[WWW.2CHEAT.COM] UPDATE
Clay Rooks

This paper is an updated presentation on the subject of cheating and plagiarism via the World Wide Web. In a few hours searching the Internet, the author found even more “cheat” sites than in 1998 that offered not only all types of term and research papers, but college admission letters, reviews, case studies, even dissertations as well. Most now offer papers that are fully documented and cited, at no extra charge. Many more sites offer free papers than ever before and list the “Top 100″ sites as links. CheatHouse has more than 66,000 papers available in 130 categories for only $9.95 per year. The site eCheat lists their services as “collaboration” not cheating. Many still pretend to be “reference” or “research” sites, but others have given up that facade. Though it is difficult, if not impossible, to stop cheating and plagiarism completely, several successful strategies have been developed and tried over the years. Some are updates of older methods and others are as new as using the Internet. One is to avoid giving open-ended or generic topic assignments. Plagiarism detection programs, like Turnitin.com are also making it more difficult for students to cheat. In addition, setting specific criteria and standards for the materials that must be in the paper might make plagiarism impractical if not nearly impossible.

Link: http://www.gantopian.com/others/Dad/WWW2CheatComUpdateMS.pdf [alternate link via Eric.gov]

The top 5 ways students use technology to cheat
Carin Ford, Higher Ed Morning

They can do it faster and more easily than ever before. But what’s most worrisome: Today’s students may not think cheating is wrong.

Let’s start with the facts.

According to a recent survey by Common Sense Media, 35% of teens use their cell phones to cheat.

And if you’re wondering how they do it:

• 26% store info on their phone and look at it while taking a test
• 25% send text messages to friends, asking for answers
• 17% take pictures of a test – and then send it to their friends
• 20% use their phones to search for answers on the Internet
• 48% warn friends about a pop quiz with a phone call or text message

If cheating’s gone high-tech, so have morals: 25% of teens consider the above actions “helping” not cheating.

When it comes to the Internet, 52% say they’ve engaged in some type of cheating.

But again, they don’t see much wrong with it: 36% don’t view downloading a paper as a serious offense, and 42% believe copying text from the Web is a minor offense at its worst.

Educators are put in the difficult spot of trying to catch something that’s difficult to detect in addition to dealing with students who seem to have a loose definition of “collaboration.”

Read the full article at the Higher Ed Morning link below…

Link: http://www.higheredmorning.com/the-top-5-ways-students-use-technology-to-cheat