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[dept_geek]

Many of my classes are 100% online. As a result, I have a lot of students who are - quite literally - all over the map. Lots of deployed military, students from around the state, etc.

Now comes a rumor of an edict from on high "We must be able to prove the student submitting the assessment(s) is the same student who registered for the course."

Yeah.

I have no idea how to approach this. Camera? fingerprints? Proctored assessments?

What is the definition of assessment? Every exam and homework? If so, now things become overly complex.

And there are students who will pay for someone else to take the entire class for them. So, all the work is consistent. I give at least one (sometimes 2, 3, or 4) assignments each week. In addition, there are 2-5 exams/quizzes. So eventually, this path of paying someone to be you gets expensive. But still, I have seen it.

Has anyone come across this sort of edict, and how do/did you handle it? It's still a rumor, but I would like to start incorporating some additional checks in my class sites, but still have them be 100% online (not hybrid or required on-campus exam sections).

Thanks for any (constructive) thoughts. 

[expatinuk]

I'd ask the University what their policy is concerning proving something like this. It's not your job to write policy.. it's theirs. So when they have a policy... you'll be happy to enforce it.

[zuzu_]

I think perhaps this is some sort of urban legend that reflects a general uneasiness about online education. I have encountered a few faculty members who adamantly opposed to doing ANY online teaching supposedly because of this security/identity issue.

In reality, someone could perpetrate the same sort of scam in person. Most profs don't make students show ID on the first day of class.

(I realize that some profs do some kind of ID check, particularly in huge classes, the I think the vast majority of never see our students' proof of identity.)

Also, you NEVER know who is writing assignments out of class. Someone's girlfriend could be writing his papers all semester, and you might never see any inconsistency.

Yes--it is easier, in some ways and in some types of assessments, to cheat online, but it's pretty easy to cheat in person of you are really determined.

While there are legitimate concerns and reasonable security measures that should be taken, I think this hysteria about online teaching security is largely just a fear of change/technology by some faculty and administrators. I can't image online cheating is much more widespread than regular cheating.

[magistra]

I agree with Expat.  If you're requiring proctored exams, though, so there is proof (id required) that the right person took the exam, I'd think that would cover it.  This is controversial, though, because it's very difficult for some students to find a proctor (libraries and the like will usually do it) and there's often a fee.  So it penalizes the students for taking class on-line.

[jackalope]

I'd ask the University what their policy is concerning proving something like this. It's not your job to write policy.. it's theirs. So when they have a policy... you'll be happy to enforce it.

Yes. Ask for an explanation of the new policy and some sample wording that you can use to inform the students in your online classes. Tell them it is urgent since you will soon have assignments due.

[dept_geek]

Thanks all. Yes, it is the who is cheating who thing and all that, but still... if the word comes down from on high and we are expected to implement it... well, let's just say I really do like my job.

I suspect the admin will look to the faculty to come up with examples. I wanted to start thinking of things that will not impact my class but still meet the requirements. (If they come up with the ideas, the ideas will somehow and always negatively impact my class)

I'll keep looking. If you think of anything concrete, do let me know.

[magistra]

You can password-protect exams and the like, too.  Insist on only sending it and all other communications through university webmail.

If possible, have students do a major project over the phone (skype for the internationals).  Have them give you their university id; chat for a few minutes to get a feel whether what they say matches what you know about the student.  This'll be hard, and if you have a lot of students impossible, but just knowing that there are extra protections in place may be enough to scare the odd cheater, and more importantly, get the admin off your back.  If you ask for their id number or date of birth, at least it means that if your students are cheating they've been forced to hand over their e-mail password and id number to a person with lax moral standards.

Proctoring is the best you can do, though, really.  As you know there is no fool-proof way, especially if the student is on the other side of the planet.  What are you supposed to do, go and personally take a blood sample?  Tell your dean you'll need airfare...

[new_bus_prof]

In the US, there is the E-signature law.

For e-signatures, first you will need to have a secure submission portal. Then you need to require students to state their name, ID number, and check an acknowledgement statement.

First, students must login to with a unique ID and password. Most schools already have this in the form of Blackboard.

Then, as long as you require students to type their name, student ID number, and then check a box that states something along the lines that they duly swear they are the aforementioned named person and this is their sole work...

You've just covered the requirements for verifying ID.

[road_not_taken]

For many classes, you can see if the DB posts match the papers that the student is turning in. Most students don't think to follow through with this type of thing. They will pay someone to write the papers, but if the style and quality of writing jumps significantly forward in a paper and is hideous in the DB, then you might be right to be suspicious.

Make sure that your syllabus states that spelling, grammar, and content count. A lot of instructors don't state this explicitly and then don't have any recourse when the DB is significantly different than the paper.

Of course, it is still a lot of work and circumstantial if you were to take it forward, but it is a first step.

[bone_gal]

I also teach 100% online so I'm interested in this development as well. Unfortunately, it's not urban legend and here's the Chronicle's article about it: http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i46/46a00103.htm

For most of the solutions proposed here, they still wouldn't work if someone has been hired to take the entire course or if the student shares their secure login information. That way the other person gets into the "secure" site and all the graded work is internally consistent.

What frustrates me about this situation is that you also have this problem for traditional courses. I taught huge lecture classes and I had no idea who any of my students were. How do I know that the people taking the tests were who they were supposed to be, and not someone hired to do that? And what about papers that are submitted? Even though a student turns them in, there is no way to know who really wrote it (it could be from the internet, a fraternity paper bank, from the trash in the computer lab, etc.). So why does online need to be held to a higher standard than traditional courses?

[mayjohn]

I'd ask the University what their policy is concerning proving something like this. It's not your job to write policy.. it's theirs. So when they have a policy... you'll be happy to enforce it.

The danger with this suggestion is that a bunch of university administrator paper-pushers get together and establish an outrageously draconian method of identifying students which of course you then must enforce.

[dept_geek]

For e-signatures, first you will need to have a secure submission portal. Then you need to require students to state their name, ID number, and check an acknowledgement statement.

After consulting with my chair, I decided this was the way to go. I also dug around various sites and found this is the way that is talked about most often. So. My students need to say that the work is their own (and name, id, etc). Otherwise, they are both cheaters and liars.

If you are bored, please look at section 495 of HR 4137, Higher Education Oppurtunity Act (passed in to law Aug 2008 as Public Law 110-315)
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-4137
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:6:./temp/~c110fLLPgt::
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ315.110


So, no, not an urban legend.

[conjugate]

I had a face-to-face final for this very reason.  The few students who were unable to show up for the final were proctored under circumstances that I believe were reliable (a military man's commanding officer, whom I spoke with at length, assured me that he would not permit the student to screw up by not learning material that his career depended on; a colleague at another university offered to proctor a student whom he knew; and so forth).  Yes, all of these could be compromised, but if you make the effort, you're doing all that you can do in the circumstances.

[lotsoquestions]

I've always been a big fan of the surprise phone call to the student's home.  "Hello, this is professor so and so.  I was hoping we could take a few minutes to chat about your paper.  Tell me how you came up with the topic"  and that sort of thing.  In one instance, I was convinced that the student's husband was writing the papers and the surprise phone call was a great way to talk to the student herself at length.  It turned out she was legit, and it eased my concerns.  (If you're an adjunct, then make sure the university provides you with an office and a phone or some phone cards so that you can do this -- particularly if the students are at remote locations.) 

[bcantaire]

I don't mind taking proctored exams. I live on a military base and I just head over to the JEC, show my ID, and take my exam. I don't know if this would work if a student were in Iraq, or something, but it isn't that difficult to take a proctored exam.
(Of course, I was taking online classes through a college in Florida and the JEC in Hawaii lost my final exams. I never got to take those exams, and I still need to write letters to my old college to contest the grades I received, and try for Credit/No Credit or something.)

Overall, I think being able to take college classes from your living room is well worth taking one or two trips somewhere to take a proctored exam, if it can help maintain the integrity of the course. But, everyone else is right. People can cheat in a classroom just as easily.