Colleges Go High-Tech to Combat Growing Cheating Epidemic

The statistics are overwhelming. In 1940, only 20% of students admitted to cheating. Flash-forward to the present, and those numbers have swelled to 75-98%. Cheating on tests and assignments isn't just on the rise -- it's a widespread epidemic that's plaguing American high schools and college campuses almost at every level. Blame it on extreme pressure to succeed from parents, or even a heightened fear of failure from the students themselves. Whatever the case, schools are taking drastic action to ensure that cheating becomes a thing of the past.

To Catch a Cheat: In a recent New York Times article, an associate dean from the University of Central Florida highlighted some of the the highly-covert methods the school was using to track and penalize cheaters in the classroom. Testing is now computerized and computers are recessed into desks so camera phones can't photograph other students' work. Gum isn't allowed (since chewing can muffle the sound of someone coaching a student through a hand-free device), and scratch paper is provided, but it's dated and must be handed in to professor at the end of the test or exam. If a student is suspected of cheating, a professor can tag their work on the computer, burn it to a CD as evidence, and then direct an outside security team to videotape the student while taking the test so they can later analyze the results to determine if the person was in fact cheating. Obviously this an extreme measure, but certainly a growing trend among college and universities in an effort to remind students they ARE watching and you WILL be caught if you attempt to scam your way to an "A."

Plagarism on Campus:  Cruise your local Craiglist on any given day and you're sure to encounter at least one of two ads offering to pay for writing "services" on a term paper or school project. Not discrete enough for you? How about you just google the phrase "term paper help" and see how many links come up for companies that provide term papers and essays in exchange for money (that's not including all the additional links for "essay help," "custom term papers," and "research paper help.")  Sadly, the line between stealing and orignal work has become some blurred, schools like Duke and Bowdoin have implemented plagarism surveys and testing materials for this year's crop of incoming freshman. 

Meanwhile, other schools are taking an extremely hardline approach and are using plagarism software like that provided by Turnitin.com. The software measures word algorithms and phrases to determine if content was lifted from common research sites like Wikipedia or other published pieces found online. To date, 9,500 colleges and high schools around the country are now employing Turnitin, and those numbers continue to grow as students try new and complicated ways to beat the system the company has established (the irony here is obvious -- for all the time an initiative students take to try to find cracks in Turnitin's software, they could just as easily be channeling their energy into researching and studying so they could create their own unique work).

While recent survey results seem to suggest that cheating is actually leveling off and starting to decline, all the experts appear to agree on one thing: Don't trust the stats when most likely the data is corrupted by those that choose that see lying not as morality issue, but rather a means to an end.