Brainstorming: Ways to prevent online fraud?

This subject has been touched on in a couple of previous threads ("Paying to have your DL work done" Etc.) but I was curious to know more about preventing the erosion of the DL industry because of online academic fraud. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to use technology to prevent fraud, especially in research papers. IOW hiring someone to go to class or write papers for you. Dr Pina hinted at some ideas but I am still curious.

I was thinking about a proprietary, online word processor that required some sort of ID process to activate. But I'm not sure that would do the trick; I've since thought of ways to defeat that. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

At the risk of ruffling some feathers among the "intellectual elites" academic fraud has a long and sordid history among on-campus students, as well as to a lesser extent correspondence students. There have been articles published in newspaper about academic fraud at brick-and-mortar campuses of colleges and universities across the continent. Therefore, the current tar-and-feather approach to discrediting distance education points to an agenda on the part of some talking heads and journalists. Personal integrity is the answer you are seeking.

 

Yes, I totally agree. Integrity is the answer, but that's a commodity that is in short supply these days. I am a huge fan of DL, so I am definitely not out to discredit it. I think that there will have to be some way to insure that people can not cheat, or at least some way to make it really difficult. If we can't make that happen, we will be providing ammunition to those who would like to discredit DL. Because, as much as I hate to say it, it is easier to cheat with DL. There has got to be some sort of technology based answer out there.

 

I'd be careful about implementing hoops for people to jump through in the name of preventing DL fraud. They might just anger those that wouldn't have cheated in the first place, souring them from the idea of DL all together. I like DL because it is convenient. If I had to line up proctors, use a web cam for exams, write my papers on a special word processor, etc. I'd probably pass on the whole experience and take classes at my local college.

Fraud prevention tools usually just anger the honest people and the fraudsters simply figure out a way around it.

 

The use of proctored exams and turnitin seems to be a way to reduce fraud. The problem is that schools know that proctored exams scare students away. Distance to examination centres is not an issue as you are normally required to write only one exam during the semester so I don;t think is too much to ask to travel few hundred kilometers once a semester. British, Australian and Canadian schools have been practicing this for decades and it seems to work as their degree haven't lost value because of the distant component.

I don;t think that distance education in in danger but some of the distance education models that are followed nowadays. The issue is that schools have increased access to education to the expense of increasing the risk of academic fraud.

Yes, you can cheat at both B&M and distance but the online model followed by some schools just makes it easier (Although some don;t agree)

 

That's a good point. The cure would be worse than the disease. You might anger the honest people. Isn't that often the way it is; the honest must often suffer along with the guilty because of what the guilty have done. It would be worth going through the hoops to me, however, to know that my DL degree had gained more respect.

 

One way to check is for instructors to make phone calls to students at random times and have the student answer a few course related questions. It might also be possible to do this via email with answers required within say 30 minutes. I'm sure this idea could be refined and impemented.

This concept is similar to how athletes are randomly tested for drug use (except here the testers show up at the athletes location).

 

It is a good thing that you decided to stress the paper writing, as I believe we have had a lot of talk here about the exams.

With services such as TurnItIn, provided they have a large enough database, aren't DL studies actually much LESS sensitive to fraud where paper writing is concerned than B&M studies, where you still have a lot of assignments submitted on paper?

I don't see any difference between the ability to hire someone to write your paper be it in B&M or DL setting (except perhaps for difference in price where large online programs are concerned).

But here there is a HUGE difference between relying on the person grading the paper to spot plagiarism, and having software and a database of papers helping them do that.

As for the specialized word processor. I must say I'm a bit skeptical, but here's a crazy idea. I've recently purchased the Nota Bene bibliographic management / research paper writing software that has been discussed here in a previous thread. I can't believe how cool it is (I'm sure other similar packages are too). I find an interesting piece of information on Google Books, I load the author/title/year published etc. information into the bibliographic database from the Library of Congress or some other place using just the ISBN, I open the note taking file for that particular record, enter the note, cite the page(s) where I found it, I can later search all the note-taking files from another part of the program, insert citations found into the paper, the program takes care of the citation style, adds it to the paper's bibliography etc etc. Unfortunately, judging by some posts from their mailing list, these people are just barely succeeding in making new versions of the product and they need serious (financial) help. I was planning to propose they release it into open source and have the community take care of it, but another idea could be for a university or a group of universities to invest in it (many of those professors have probably used the same program for their own writing since it has been around for more than 20 years) and have a version made specifically for university students that has the features to guarantee the identity of the student writing the paper. A great piece of software survives, it gets even better, and you get another level of protection against plagiarism.

Maybe a crazy idea...

 

One way to minimise fraud for coursework-based degrees is to hold on-site examinations in approved examination centres. This way the proctors can check identification and ensure that the students have only what is allowed.

The more reputable doctoral program utilise residentials, comprehensive examinations and the final Viva Voce panel examination in front of a panel of experts.

Programs the are 100% online are very susceptible to fraud since there is no way to check the true identity and intentions of the student.

 

Scott: "Programs the are 100% online are very susceptible to fraud since there is no way to check the true identity and intentions of the student."

John: But there are deterrents. At a recent registrars' convention, there were several booths from thumb print services. The literature suggested that the very act of requiring a thumb print on every paper and exam sheet--even if never checked--would deter some would-be cheaters. A little pad that can make over a thousand prints costs under $5, so could easily be sent to students.

During the years I had involvement with the Edinburgh Business School online MBA, students supplied a stack of face photos with each exam registration, and one of these was mailed to the proctor for comparison. Of course a person who intends to fake his/her way through the whole program would send photos of his smart cousin at the very start.

 

Maybe not so crazy. That just might be the ticket. A proprietary research management system like Nota Bene (I use Zotero) that is tied to the university classroom system. The school could then have a record of whether or not the student actually did the research.

 

I wonder if this concept could be adapted to digitized fingerprints? Maybe a fingerprint scan could be required for all examinations and papers. The scanner could have some sort of internal ID code that differentiated it from other scanners. The tech would not be all that difficult to implement, I would assume.

 

Exactly. Rather than jump through these hoops I decided to withdraw from a DL program in favor of a program closer to home that has some DL classes with the option of testing at the university. (plus the cost is less for the on ground classes)

I don't have a problem with sitting for exams either with an approved proctor or at a testing location. I have huge problems with remote electronic monitoring because the user gives up all privacy and agrees to terms that take away individual rights to take action in the event any issues arise from the use of the required technology. (Sounds a lot like the universities want to have their cake and eat it too.)

One of the problems with folks like me is that now I won't consider programs outside of a nominal driving distance for testing. Perhaps the intent is to make DL so painful that folks will migrate back to B&M?

 

There would still have to be an initial validation of the fingerprint as belonging to the student.

 

The fingerprint idea is nice. But within 5 sec of googling I came up with this:
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/article/fake-fingerprints-070711/
Looks like it doesn't take that much effort to fake it.

 

Biometric scanning (fingerprints, eyes, matching your face with a photo) is one approach. Keyboarding profiles and signature recognition is another. Answering a series of personal questions (either online or on the phone) is another. Proctoring (either live or via webcam) is another.

Any of these can be used to verify someone's identity, but none of them, including live proctoring, can prevent cheating and fraud. Make it more difficult, yes, but prevent it? No. Technology can be used to facilitate cheating even in live proctored testing centers. Proctored testing centers are fine for examinations, but do nothing to combat plagiarism.

We use technology built into our learning management system to catch cheaters. Many of our faculty also use Turnitin (which doesn't catch original papers written by someone else that have not been posted on the web or submitted to Turnitin

While technology can be useful, the most effective way to prevent academic fraud is to improve our methods of assessment (let's move beyond online versions of multiple-guess scantron tests) and to change a culture that believes that cheating and dishonesty is acceptable. Many believe that it is impossible to do either. If that is true, then it will be impossible to prevent academic cheating and dishonesty--even if live proctoring is legislated.

 

Now that is amazing! I didn't think it would be that easy to fake a fingerprint. You would still have to get a fingerprint to the person who is doing the work for you and that person would have to go to all that trouble. But I suppose that wouldn't stop them.

 

I think one idea is what university of the people has chosen, voice recognition at random times during the course or tests.

I'm not sure how bullet proof it is, I'd be afraid that it would have trouble and occasionally make faulty determinations (for example if the student has a cold). The other upside of this, no hoops, no new technology except a $5 microphone. Most people don't have fingerprint scanners.

As for the fingerprint idea, I think that if it was a nuisance most people would not take the effort to cheat even if it was possible or even "worth it" from the standpoint of work required. A small deterrent is usually enough. Take a WEP key, it can be hacked in 20 minutes or less depending on who, how, and what kind of technology is in use, but it just doesn't happen very often. It may only solve 50-90% of the problem, but isn't that enough to make DL bullet-proof to critics?

 

I heard of software that can look for the authors "fingerprint" in documents 9word usage, sentence structure, thought patterns, etc).

I can see how that might work - sometimes I write a report, then find a similar report written years before, and they both use essentially same wording.

 

I doubt that would work because simply taking a technical/other writing class would alter somebody's writing voice quite substantially especially if it was their first exposure. The point of these classes is often to change an individual's writing style. One could also alter the style for a class that catered a certain way.

Or maybe I'm looking at it all wrong.