Since the beginning of the pandemic, there were not many occasions for schools to conduct stationary lessons. Because of that supervision of the students was impossible. Problems with cheating on exams quickly escalated worldwide. Unfortunately for the schools, the need of solving the problem was not even considered until now, thus not being able to stop it. Two years into the pandemic universities started using a method meant to expose the cheaters.
Schools started generating websites that theoretically contained answers to the exams, which could be browsed for if inserted one of the questions. A student entering the website unknowingly was sharing his IP address and all of the movement on it was monitored. Clicking the “show answer” option would cause an automatic negative grade. A simple yet effective trick that exposes the cheater without harming the rest of the class. Yet such an overt act is an explicit sign of the school not trusting the student.
Since the rigor of the supervision rose, all of the students became uneasy. The constant feeling of being observed is unpleasant and ruins the educational experience. Many people have complained since, that with more counteraction to students cheating, a school has become a place of constant surveillance.
With more secure ways of testing students’ knowledge, came the general stress of being watched. Student which is constantly worried will be less effective and even if not cheating, his grades will drop. Extracting an IP address is a serious violation of a person’s personal space and it astonishes me, that such a solution has even been considered. Schools may be desperate to find a way for cheating to end but it should not be prioritized over students’ comfort.
Sources:
https://gizmodo.com/schools-are-using-fake-answer-sites-to-snitch-on-test-t-1848542874
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