[kaimalcolm]

To say the author "intentionally created" an environment where cheating is commonplace I think may be a little unfair to them. Whether they run a given course online or in person is almost certainly well above their pay grade. While the situation was far from ideal and I believe he may have been too lenient in some situations (the plagiarism on the academic integrity assignment for one), at the end of the day he made the best of a very bad situation. No doubt, in-person exams as you described are the most cheat-proof way, but in a scenario where the author has no say in this, it's not a terrible outcome. Look at the semester following the one with widespread cheating - he made significant changes based on the past issues and in the process managed to eliminate a lot of the issues.