With the ubiquity of on the net teaching by means of video-conferencing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet comes the issue of conducting tests and examinations. This is a disproportionately important concern in our examination-centered method. There is no physical classroom exactly where the teacher can invigilate in individual and policing is the only way we know to preserve the integrity of the examination. The mention of honour codes (an undertaking by students to voluntarily adhere to sincere academic work) and take-household examinations invites giggles. To police examinations in the existing on the net situation, we ask students to create answers on paper sheets even though maintaining a mobile telephone or a laptop camera focused on them so that the proctor can see them working. Sometimes, we ask them to work on one particular device and use the camera of a second device to show the live video.
This appears like a simple way of invigilating the examination remotely. Yet, there has been rampant cheating in numerous tests. Even higher scorers have been involved, so this is not anything that students are performing merely to “pass” the course. Much of it appears to be driven by the circular argument that due to the fact everybody else have to be working with unfair implies to get relative benefit, I also have to do the identical. The proof for such malpractices comes from students’ confessions and “complaints” – more normally, a case of one particular group of students snitching on a different. We have observed innovation like under no circumstances ahead of in how to beat cameras and proctors: cheat sheets hidden inside answer books additional mobile phones cleverly positioned outdoors the camera’s view so that answers can be shared and swapped by means of WhatsApp browsing for answers on the world wide web or searching at resolution manuals working with these “hidden” devices. More sophisticated approaches involve the use of tiny mics and speakers and then pretending to mumble or do “loud thinking”. Even more interestingly, examination recordings played back at higher speed really reveal “sudden unusual” gestures then, when played back at slow speeds, these gestures can be identified as surreptitious actions such as accessing other devices, paper notes, and “looking elsewhere”.
The standard response to this scenario has been that of bringing in even more technologies “to solve the problem”: if the hands are not visible, concentrate a camera on that concentrate on complete body if you can not see what they are writing on their device, concentrate a camera on that record your screen even though working do 360-degree scans every single 15 minutes to show what objects are present in the surroundings. We are a quick distance from the deployment of anything really intrusive and untested, namely, “AI” (artificial intelligence), to analyse gestures, facial expressions, eye movements, body postures to recognize “suspicious behavior”. The method of deploying even more hardware (e.g. devices, cameras, energy supplies) appears pretty absurd provided that when the Covid crisis precipitated on the net activities, there was a recognition of the digital divide – that some students could not have access even to a single device to connect on the net now, two devices are regarded regular, so why not add more! Some could come across this low-expense Turkish “innovation” of working with mirrors pretty fascinating.
This is how the cat and cat game escalates, building strain, for students to “follow” guidelines, and for faculty to be “efficient” in their policing. Whatever faculty do, the students come across some workaround. They commit important time on perfecting techniques to cheat even though faculty waste their time discussing camera angles and what “anti-cheating” application to use. In addition, we have anger and hostile attitudes on all sides. A technical method to address the issue of preserving integrity in assessments ignores the enormous weight of culturally ingrained attitudes and opportunistic behaviour driven by complicated socio-political aspects.
Chasing grades, by hook or by crook, starts in college. Many students have shared experiences of cheating that occurs in schools – and how it is traumatic for these who do not want to indulge in unfair practices. Board examinations reinforce the “importance” of this rat race by awarding ridiculously higher marks – in some cases touching one hundred% – and the crass eulogization of “toppers”. Stories abound of how parents arrange for their child’s college projects to be accomplished by an individual else, or even purchasing a “project” off the shelf. Here is a current quote from a student, “Well, when I am being asked by my Chemistry teacher to simply download the investigatory project mandated by the CBSE so that my examination obligations are fulfilled, what else can I say? In a stark contrast to foreign institutions’ strict no-plagiarism policy, the Indian education system actively encourages students to copy-paste things off the internet without actually learning anything.”
Therefore, when students enter the portals of larger education institutions, for a incredibly massive quantity, the old “traditions” continue. The dilemmas of the more sincere students designed by the wanton, unethical practices of their jugaadu classmates who demand access to their homework, laboratory journals, project reports and exam answer books (anytime doable) to copy from is pretty popular. The consequences of not “sharing” can be pretty harsh – becoming referred to as names on social media, social boycotts, and even threats. I have even identified of situations exactly where parents have referred to as their child’s classmates and bullied them into “sharing” stuff! Very lately, I was approached by an anguished father about how his youngster, who research in an IIT, was feeling depressed and anxious mainly because so numerous of her classmates have been cheating and scoring superior than her.
One could wonder irrespective of whether this indulgence in malpractices impacts finding out and the improvement of competence. Surely it does, and in other cultures exactly where incompetence gets exposed mainly because jugaad or posturing do not work, students care about how a great deal they know, not just how a great deal they score. We sadly have only couple of students who stick to this philosophy.
It is not as if this concern is relevant only mainly because of the uncommon on the net scenario precipitated by the Covid pandemic. Articles penned by students themselves have reported these troubles numerous instances (1, 2, 3). We could have stemmed the rot by imposing penalties and rustications, as is accomplished in reputed institutions (1, 2) but we have not. Online assessments have just created this issue visible.
There is no basic way to sort out this mess. In the quick term, the only excellent solution is to hold offline examinations as and when the chance arises. Some institutes are experimenting by holding in-individual examinations in Kendriya Vidyalayas all more than the nation, some are proceeding as with a “business as usual” attitude, other individuals are attempting to enforce technologies-driven options. This is probably the time to experiment with lengthy-term measures to repair our academic culture. Tweaking traditional tests by obtaining lengthy papers, diverse query papers for diverse students, open-books/notes, and so on. do assistance in modest techniques, but do not avoid people today from “sharing” answers or techniques. The use of projects, term papers, oral examinations, and open-ended challenges must be explored, along with the enforcement of extreme penalties for copying and plagiarizing.
The deeper queries have no straightforward answers. How do we incentivize the significance of integrity and honesty amidst a dominant belief that such virtues are match only for fairy tales and not the “real” globe how do we convince students that cheating comes in the way of finding out what do we say when they retort that what is becoming taught does not interest them or is irrelevant to their profession plans how do we clarify that blustering and jugaad are not a “smart” abilities. And, lastly, how do we persuade parents that instruction their wards to be worldly-sensible does not imply telling them to “get ahead” at all expenses.
Ignoring this malaise, or pretending that it does not exist, will not make it go away it will only worsen it to irreparable levels.
(Anurag Mehra is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Associate Faculty at the Center for Policy Studies, at IIT Bombay.)
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