ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: MINIMIZING CHEATING ON HOMEWORK [1]

Question: Is there likely to be cheating on homework in the course I’m about to teach or TA?
Answer:   Yes.

Question: How will they do it?
Answer:

  1. Two Heads Are Better Than One (They “work together” to discuss the problem and develop with a draft of the solution, then each go off and copy the final solution individually.)
  2. Hand-Me-Downs (They get the homework from someone who took it last year and copy homework problems that are repeated.)
  3. Go To Google (They Google to find solutions which were posted on-line from another school or on a “knowledge sharing” website.)
  4. eBay Excursions (They buy the solution manual on eBay or get a bootleg copy from China.)
  5. Oops (They “accidentally” pick up the solution from the TA’s desk.)
  6. Excuse Me (They lean over the TA’s shoulder during office hours when the TA is helping someone else.)
  7. Lounge Lizards (They hang out in the lounge and wait until a student has stepped out, then go over and take their homework out of their book and make a copy.)
  8. Trash Trollers (They fish around the trashcan in the computer room for someone’s old printout.)
  9. Excelling at Evildoing. (They get a copy of someone’s Excel file, change the font and color of the lines on the graph, and save as their own. Alternatively, they copy the content of the file and paste it into a new file, saving it under their own name.)
  10. Three-Page Monte. (They substitute correct solutions for incorrect ones after the graded homeworks are handed back.)

Question: How can I minimize cheating on homework and catch students if they do cheat?
Answer:

  1. Require complete solutions. Don’t give credit for the right answer magically appearing.
  2. Be clear up front about what is acceptable and not acceptable with regard to individual and group homework assignments.Putting language in the syllabus, as well as providing “scenarios” of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, lets students know what you expect.
  3. Set a deadline for late homework submissions.Hand the graded papers back after that deadline.  Do not accept late homework after graded papers have been returned.  Don’t hand out or post worked-out solutions until you are sure all the papers have been collected.
  4. Try to avoid having copies of the solution in your hand, in your book, or on your desk during office hours – review the problems so you can help people without the solution in hand.
  5. Grading:Be sure to write something on every page of the graded paper (even a red check mark) to avoid pages being inserted with the claim that you “missed” them.  Draw a red line down the page to fill any blank space.
  6. If the solution key has a typo or mistake, note any papers that duplicate that mistake.
  7. If the solution key has a written (text statement) answer, be attentive to papers that repeat the written statement exactly or with one or two words changed.Look for correct solutions that have identical sequence, order of variables and equations, layout, etc.
  8. If you get the sensation that you’ve graded that paper before, you probably have.Scan the papers you’ve already graded for the duplicate.
  9. If you are using homework problems from the text, keep track of which homework problems are assigned and try not to repeat them too frequently.
  10. For lab reports or technical writing assignments:  look for “change of voice” from one paragraph to the next, which might indicate “lifting” an uncited paragraph from another source.  If something sounds “too good” to be written by an undergraduate at that level, it probably is.  Google a phrase or unusual word as a quick check.
  11. Make photocopies of some or all graded homework, particularly those of anyone you have suspicions about, before handing them back.
  12. If students work in groups, get feedback on their individual contributions via a peer evaluation mechanism.
  13. Depending on your learning objectives and the maturity of the students, you may decide to count the homework a small percentage and allow collaboration.Giving students individual assessments (exams) with a higher weight can serve to assess their understanding and competency.

Question: What about electronic files and programming assignments?
Answer:

  1. The Department of Computer Science has sophisticated software, MOSS (http://theory.stanford.edu/~aiken/moss/)  that can run all the submitted code and provide the probability that someone’s code is a duplicate of another student.  This is why the Department of Computer Science has one of the highest rates of cheating reported – they have a valid way to detect it.
  2. Excel files
    1. Under File/Properties, check the Author and Time of Creation to see if there are duplicates.  Note, students trying to cover their tracks can edit the Author field, but they cannot edit the time of creation of the file.
    2. If you can overlay two files and the placement of information, significant figures, titles for columns and rows, etc. are identical, it’s worth looking into for possible cheating.

TA’s:  For all cases of suspected cheating, identify the suspicious papers, document your concerns, and turn whatever you have over to the instructor.

Resource: To learn more about academic integrity policies on campus and access additional resources, go to the NCSU Office of Student Conduct,

http://www.ncsu.edu/student_affairs/osc/code_conduct/

[1] Adapted from NCSU New Faculty Orientation materials developed by Richard Felder and Rebecca Brent.