About 95% of the class still chose to keep their cameras on during the duration of the exam. While he does not require students to keep their cameras on, citing that not all students have access to web cameras, Dmochowski believes that mandating students be present on Zoom, in conjunction with the strict time limit and open-note format of the exam, prevented cheating. "It increases the temptations to check your answers with a friend before submitting it."ĭmochowski administers his 90-minute, open-book exams over Zoom, where students are encouraged to keep their cameras on and can ask him questions during the exam. “I think a lot of that was because people were given multiple hours in which to take their exams," he said. This semester, Dmochowski chose to “live proctor” his exams and make them open-book after receiving reports of cheating in students’ end-of-semester evaluations last spring.
These measures range from "live proctoring," open-book policies which allow students access to their notes, to lockdown browsers which lock students onto the Canvas browser and prevent access to other online resources.īut without clear evidence of students cheating, professors are left to interpret higher class exam averages on their own, with some attributing the higher scores to other factors like open-book exams.Ĭhemistry professor Ivan Dmochowski, who teaches CHEM 101: General Chemistry I, contrasted anti-cheating measures this semester with those from last semester, where professors had to abruptly adapt their courses to an online format and, consequently, did not have time to counter potential widespread cheating. Lacking clear policies or guidance from the University, some professors have resorted to implementing their own anti-cheating measures, with varying degrees of success.
How professors are crafting their own anti-cheating measures Virtual exams are an entirely different ballgame. Gone are the days of a student’s eyes looking astray at his peer’s exam or students bringing notes into the testing room. In past years, when exams have been administered in person, cheating was much easier to spot and much harder to pull off. The Office of Student Conduct similarly reported a 72% increase in cheating case investigations from the 2018-2019 to 2019-2020 academic year. "These are classes that I feel like I would perform well in person for, but now I'm even having to consider if I should pass/fail this class because of the cheating."Ĭhinmay’s experience is just one example of what many students allege to be a pervasive increase of cheating among Penn students ever since the pandemic forced classes online. “Some of these kids will do anything to get the grades that they want," Chinmay said. Chinmay said that the stress of acing a pre-med course, coupled with the pressure of having to compete against peers for a high exam score, creates a perfect storm that motivates students to cheat and leaves their rule-abiding classmates at a significant disadvantage. As someone who didn't cheat on the exams, I'm just concerned that I'm falling behind, because I'm taking the moral route."ĬHEM 102: General Chemistry II, a core course requirement for students on the pre-med track, uses a curved grading system which determines students' grades based on their exam performance relative to that of the rest of the class. "It’s not like virtual learning is suddenly so much more effective than in-person learning. “The cheating is pretty obvious," Chinmay said. According to her professor, it was a 20-point bump from the 50% average in years past. When she got her grade back, she was alarmed to see that the class average on the exam was 74%. Meme posts made outside this time will be removed.College sophomore and pre-medical student Poojita Chinmay spent weeks studying for her first chemistry exam this September. Meme posts are allowed only Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. You can be an account with a website, but not a website with an account. Trolling, posts intentionally inciting conflict, personal attacks, and spam will be removed.Īvoid posting blogspam, blog self-promotion, or personally monetized links. Racism, sexism or any other kind of intolerance or discrimination will not be tolerated. Otherwise your post may get deleted.ĭo your own research, follow basic guidelines, and be sure to google your question beforehand. If the topic of your post is currently covered in one of the megathreads/stickied posts at the top of the page, please put your content as a comment there instead. Not reading them and then complaining will not earn you any sympathy. This is a place for engineering students of any discipline to discuss study methods, get homework help, get job search advice, and find a compassionate ear when you get a 40% on your midterm after studying all night.
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