October 10, 2003
Faculty warned of new uses of cell phones during tests
Faculty at the University of Colorado are being warned to look out for new, "high-tech" cheating methods, according to Boulder News.
"Text messages, picture phones, MP3 players and other technology are changing the rules in college lecture halls during exam time.
"It's a significant problem, and it's been growing," said Jeff Luftig, a professor at CU's Leeds School of Business and faculty adviser to the Student Honor Council.
Luftig said the high-tech methods used at CU go beyond text messaging. Headphones hidden beneath hooded sweatshirts quietly pump out pre-recorded notes. Wireless Internet access transforms an open-note test into a chance to get assistance from anyone in the world.
"There's even Web sites where students go and download labels to Coke cans and Aquafina bottles with answers on them instead of the ingredients," Luftig said. "It's impossible to keep up with the technology to prevent cheating."
An infamous incident occured early this year at the University of Maryland where welve students were accused of cheating during an exam, by receiving the answers by SMS from friends outside the classroom and other similar stories have been reported around the world, cf Maryland University students caught cheating by SMS.
The honor code is one way to help prevent student cheating, electronic scanners are another, according to several English schools, sounding an alert when the device picks up radio waves created by a cell phone. cf Schools turn to phone scanners to foil cheats .
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