enough to cheat, e.g. ask for ready solution for a problem from a site like Openstudy, or help via IRC or similar tool from another student taking the exam? Of course, it is impossible to make it impossible to cheat, but how to make cheating as hard as in traditional exams?"
Whitelist it. (Score:5, Insightful)
What are you testing (Score:5, Insightful)
In "real life" students will have access to all those things. Perhaps it isn't cheating but rather utilizing tools that they would have access to in "real life".
Assume they'll use every tool at their disposal- and write the tests in such a way that they can't copy the question into a search bar and google the answer.
You don't know what teaching is. (Score:5, Insightful)
Teaching means showing the way to solve problems. Nobody cares about correct solutions to school problems. It's all about the process of solving the problem, a scheme of thinking.
Suck It Up (Score:5, Insightful)
"And it is frustrating to make equation collections and things like that."
(A) Suck it up and do the work once.
(B) Use a textbook that comes with a premade formula card for use on tests.
(C) Find a premade formula card online and distribute that for tests.
Personally, I use option (B) for my math classes. Trying to make the internet non-communicable is like making water not wet.
i don't buy it (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What are you testing (Score:5, Insightful)
Now you have to grade collaboration... (Score:4, Insightful)
So does the whole group get an A, if they have some rock star who knows the material cold while 4 of the other students contribute absolutely nothing, and should have normally failed the exam?
That's no different than one person doing their homework and letting their friends copy it.
Re:Suck It Up (Score:4, Insightful)
"Trying to make the internet non-communicable is like making water not wet."
Exactly what I came here to say. Use a closed-off intranet, physical media (formula sheets, textbooks, etc), or allow students to prepare their own short "cheat sheet" before class. Don't even bother trying to lock down or whitelist the public Internet: the public Internet is the opposite of what you want to do.
Re:Sometime the old ways (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Now you have to grade collaboration... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Sometime the old ways (Score:5, Insightful)
I disagree entirely. First, you need to distinguish between secondary and higher education; the two are very different here in the US. The submitter said he worked as a lecturer in a polytechnic, so that's university-level, not grade school. Back in the early 90s when I was in college, open-book and open-note tests were totally common; rote memorization was not. Everyone (at least in engineering school) had graphing calculators (mostly the venerable HP48), so trying to prevent students from bringing in stuff on their calculators was an exercise in futility, so in many classes like freshman Chemistry, we were allowed to have one sheet of paper with all the notes we could cram onto it when we took an exam.
By most accounts, our universities are pretty effective at educating people; it's our grade schools that suck and get all the criticism. The main criticism of colleges is that the tuition is much too high (it wasn't nearly as expensive when I attended; it's skyrocketed in the past couple decades for some reason).
Re:Sometime the old ways (Score:5, Insightful)
Could a professor put questions on the test that he or she knows aren't easily solved by using the Internet?
I don't know. Is there a question which cannot be answered by visiting www.gmail.com and having a helpful friend or highly paid accomplice on the outside write up the solution for you?
If your answer to that question is 'No', then you're starting to see the problem. If your answer is 'Yes', then I have an amazing investment opportunity for you. It's a combination of a perpetual motion machine, time cube, and weight loss device that is made entirely from recycled ophidian extracts...
Re:Sometime the old ways (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolutely there's a question that can't be answered that way:
"Minwee, on your previous exams you struggled to even articulate the most basic concepts involved in XYZ. Yet here on your final exam you managed to put forth an elegant solution. Please, from memory, walk me through your solution and how you came up with it step-by-step."
The tricky part (and it isn't that tricky) is how to know who's done suspiciously well and who is just a really good student.
For me, when I teach courses, I handle that by giving 2 grades for each assignment. One is the letter grade, the other is a meta-grade that explains why they got that letter. I also mix up assignment types and methods - some are open book, some are spontaneous and WAY too short (2-3 minutes at most) to get any real kind of response from an IRC enabled accomplice, etc.
The meta grade thing is simple: I might have 3 students who do an assignment and get a C. One might have gotten a C because they got an answer that was incorrect BUT they derived it through a process that is sensible and correct (usually just some kind of error they didn't catch); One might have gotten a C because they got a correct answer but their process made no sense; One might have gotten a C because they got the right answer but didn't show their work at all. Over time I develop a profile for each student based on those metas and so I can spot outliers not just in the actual letter grade they got but also in the reason for the grade.
When I have a student who routinely does very well but doesn't show their work, I'll sit with them and ask them to explain their work. If they can't do it adequately I'll remind them that cheating will get them an F for the course and possibly expelled, so I expect that in the future they'll be able to explain how they got those ever-so-correct answers the next time. It's shocking how many "correct but inarticulate" students suddenly become "frequently incorrect but extremely verbose" when they realize I'm on to them.
The other thing is that by and large, cheaters are not very consistent students when it comes to those meta grades, even if their letter grades might be. When I see a student with a very inconsistent pattern, that's another sign I need to have a talk with them.
I figure if a student can both figure out and slide past my system they deserve to get away with it.
Anyway, the thing is that it requires a faculty member who is actually invested in teaching their students rather than just herding them through a course.
Re:What are you testing (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the point is to give access to the tools that they could use in real life while ensuring that they can still work independently.
Well, in real life, people collaborate on work. So, if you are demanding they do all the work without collaborating, you are already putting artificial limits on the process.
If you are going to put one artificial limit on them, why not two? They don't get to look things up. But that's not fair, is it?
So don't ask questions where they have to look things up. If you have to look up the concepts behind the work you are doing, then you haven't really learned anything, now have you? I'll point out that there is a difference between forgetting the name for some concept (e.g., "Boyle's Law" or "Charles' Law") and what that concept is ("pressure vs. volume of a gas" etc.) If you want to teach the concepts, you'll accept a demonstration of the concept without demanding it be named properly.
Even if you could come up with unique questions, you still have a situation where they could hire someone else to answer the questions for you.
That exists in real life, too. They're called consultants. If you are going to test in "real life" mode, do it. You have to allow consultants.
My suggestions: only let http through and use a white-list for acceptable websites.
You don't get to install anything on my phone, tablet, or latptop. Ain't gonna happen. And if you do, I'll simply use root to get around it. Real life sucks, huh?
It is only a taste of real life, but it should be enough to prepare them.
Real life rarely sets 100 people down in a room and hands them a list of questions to answer. Tests aren't supposed to simulate real life. Write the test to test what you need to test, not test whether they could figure out a way around an artificial limit that isn't going to be there in real life.