I agree with Ken.  My tests are all open notes at least, and sometimes
both open book and open notes.  The book and/or the notes won't help
them very much if they haven't thoroughly prepared on an ongoing basis.
Even in large classes, I never test for rote memorization.  And, even
with their book and/or notes, I always have to curve the grades or they
will be far too low.  The problem for most of them is that they've
rarely been required to think for tests in other courses.  

John

-----Original Message-----
From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kenneth Schneyer
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 2:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: High Tech Cheating

I'm a big proponent of open book, open note, exams anyway.

If we're teaching skills at a level where an open textbook or notebook
is of any use at all, we're not doing our job.

Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bruce D. Fisher
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 3:12 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: High Tech Cheating

Laura,
          It works.  I had to do this with my MBAs after being summoned
into the dean's office following charges of rampant cheating on an
ethics/law exam using Blackberries, etc.  I pointed out that given the
results, I would hate to have seen what "honest" students would have
scored.  However, I have since gone to open book, note, etc for MBAs.
Capitulate, capitulate, etc.
                              Bruce
At 05:35 PM 9/17/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>I had already started banning electronic dictionaries and now permit
>international students to use only paper ones that I have inspected.
>Now it seems that I need to start banning all electronic devices from
>the exams.  Has anyone out there done this?  Is it as simple as telling
>students to stow them until they leave the exam room?  Any insights or
>advice would be appreciated!
>Laura
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Christiansen, Linda
A
>Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 6:45 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: High Tech Cheating
>
>
>Hello everyone,
>If you have not seen the recent articles on high tech cheating in the
>Wall Street Journal, I have included the two articles for your reading
>pleasure.  Apparently students have found all kinds of uses for new
>electronic gadgets.
>
>My students who read the WSJ thought these were great ideas.  Now if I
>could just get them to read the serious business articles...
>
>Linda Christiansen
>
>
>GADGETS
>
>High-Tech Cribbing:
>Camera Phones
>Boost Cheating
>
>By MARLON A. WALKER
>Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>September 10, 2004; Page B1
>
>Diann Baecker thought it was odd that a student in one of her language
>classes had left his cellphone flipped open during a test -- until she
>started grading the exams.
>
>The assistant professor at Virginia State University in Petersburg
>noticed that the student, and his neighbor, had used identical language
>to answer an essay question. She deduced that one student must have
>taken a picture of his neighbor's essay with his camera-equipped phone
>and then copied the answer onto his own test using the image on the
>phone's screen.
>
>These days, Prof. Baecker tells students to put their phones under
their
>desks, along with their books and backpacks. "The picture phone is the
>new thing" for cheating, she says. "Technology just makes it a lot
>easier. They're not leaning over their neighbor's shoulders anymore."
>
>A small but growing number of students are using camera phones to
cheat,
>according to students and educators across the country. The techniques
>vary: Camera phones can be used to create high-tech cheat sheets,
>letting students call up photos of key notes they took back in the
dorm.
>A student also could surreptitiously send a photo of his answers to a
>friend sitting in the same classroom during an exam.
>
> As millions of students head back to school, camera phones have become
>almost as commonplace as cellphones in colleges, high schools and even
>some middle schools. Camera-phone sales are skyrocketing, from just
>4,000 in the U.S. and Canada at the end of 2002 to an estimated 21.4
>million by the end of this year, according to consulting firm Yankee
>Group in Boston. Camera phones are expected to rise to about half of
all
>cellphone sales in the two countries by the end of 2006, Yankee says.
>
>Yet professors and teachers often don't realize the phones can be used
>as a cheating device. And even among instructors who are aware of the
>problem, enforcement is challenging because many students resist
parting
>with their phones.
>
>"The average faculty member doesn't understand what their students are
>doing," says Donald McCabe, a Rutgers University professor who helped
>found the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University in Durham,
>N.C. The center focuses on reducing cheating among students.
>
>Cameras are just the latest way cellphones are being used for cheating.
>Students have become increasingly sophisticated in using their phone
>dial pads to send text messages containing test answers to fellow
>test-takers. In 2003, the University of Maryland failed a group of
>undergraduate business-school students after they were caught engaged
in
>the practice.
>
>Yet cameras make cheating even easier. One senior at Elon University in
>Elon, N.C., had worked the night shift at his job and wasn't looking
>forward to several hours of studying for a final exam the next day.
>Instead, he says, he studied for about 30 minutes and then used his
>phone to do the rest -- taking pictures of study-guide problems and
>saving them in his phone.
>
>The student got three extra hours of sleep. And the camera phone helped
>him pass the final, he says.
>
>High schools also are concerned about nefarious uses of cellphones, let
>alone their potential for disrupting classes with constant rings and
>whispered conversations. New York City has a strict no-cellphone policy
>at all public schools. But such a move could be opposed in other
>communities. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, cellphone use
>among high-school and younger students has soared as parents want to be
>able to reach their children. About 45% of U.S. teenagers now have
>cellphones, Yankee Group says.
>
>Banning phones in school "was not a battle that I was going to win,"
>says Jeannette Stern, principal of Wantagh Middle School on New York's
>Long Island. "Parents want to be in touch with their children in this
>day and age." At her school and many others, students can bring phones
>but they must be stored during class hours.
>
>Certainly, most students don't cheat, and some aren't aware that phones
>could abet the practice even if they were so inclined. Tiffany Young, a
>21-year-old senior at Virginia State University, says she thought Ms.
>Baecker's worries were overblown when the instructor launched into a
>nearly 15-minute tirade warning students not to use camera phones to
>cheat.
>
>Yet as schools embrace technology, they may be creating new openings
for
>mischief. As more mobile devices like hand-held organizers come with
Web
>browsers, and schools equip more classrooms with wireless Internet
>access, students may find themselves able to do Google searches on the
>sly during an exam.
>
>The University of Maryland's graduate business school even plans to
give
>BlackBerries to all incoming students. "We know we have just given them
>all the tools to cheat," says Cherie Scricca, associate dean of master
>programs and career management at the school. "We are trying to
>ascertain how the community establishes rules and guidelines for
>itself."
>
>But most schools are trying to fight back. At Case Western University
in
>Cleveland, a number of professors are asking students to leave their
>phones in a basket and warning them about the dangers of cheating. The
>punishment for being caught at most schools is severe: expulsion.
>
>"It's the updated version of 'leave your textbooks in the front of the
>classroom.' We had to move and realize there are other items that need
>to be in front of the classroom," says Timothy M. Dodd, Case Western's
>associate dean for undergraduate studies and president-elect of the
>board of the Center for Academic Integrity.
>
>Yet even when caught, some cheaters are undeterred. Last spring, a
>student at Houston Community College used a camera phone to copy
another
>student's work for a math class. After reprimanding the student, Prof.
>Linda Rosenkranz went back to her lecture. Not 15 minutes later, the
>student was back at work with her phone in the back of the room. And as
>for that student? "She failed."
>
>
>
>
>September 13, 2004
>
>
>         THE JOURNAL REPORT: TECHNOLOGY
>
>
>
>Putting Tech to the Test
>
>As students turn to high-tech gadgets to cheat, schools consider
turning
>to high-tech gadgets to stop them By LAUREN ETTER
>Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>September 13, 2004; Page R17
>
>Cheating has entered the digital age. Around the world, students have
>stopped hiding crib sheets and whispering to their neighbors -- and
>started swapping test answers by cellphone, camera phone and PDA.
>
>In January 2003, the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of
>Business failed a group of accounting students for using cellphones to
>receive text-message answers during a test. In England last summer,
>proctors caught 254 secondary-school students illicitly using
cellphones
>during tests, according to the Assessments and Qualifications Alliance,
>a testing administrator. In June, five students in China were caught
>text-messaging answers for a national college-entrance exam. The
>students face criminal charges of stealing state secrets. Other
>e-cheaters have cropped in Ireland, South Korea, New Zealand and
Canada.
>
>Now a handful of tech firms and software developers have begun hawking
>high-tech countermeasures to put the cheaters out of business. The most
>aggressive gadgets block cellphone signals. Others simply sound an
alarm
>when a signal is detected, and leave enforcement up to the proctor.
>
>Test Case
>
>Many schools and testing centers are shunning the devices, saying they
>don't want to turn their facilities into high-tech surveillance zones.
>But some high-profile names in education think electronic solutions are
>rapidly becoming a necessity.
>
>Electronic cheating is "definitely a major problem. We deal with it
>every day," says Bud Wood, president of the National College Testing
>Association, a trade group for testing professionals, and manager for
>testing services at Brigham Young University, the largest
>college-testing center in the U.S. "We are trying to find ways to
detect
>it. I think we will definitely go ahead with" purchasing cellphone
>detectors.
>
>He says his center is looking at a handheld cellphone-signal detector
>developed by Global Gadget Ltd. of England. The device's manufacturer,
>Zetron, also builds detectors for Cellbusters Mobile Security Products,
>of Phoenix. The devices can pick up radio waves emitted from any
>cellphone or wireless PDA within 90 feet. When the waves are detected,
>the gadget flashes a red light, sounds an alarm or broadcasts a
>prerecorded message asking the cellphone user to turn off the phone.
>
>Safe Haven Technologies Ltd., based in England, has developed a
software
>application that would disable the camera function on cellphones. The
>blocking function kicks in whenever the phones pick up a signal from a
>wireless server, which would be installed in schools.
>
>The company says it hasn't found a phone maker to install the software
>in its products, although there are "progressed negotiations with a
>growing number of handset manufacturers and network operators," says
>Patrick Snow, chief executive of Safe Haven.
>
>        CRIMINAL CLASS
>
>
>
>A look at some high-tech cheating methods students use-and the
>countermeasures some teachers have adopted, or are considering
>
>STUDENTS USE...
>
>Text messaging on cellphones to send each others answers during a test
>
>Camera phones to photograph exam questions and send them to a friend
>outside the room. The friend fills in the answers, photographs them and
>sends the picture back.
>
>Internet chat rooms to post exam answers online
>
>TEACHERS CAN USE...
>
>Cellphone detectors, which sound an alarm when they detect wireless
>activity
>
>Cellphone jammer, which blocks all incoming and outgoing signals
>(illegal in the U.S. and Europe)
>
>Quiet Cell, a device that reroutes incoming calls to voice mail and
>prevents outgoing calls (illegal in the U.S. and Europe)
>
>Safe Haven, a software program built into phones that allows their
>camera function to be disabled
>
>
>
>
>
>Cell Block Technologies Inc., based in Fairfax, Va., is currently
>developing Quiet Cell, a device that would automatically reroute
>incoming calls to voice mail and block outgoing calls. "There is a
>tremendous amount of concern in schools -- everything from the bar exam
>to you name it," says J. David Derosier, president and CEO of Cell
>Block. "We have even talked with some schools that have offered to be
>test sites." Mr. Derosier says that from February to May, his company's
>Web site saw a 50% increase in hits from U.S. schools over last year.
>
>But his product faces a big hurdle: It would be illegal in the U.S.
>under Federal Communications Commission regulations, which prohibit
>interfering with licensed telecommunications. Mr. Derosier says he
plans
>to launch a grass-roots effort to change the rules, by taking his
>company public and having shareholders work as a lobbying team. For
now,
>he says he will also focus on markets outside the U.S.
>
>For some of these tech companies, anti-cheating is a relatively new
>sideline. Their original business was preventing cellphone use in
>prisons, government and military facilities, hospitals and movie
>theaters -- anyplace that had imposed phone-regulation policies.
>
>Cellbusters CEO Derek Forde says he originally thought that the
detector
>would be best used in schools to prevent cellphones ringing in class.
He
>didn't realize that there was a market for anti-cheating devices until
>he noticed that "converged" cellphones -- which can take pictures,
store
>lots of data, send e-mail and surf the Web -- were becoming cheap
enough
>for students to afford.
>
>"Students are able to text in their pocket without seeing their phone,"
>says Mr. Forde. "They are able to do it almost blindfolded."
>
>Currently, few schools or testing centers in the U.S. will admit to
>officially using electronic devices to prevent cheating. Mr. Forde says
>educational facilities currently account for about 5% of his sales, but
>adds that many potential customers are testing the device, including a
>large U.S. testing center.
>
>Some schools outside of the U.S. have already put the technology in
>place. At Heathland School in Hounslow, England, Senior Deputy Head
>Nigel Roper uses a Taiwanese cellphone detector.
>
>"Mobile-phone technology is becoming more sophisticated," Mr. Roper
>says, explaining that some children have been caught using cellphones
to
>send text messages and photo images of the test answers.
>
>He has found that the detector is best used as a deterrent rather than
>an active alarm. All in all, he considers the detector to be "quite a
>good investment."
>
>Another British school found detectors useless. "We tried it out as an
>experiment, but it wasn't much use to us," says Tony Hacking, deputy
>head of All Hallows High School in Preston, England.
>
>Mr. Hacking complains that the detector, from Global Gadget, isn't
>sophisticated enough to identify the student who is using a device --
>just the general area from where the signal is coming from.
>
>Other potential users express concerns that the detector would be prone
>to false alarms. Moreover, they argue, the process of hunting down an
>offender would be disruptive to honest test takers, and would take so
>long it would allow a student ample time to illicitly access a
cellphone
>or PDA.
>
>Michael Menage, CEO of Global Gadget, says the device is used best as a
>deterrent. "It is not designed to track somebody down and hone in on
the
>exact desk," he says, adding, "Even the best cellphone detector" can't
>automatically pinpoint a cheater.
>
>Still, he suggests that cheaters are intimidated by the presence of the
>gadget in the test room. If you received an illicit message and a
>proctor was patrolling with a detector, "I think you'd look pretty
>damned guilty," he says.
>
>As far as disruptiveness, he says that the device can be switched to
>vibrate instead of sounding an alarm. But he concedes that it could be
>distracting to have a teacher walking down aisles pointing the device
at
>people.
>
>Ultimately, though, Mr. Hacking booted the device because he didn't
like
>the reputation it gave his school. It "made our school look as if it
was
>the cheat center of the universe."
>
>Many schools share the concern about image. Some parents say cellphone
>detectors, like metal detectors, would make schools come to resemble
>prisons.
>
>Diane Waryold, executive director of the Center for Academic Integrity
>at Duke University in Durham, N.C., thinks the prospect of electronic
>monitoring devices in the classroom is "a little bit troubling." She
>says, "We are trying to create a trusting relationship between faculty
>and students. I don't want to see an arms race with our students."
>
>For the time being, most schools dictate that cellphones must be
>switched off during the day -- and some have banned them outright. But
>bans carry their own image problem. With Columbine and Sept. 11 still
>fresh in their memory, many parents want to keep constant lines of
>communication to their children.
>
>Center of Attention
>
>Since schools have proved tough to crack, Cellbusters is turning its
>attention to large testing centers, which have a hefty financial stake
>in the integrity of examinations. According to Tom Ewing, spokesman for
>Educational Testing Services, a single SAT test takes almost a year to
>create, and costs anywhere between $250,000 and $350,000.
>
>The Law School Admission Council, the official administrator of the Law
>School Admission Test, or LSAT, became intimately aware of the threat
in
>1997, when a University of Southern California test taker ran out of
the
>exam room with his test book. A proctor chased him, but couldn't stop
>him from hopping into a getaway car.
>
>Hours later, the thief sent the LSAT answers to two test takers at the
>University of Hawaii at Manoa -- where the test was just commencing --
>via electronic pager. The proctor became suspicious when she noticed
the
>test takers frequently looking at their pagers. She let them finish
>their exams, then contacted the LSAC, which turned the case over to the
>Los Angeles Police Department.
>
>All three students were prosecuted in California Superior Court on
>charges of conspiracy to commit robbery. They were sentenced to a year
>in jail each and forced to pay $97,000 in restitution to the LSAC.
>
>The LSAC retains experts in electronic surveillance equipment from
>Securitas Security Services USA Inc. to provide staff to administer
>tests, carry out security investigations and alert testing companies of
>the latest cheating gadgetry and trends.
>
>But, for now, it doesn't use electronic detection devices. Jim
Vaseleck,
>executive assistant to the president of the LSAC, notes that astute
>proctors, not gadgets, foiled the USC plot -- leading him to believe
>that the detectors are gratuitous.
>
>"We instruct test takers and train proctors that folks are not allowed
>to bring electronic devices into testing centers," he says.
>
>Plus, he believes that low-tech cheating schemes, which can be combated
>only with astute proctors, remain a bigger problem. He notes incidents
>where test takers carved exam answers into No. 2 pencils, selling them
>on the black market for close to $1,000, or lined up different-colored
>M&Ms on a desk to correspond to answers of multiple-choice questions.
>"Electronic devices present more of a nuisance than a security
problem,"
>Mr. Vaseleck says.
>
>
>