Possible Cheating Epidemic for Online Education

With the rise of online education there comes the outbreak of cheaters. Educators are scurrying to stay ahead of the game in cheating. Online courses have emerged for participants (mostly professors) to teach ways of identifying and catching cheating students. Software is on the route to certify courses and use best practices for academic integrity. The creators are advising professors to look for the “Trusted Seal” when using online programs for teaching.

A recently uncovered way of cheating is finding papers written in another language and translating it through an online program. Students then copy and paste to plagiarize someone else’s work. Educators can usually catch copy and paste cheaters by pasting their assignment in a search engine for key phrases, but using text that was translated from another language is less likely to turn up plagiarism. Cheaters are going out of their way to out smart their educators, and educators must strive to take action before disastrous possibilities for not discovering infringement. A study by Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT), surveyed over 250 students in which 72% admitted to cheating at least once on a virtual quiz/test for an online course.

New cheating opportunities have come with technology’s advancement, like the ease of searching the internet for answers and online websites (WeTakeYourClass.com or NoNeedtoStudy.com) that claim they will take an online course for you at the right price. But in reality, cheating has not drastically increased since online education has come into play. The more pressing matter is that students do not always see their cheating behavior, such as discussing what was on a test with other students. These simple acts are deemed insignificant, but are counted as plagiarizing.

To empower educational integrity, ProctorFree hopes to aid instructors with the capability to stay ahead of cheaters with technology students cannot out smart. Learn more and contact us today at info@proctorfree.com!

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ProctorFree provides an on-demand, convenient, and cost-effective student authentication system for online learning and testing. Maintain your credibility and reputation while still providing convenient learning opportunities for your target audience.

ProctorFree gives you confidence. Our user-friendly system runs quietly in the background and never disrupts the student. You can track student behaviors to better understand how your teaching affects the student. Give your students the opportunity to learn on their time without traveling to a campus, testing center, or library to finish a class or a test.

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