Cheating--is ubiquitous:

• Steroids in professional sports
• Shoddy work and poor pay
• Sales of defective property with hidden defects
• Used cars
• Behavior at traffic merges
• Marital infidelity
• Political Campaign Promises
• Unearned College Diplomas

What makes someone feel it is okay to cheat?

• It's easy to do
• The rules are unfair
• This is more work than I can possibly do
• The professor doesn't care.
• It probably won't be detected
• The professor is an incorrigible pompous buffoon
• Everyone else is cheating
• If I don't cheat too, I will lose
• Everybody Lies!

(thank God nobody is listening)

But cheating is self-defeating

• Cheating can be described through game theory and the prisoner's dilemma model:
• People who drive up the shoulder and cut in cause traffic jams.
• People who do lousy work will be paid what they are worth.
• Companies who offer lousy pay will get what they pay for.
• FreeRiders on team projects will end up on inferior teams.
• A degree from a second rate University will be inferior.

So how do we, as teachers, teach the lesson early?

• Show you care and are watching.
• Be open that there are controls.
• Reward honesty
• Be reasonable in workload expectations.
• Be fair in assessments and grading.
• Don't make rules you can't enforce
• Prosecute transgressions consistently and fairly.
• It might help to add an affirmation for the noncheating student to sign.
• Incorporate lessons on ethics and cheating in the curriculum.

Examples:

Game theory examples above.
Incentives and the decision to Cheat. What the students think about it.

Detecting and Preventing cheating in the Electronic Age:

•    Cheating is easier

•     Detection is also easier:

• Plagiarism and Google
• Different versions of exams (random questions, different numbers)
• Coincidence scores
• Electronic Surveillance during exams
• Example of  Electronic sleuthing

•     Statistics problem incorporating student numbers
•     Detecting dissonant results
•     Back calculating to the source of the solution

            Sensitivity analysis and EXCEL Table Tool (2 Megabyte FLASH--don't do this from home over a slow phone line!)
            Back calculations with EXCEL Solver  (1 megabytes FLASH--don't do this from home over a slow phone line!)

Find these videos and more at collegecheating.comand collegecheating.net

War Stories and discussions.

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