Though schools have faced many challenges in switching to an online platform, the matter of academic integrity stands out.
The ability to monitor students has drastically decreased with teachers unable to maintain the watchful gaze they once had in the classroom. On top of that, assessing facial language through a grainy or sometimes turned off camera is difficult.
Sophomore Benjamin Wen explained why monitoring students is so hard.
“The ability to cheat has skyrocketed … with a teacher only being able to monitor through a muted mic and a camera [with] half a person’s face,” Wen said. “You can … talk to your friends while taking a test. … You can search everything up on the Internet and get away with it.”
Various schools and colleges have begun implementing online proctoring during tests, in which one gives the proctor access to their camera, microphone and ID. Proctors try to catch moments in which the test-taker may be cheating, such as looking off-screen for too long.
“There would be issues with efficiency of tasks and also an [issue] of quality,” Wen said. “Not everyone takes a test in a private area, which they can show or want to show. I know people who have to share their learning area with others. … It allows those [more] privileged to take the test, while it brings up restrictions for those who don’t have the space.”
Aragon’s academic integrity policy, updated in 2019, contains consequences for academic dishonesty. The policy ranges from a zero on an assignment to suspension, depending on the violation. The switch to an online platform, however, brings the aptitude of the “anti-cheating” blueprint into question.
“[The academic dishonesty policy] should still be … enforced,” said physics teacher Steve Ratto. “Some people are getting away with cheating while other people aren’t, but … students need to learn that there are consequences.”
The decrease in instructional minutes forces students to learn material in less time.
“Teachers are … trying to pump in as much content as possible,” Wen said. “Because of [this] reduced time frame … and … the inefficiencies of teaching online, [it] often takes away time from one to one student to teacher help.”
Math teacher Alice Hu believes that the limited teaching time impacts her class plans.
“I wish I could … do … fun things,” Hu said. “In my current math [class], we’re already losing so much actual teaching time. … I have to explain slower or even multiple times, because who knows [whether] people are really listening.”
Some students may cheat to maintain high grades. Greater accessibility to resources may factor into the urge to cheat.
Ratto feels that even if students do cheat, they can learn from their mistake.
“I understood that for some people that temptation [to cheat] would be too great,” Ratto said. “When I wrote my tests, I wrote them to check to see if people were falling prey to that temptation. I hope it means that [if] they make a mistake, they learn from it. … My goal is not to set them up to fail. If you do get caught [cheating] and that’s the choice you make, can you learn from that choice?”
Hu feels that cheating poses long-term harm.
“It’s really important that the students hold [on to] integrity,” Hu said. “If you don’t know how to do something, you don’t know how to do it. … If you cheat your way through [this year], if we go back to school, you may not be able to do well, because you didn’t learn [the] previous year’s topics.”
Teachers have been taking measures to prevent cheating.
“I made three different tests, one for each [AP Physics 1] class,” Ratto said. “[Even if] first period sent the test, third period wouldn’t be [able to cheat]. I try to make them as fair as I possibly can, so that they’re even in that [aspect], but they’re not being tested the same.”
Apart from sending pictures, students may converse unethically during tests.
“[Teachers have] a dedicated LockDown Browser, but even then, [some students] have two computers, … a headset on … [and] could easily have Discord up talking to someone else,” Ratto said. “Most of the time, you’re on mute during a test, because I can’t keep everyone on a mic because there [are] noises all over the place.”
With the ever-growing concerns transpiring because of distance learning comes a whole new way in which teachers teach. Whether Aragon goes back to in-person school during the second half of the year or during the 2021-2022 school year, it’s clear that the conventional methods of testing and teaching once used will require modification to further prevent cases of academic dishonesty.
