Recent spikes in tuition increases, faculty layoffs and university staff's laziness to actually teach concepts themselves has led students to find alternative ways to outwit their superiors.
The flow of resources through test bank brokers and the ability to collaborate with fellow students are proving unstoppable. Many university professors are using test banks used directly form the textbooks to administer the exams. Once acquired by one student, it is easily transferred to another, usually through a monetary transaction.
With a simple click of Control-F, students can surf through their word documents to find the correct answer to their exams.
I spoke with students at CSU-Sacramento who are currently taking online courses about test bank sharing. Hesitant to discussr into detail about which classes they were taking, they revealed some disturbing information. According to an anonymous student, "You have the option of a hybrid course (half of the course takes place in class and half the course takes place online) or a course that is completely online. The hard part about hybrid courses is that generally the exams will be conducted in the classroom which makes it more difficult to cheat. On the other hand, when your taking an exam online, there is no professor there to see watch over me, make sure no one is taking the exam with me, and does not know if I have the actual exam in front of me whether I got it from a student from a earlier semester or if I'm using a test bank."
"Almost half the student in my class are using a test bank, and we are all getting near 100% compared to students who study for hours to earn a sub-par grade," says one CSU-Sacramento student.
Online classes have faced much scrutiny by employers about the quality of education that students are receiving.The fear is that students may appear good on paper, but lack the knowledge and skills they expect for new recruits.
Universities have strict rules in place for academic dishonesty which generally result in failure of the course and possible expulsion from campus, but the opportunity cost of being a top contender in the class seems to outweigh the latter.
Until professors can start creating their own personalized exams for their online courses, it looks like the cheaters will prevail in the short run, but ultimately fail in the long run.
Jonathon Hunt
