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[neutralname]

Buggeration.  Several students in my online course have given the same distinctively wrong answers in this week's work, and 2 of them have answers that are exactly the same in wording, although one added more formatting.  The answers that are problematic were not given on the discussion board and on googling them, I don't come up with anything.  So I suspect they have been emailing each other and one has been copying the other's work. 

For a regular classroom course, I'd bring them to my office and talk to them.  But for an online course, what's the best way of dealing with this?  I might be able to get them to still come to my office, but it will probably be more difficult.  Is there a good way to deal with it by email?

[hipgeek]

I would email with a statement to the effect that you're troubled by a similarity...

Then assign extra work if they don't crack and confess. 

[duchess_of_malfi]

I give one grade and split it among the people who share that answer, with a reminder about expectations for college work. 

[hulkhogan]

I divide and conquer. I offer incentives for confessions. Alternatively, if they used your school email, IT may be able to retrieve those students' messages off the server for you.

[neutralname]

It worked out ok.  I contacted the students involved and they gave a satisfactory explanation about how they worked together.  I was ready to trust them because they were good students.  They were chastised enough

I'd be very reluctant to request a check on their emails.  It would make me feel like a snoop.  But if I found a clear example of pernicious cheating I might do it. 

[baphd1996]

I guess cheating happens everywhere, but I still don't like it.  Cheating is the biggest problem with online courses.  Cheating is even more likely to occur when I put a quiz online for my F2F courses than if I give a quiz in the classroom.  It is just assumed that if you put up an on-line quiz, that people will cheat.  Most of my colleagues consider  just consider it homework.

I saw a poster presentation given by an instructor who taught the entire course online except for the final.  Before the final everyone was getting A's and B's.  Her final consisted of the exact same questions she had used for her online quizzes that everyone aced.  Well, the entire class failed the final.

I've taught only three sections so far and in each section I've caught several students using the "Instructor's" copy of the workbook.  Jeesh can't they at least disguise the fact that they're cheating?  At least they should give me a challenge in catching them.

[chaosbydesign]

Buggeration.

I have nothing useful to add. I just wanted to say that I love this word.

[fosca]

I saw a poster presentation given by an instructor who taught the entire course online except for the final.  Before the final everyone was getting A's and B's.  Her final consisted of the exact same questions she had used for her online quizzes that everyone aced.  Well, the entire class failed the final.

This is why students have to pass the (proctored) final exam in my class to have a hope of passing the class as a whole.

And most of my assignments require personal anecdotes or are things that aren't likely to have shown up online.

It doesn't stop them, I'm sure, but it does slow them down a bit.