So this is a new one for me. I guess that folks who teach online have it happen all the time. Students just admitted to using Google on this test. I couldn’t believe it. You got to admire that honesty.

I was clear in the instructions for the exam:

You are NOT allowed to use your notes, google, Chegg, friends etc.  The Honor code is in full effect!

It all seemed it was related to the one estimation question on the exam. I typically ask something really weird like, What is the annual revenue for Lobster farming in the USA. And then they have to put the pieces together from knowledge they have in their head. Its a great exercise that physicists do called back-of-the-envelope questions. This is a very powerful tool that I frequently used as a management consultant.

Googling is a powerful tool for this, but the point is to not use tools – just the grey matter between one’s ears. I don’t even know if folks should be allowed to use Google for this in 2020. Google is so powerful. But what was clear is that my instructions said no Google.

One student wrote me an email after the exam and said:

I took the total XXXXX from google in the test. I had no other ideaaaaaa

I couldn’t believe it! WOW! Another person just said it right in the their answer, “I searched up…”. What?!? A few people gave very specific numbers that were clearly looked up, such as the world population is “7.594 billion (2018)”. {Students if you are reading this, don’t worry I will not tell names.}

When I think of cheating I think of people that are trying to hide things. These people weren’t. They were as honest as ever! To me this is not an academic honest issue.

But is it? I have a friend who REALLY REALLY cares about academic honesty. I am sure she would go after each of these students right up to the provost office. She would be in her right to do so. The evidence is right there. No questions asked. The folks are guilty.

Ugh! Can we get back to better times?

Luckily it was only a small part of the test so I didn’t make too big of a deal. And the average score across the whole exam is consistent with previous tests. While there were more higher scores than normal, none of them were inconsistent with expectations from interacting with the students in class. So this is really a non-issue.

And this is definitely a grey issue. Cheating is happening on online exams and folks are talking about it (chronicle, Washington Post, etc). But it seems that the students weren’t trying to be bad here. They just reflexively used Google. So while it was bad, it wasn’t BAD.

I am going to start implementing group exams (click here for more information) and video exams (Click here for more information). I have been allowing usage of the internet as a resource to quell any issues. And then I spend a lot of time making sure my questions aren’t too easy to get from Google.

But I deliberately didn’t want students to use Google this time because of the very question they used Google for. Just UGH!