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by 908B64B197 2065 days ago
I wonder if the real issue is the format of the exams itself.

Caltech had take-home exams for a long time and students still adhere to the honor code.

We have pretty good tools for plagiarism detection. It's time to shift from rote learning exams to another format (essay, lab assignments for computer science). Else it's simply an arm race for cheating (soon some kid will just get an e-ink display in a picture frame and as soon as it goes out of the proctor's webcam field of view will turn into a cheat sheet).
3 comments
saagarjha 2064 days ago
Caltech in general probably selects for students who are pretty self-motivated.
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908B64B197 2064 days ago
They do.

But at the same time, if you have to put draconian measures to discourage cheating as the last resort, maybe it's because the school is turning into a diploma mill and should review it's admission standards.

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Nasrudith 2064 days ago
Isn't the issue more that administrators are panicking over the loss of control from the pandemic causing a norms break and are pushing dubious anti-cheating software on everyone out of do-somethingism more than any amount of cheating sufficent for dillution of graduate quality?

Granted the "value evaluation" gets a bit silly to begin with given that either they trust the name enough to use it as a filter regardless of its merit or lack of it or they ignore it entirely and go based off of their own assessment measures with their own sets of issues.

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raxxorrax 2061 days ago
Don't need to be out of the field of view. You just sync the camera with your picture frame and you see the cheat sheet while the webcam sees a Picasso.

Just needs a common trigger signal and some tweaking and you are good to go.

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gowld 2064 days ago
How do you prevent someone from outsourcing an essay or computer science lab assignment?
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908B64B197 2064 days ago
With these there's always a big chance the essay will be plagiarized (ie, the person who did write the essay modified an existing one and resold it).

A quick follow up call where the TA or teacher asks questions regarding the essay should make it obvious someone isn't the original author.

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