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As schools moved to an online-only mode of instruction, many professors were forced to adjust to the new circumstances. Covid-19 pushed instructors to do remote testing and the absence of an in-class proctored environment caused everyone to rethink how they administer exams.
Many instructors are frustrated with students using the internet to cheat on homework and other assignments. This article is an example that instructors and schools are not powerless. As TCU is showing, a firm position can be taken and something can be done about this problem.
In previous posts we have discussed the complex issue of academic integrity due to the environment created by online cheating websites and so-called tutoring services available on the web. These elements have made it much easier for students to find answers online, and pose a threat to authentic assessment in the classroom.
At Expert TA, we have always made it a top priority to provide instructors with the best possible protections against cheating online. The scope of the problem has never been greater, with the ever-expanding volume of solutions posted on the internet, and the advent of "tutoring" services through which students can have any problem solved in a matter of minutes. Our focus on this goal requires continual development and innovation..
Some students will go to great lengths to cheat, as indicated by the recent story of students from the University of Kentucky climbing through the ceiling to steal an exam. Instructors today, however, are less likely to catch students with Sharpie™ notes on the bottom of shoes and more likely to find students sharing quiz answers online.
Most students cheat. In fact, the numbers are alarming.
In a previous post, we discussed the reasons why bundled textbooks are a bad deal for students. These package solutions can seem like a great option because they often include supplemental material to assist in course preparation and pre-built assignments. The truth is, however, there are many downsides to the bundle, including the availability of textbook solutions online and the ever-increasing financial burden on students. For this post, we will discuss one way instructors are able to continue capitalizing on the advantages of online homework, while disconnecting from the bundle and ultimately saving their students money.
Textbook mapping, a feature available in the Expert TA system, allows instructors to view the problems in Expert TA’s independent library arranged in the specific chapter and section order of the textbook of their choice. By default, the problems in our system follow a similar structure to many of the most common introductory physics textbooks. There are, however, many instances where certain topics are covered in different chapters and sections from one book to the next. With textbook mapping in Expert TA, instructors have the ease of a bundled homework solution when selecting problems, but the flexibility of an independent library that also protects the integrity of problem solutions.
We’ve put together a breakdown of the most common textbook mappings across all users of Expert TA to give others an idea of how this feature is actually being utilized in the system.
See if your textbook is available:
Instructors have a long history of sharing resources between one another within departments and among those who teach the same course, or a follow-on course. With the growth of readily available digital resources on the internet, this sharing culture has grown exponentially. While this can significantly reduce the effort required for instructors to develop materials, emerging research suggests this type of sharing could also offer a direct benefit to students and teachers in the long run.
It is very reasonable for new faculty at any high school or college to be provided with a template of course materials previously used to teach a class. This can include textbooks, lecture notes, and homework assignments. It would make little sense for an instructor to always start from scratch and require them to develop everything on their own. Free Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to enhance this practice through large-scale collaborative efforts designed to continually improve course materials.
As noted in The Benefits of Sharing: Student Success and OER from an open faculty development course hosted on the Canvas Network of open courses, faculty can benefit from newly updated or re-worked course materials to ensure latest trends in education are adopted. The benefits of regularly enhancing a course can also lead to exposure and subsequent utilization of new learning technologies as well. The positive impact is not just limited to the course material itself, students also tend to have elevated perceptions of the course and institution attributed to the focus on reducing their financial burden.
Furthermore, as we have highlighted in a previous Expert TA post on academic integrity, Instructors who choose to update their class materials regularly may also limit the ability for students to cheat. As Dr. David Pritchard of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology points out, changes in course format and instructional practices can help to reduce students from copying work by nearly a factor of four.
“Additionally, teachers can write their own questions, use a homework system that proactively guards its answer bank, and structure their classes in such a way that homework can have value once again, ” says Pritchard. Instructors no longer have to turn a blind eye to this serious problem.
There are many avenues instructors can utilize to share their material. Some learning management tools such as Canvas allow instructors to share materials for classes from directly within the program (in Canvas this area is known as Commons). Much of the content found here falls under the Creative Commons License, and you can find more information here about how to utilize this type of material in your classes.
There are also numerous niche websites and forums that provide instructors the ability to collaborate and share materials relative to the subject or discipline. One specific site for Physics and Astronomy is comPADRE. This network of resources is a part of the National Science digital library used by educators, researchers and even students in college-level introductory Physics and Astronomy classes. We plan to dive deeper into comPADRE in the coming weeks.
Sharing course content lets instructors see different teaching perspectives from colleagues in the department, at other schools, or from those providing independent research. A good way to stay great at teaching is by seeing how others teach, and learning valuable best practices and tips from one another.
There are certainly more benefits to instructors sharing resources like their class notes, assignments, and course other materials. Let us know others you think we should have mentioned!
We recently read an article stating that homework is once and for all obsolete because of a new app developed making it easier for students to cheat on their homework. And in another article from Inside Higher Ed, George D. Gollin, professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, states:
Academic integrity is important — to you as the instructor, to us as a homework provider, and most importantly to students who should be benefitting from the practice that homework provides. Historically to combat online cheating, Expert TA has utilized industry best practices including randomized variables, randomized phrases and problem masking to minimize academic integrity issues associated with our online physics homework system. We took it a step further and began to search for our content online, working with sites like Chegg.com and Yahoo Answers to keep our problem solutions off of their servers. This document provides more insight into how we sweep the Internet to protect our content and the speed with which it’s reported back to us and removed (often within 24 hours). Although these efforts make a significant impact in curbing cheating, it shouldn’t surprise us that students continue to find unique ways, like online collaboration, to get an answer, all while avoiding the homework practice they actually need.
