BlueProtoman

redeye, I would've intentionally bombed the quizzes for them, and if there's a discussion board maybe post rude comments.

mommusic

LutherSetzer--Right....unless someday someone DOES check and you get fired for not having a degree from the institution you claimed to be a graduate of.

Then we'll read about you in the news.

taxguy

The funny thing is that the cheating can almost be eliminated by requiring that students attend a monitored class to take all finals and midterms. Tests should never be given at home or online.

NCscott

I took 2 AP onlines this past year and I made 2 easy A's while learning next to nothing in the classes because many of my friends took the same classes and shared work and test answers. It was incredibly easy. Some tests immediately show the correct answers upon their completion, and this page of answers would be emailed to those who still needed to take the tests. Even the tests in which I didn't have answers for I could find the questions and answers online. Big joke. Most of the blame should be put on the teachers of these classes however, for making their tests and work easy to share.

jayusa77

This is an interesting subject. As a former United States Marine, I was only able to fit online classes into my schedule. After leaving the Marines, I just finished my second semester at community college. I honestly think that my online classes were much more difficult than my brick and mortar classes. I attended Penn State so perhaps they have a more rigorous standard than other online schools. All my test were open book but the test were so hard that if you didn't know the material you would have bombed bad. My answers were not online so I really think it comes down to the professors teaching the class. I think some of these colleges that are for profit (ie. University of Phoenix) have professors that are there for the paycheck and not for the students and so they use the exact same test for years, allowing students to copy answers instead of learning the materials.

randombookie

do colleges frown upon online classes?

redeye41

Blue-- I could have done that but I kind of want this person to succeed. And I still would be cheating because I'd be doing work in their name. Plus I've got more important/enjoyable things to do! They are passing their regular courses, but wanted to boost the gpa and take fewer classes the following semester. Well I'm not doing it for them! But I could see where some one could start a business taking online courses for people unless proctored tests are given. Or a parent could take a course to get their kid through Gen Ed requirements.

NCscott

Luther, APUSH was in the classroom. I took AP Psych and AP GoPo online. I did not take the AP Psych exam because I just wanted to focus on the GoPo exam, because I knew I would have to do a lot of self-studying. I also heard AP Psych was a very hard exam. This seems like a myth though because everywhere online people say it's one of the easiest ones. However most of these people probably took it in the classroom, and since it's a rather engaging subject, they learned a lot, whereas online, I learned next to nothing.

IRgovmnt

Test and quiz questions are recycled so I am able to open my previous test in another tab and find the correct answer. About 1/4 of the questions on any given quiz or test are recycled so it makes for pretty easy grading.

dapreyingmantis

I do cheat on online tests out of pure laziness or because of time constraints. For example in my school, we have online Foreign Language, which is extremely easy to cheat at. You have another tab open with vocabulary translations, a google translate tab and pinyin converter, then you are set.
The only online class where cheating is much more limited is in online english classes. The most proactive teachers about cheating will give you assignments where you write about personal experiences, where it is blatantly obvious if you cheated.

mommusic

Cheating in a foreign language class is just stupid. Eventually it will catch up to you because it's cumulative. Some test or oral exercise will demonstrate that you haven't learned anything.

Flamewire

@tedders83:

"One of the real things that cause this, in my opinion, is the required courses that students simply view as a necessary hurdle they need to cross in order to get to the more interesting advanced courses. The solution to this would either be to make all courses interesting (not gonna happen) or change requirements and things around. This cheating problem in online classes doesn't look like its ending soon."

This EXACTLY. I'm taking Physics I online over the summer. It's a necessary prerequisite to AP Physics (obviously). Why didn't I take it in school? The teacher for Physics I in my school is terrible. She assigns time-consuming projects and lots of busywork. My friends have said that AP Physics is a better class, with a better teacher. I'm taking Physics I online to escape taking it in school. If the class was interesting, engaging, and fun, I wouldn't have a problem with taking it in school. But by all accounts, it isn't. That's why I'm taking Physics online; that's why many people elect to take required courses and annoying prerequisites online.

margatini

My time in online classes have proven to be positive, I'm sure some cheated but it was mostly adult students returning to school, so their outlook is somewhat different. With all of the posts and interactions with the professor sometimes it seemed more difficult than going to a physical classroom!

f1studentjourney

Do you guys know if all the US colleges restrict International students (F-1 visa) to take only one online class per semester or it's just the college I go to.

The complete journey of an Int'l student..

collegeboi1992

The Chronicle is a solid source on higher education but it misses the point that many Universities have placed measures to avoid cheating on exams etc. For example; exams are written in proctored environment at other university/college examination centers with camera surveillance and ID verification. College people are smart, and now they are making the exams/midterms combined, worth more or less 50% of the course grade to bust those who are cheating. So it depends on the college really and how they tackle it but colleges are catching up with cheaters and coming up with innovative solutions to cheating to stay ahead of the game....