Discourage student cheating by using Mastering features

Statistical studies conducted on courses in several Mastering disciplines have found that students who cheat actually do less well in Mastering than those who do not, even when they incur no penalty for cheating. The learning effect of Mastering tutorials and feedback more than offsets the supposed advantage of cheating, and students who cheat tend to do less well than their peers as the term progresses.

In addition, information available on individual students’ performance makes it relatively easy to identify both students who may be cheating and those who are giving other students their answers.

Cheating tends to reveal itself starting at about the third assignment. Students who cheat tend to do homework very quickly, use few or no hints, and get consistently high scores on homework, but not on assignments that use the Quiz or Test category.

Some recognized cheating methods and ways to prevent them are described below. If you think you've found a new way that students may be cheating, please contact Pearson Support.

• The registration system for Mastering distinguishes between student and instructor codes and user accounts, which can serve as another protection against cheaters. You should be vigilant about making sure that instructor access codes and printed instructor materials are NEVER shared with any students.
• The Mastering Gradebook lets you view every answer a student gives, see the timing of each answer, and review how groups of students answer questions. This makes it easier to identify questionable student behavior. See Using the Gradebook to discourage student cheating.

The remaining features in this list apply to regular or Parent assignments, but not to Adaptive Follow-Up assignments.

• You can use pooled assignments to give each student only a specified number of items from each pool in an assignment. In a pooled assignment, each student is given a random subset of the items from each pool in the assignment, which further complicates attempts to share answers.

• For testing centers or other proctored settings, you can require a password  for students to access the assignment, and for multiple testing sessions, you can change the password between test sessions.

  Password protected assignments are listed, but cannot be opened, on a mobile device, even if they contain only mobile-ready items. Caution your students to plan ahead to be at a computer to complete any assignment they see listed with the key icon.

• Mastering also lets you randomize item sequence, which displays assignment items in random order to students, and hide item titles, which replaces item titles with something like "Item 1" or "Question 1." Both of these features, especially when used together, make it difficult for students to tell others the answer for a particular item, by position in the assignment or by title.
• You can also limit student access to assignment content between completion and the assignment due date.
• Some Mastering products provide randomizable variables for many questions, so that answers are different for each student. This randomization feature is available for many End-of-Chapter (EOC), Tutorial, and Test Bank items.

The sacrificial lamb cheating method is common to all online learning systems.

How this method works

A group of students get together and sacrifice one of their members to get the correct answer for an item or item part. This student guesses at the answers, taking the penalty for incorrect answers or requesting the answer. The other students then copy the correct answer.

How to recognize this kind of cheating

• A group of students get fairly good scores in most of their work, but each gets a dismal score in one item or one assignment.
• On assignment items in which they do well, students spend only seconds to get an answer that normally requires more time.
• Grades on randomized assignment items for these students are considerably lower.

How to avoid or defeat this type of cheating

• Randomizing variables within an item catches many of these students.
• Randomize the sequence and hide the informational titles of items in an assignment.
• Pool assignments so each student is given a random subset of items for each pool in the assignment. Students cannot tell whether an assignment contains one or more pools. When pooling is in place, students can never be sure that they will receive the same items as the “sacrificial lamb.”
• Create a group and filter your view of the Gradebook for groups of students you suspect may be cheating together. Then examine their work as a whole to see whether suspicious patterns emerge.

A variant on the sacrificial lamb is the phantom student method of cheating.

How this method works

A student appears in the course Roster, but gets a bright red row of very low grades or zeros in the Gradebook. (How to view student grades) This "student" usually requests the answers to items. The other students then copy the correct answers.

How to recognize this kind of cheating

• Students whose Gradebook row is red may have dropped the course, or they may be phantom students.
• One or more students may buy a phantom student, or may take over or "rent" a Student account from a student who dropped the course.
• Phantom students are stuck with the grades they get.
• Phantom students always complete answers before the students who "benefit" from the cheating.
• A red row in the Gradebook can indicate a phantom student.

How to avoid or defeat this kind of cheating

• Pool assignments so each student is given a random subset of items you select for the assignment. When pooling is in place, students can never be sure that they will receive the same items as the “phantom.”
• Check your Mastering Gradebook regularly against your class list. Suspend or disenroll any students who do not appear to be true participants in the online course. (If you later determine that this action is unwarranted, you can undo any suspension; the student's academic standing is unaffected.)

How this method works

Students try to get instructor accounts (including instructor access codes) or other instructor materials on online sites so that they can look up answers to assignments.

However:

• It's illegal to buy or sell instructor materials. These remain the property of the publisher.

• Illegally sold instructor accounts are often out-of-date or invalid, and the online site vendor usually fails to reimburse the student. The Mastering publisher does not replace illegally sold instructor accounts.

Publisher action to help identify this type of cheating

• Checking for illegal sales—The Mastering publisher regularly checks online sites for illegal sales of instructor materials. If you discover any vendor illegally selling instructor materials, please contact Pearson Support. Verification of instructor identity—The publisher verifies the identity of each instructor before it honors a request to access Mastering.
• Tracking of instructor registrations—The publisher tracks instructor registration for Mastering. If an account seems suspect, the publisher may lock the account until the instructor is contacted for verification.

How this type of cheating can be avoided or defeated

• Illegal resellers—If an online seller is identified as offering illegal instructor accounts, that site is contacted by the publisher. Publisher action may include locking out the account and contacting the instructor whose account it was originally.
• Students—Each student code is redeemable only once and it cannot be transferred (for example, if a student buys a used text and receives a used code). Such students can buy Mastering access online with a credit card or PayPal.

Valid student access codes for Mastering are available ONLY from the publisher. Students should buy access either online or through an access code available from their institution bookstore. No other access codes can be guaranteed to be valid, and no other access codes will be replaced if the student gets an invalid one.