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  Cheating in the News is a bi-weekly e-mail update delivering the latest news related to cheating, exam fraud and test item piracy. To subscribe enter your e-mail address below.  
 
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October 3, 2008

Dear Associate,

Last week Caveon’s John Fremer and Dennis Maynes were featured in a Network World article titled, “How data forensics help root out certification cheaters.” Here is an excerpt from the article:

As an example, [Dennis] Maynes described a scenario where two candidates have extremely similar tests, indicating that the tests weren’t taken independently. Caveon would use the science of item response theory to calculate the probabilities that two people worked together or didn’t take the test independently. It’s possible that one person was “the source” (i.e., a legitimate test taker) and the other person copied from him. Maynes points out that people can collude even when they take the test online. “The data speaks for itself,” says Maynes. “We have an extremely high degree of confidence in what the data tell us.”

Even armed with accurate data, Caveon doesn’t point a finger and yell “Cheater!” Caveon provides the results to the certifying agency, which can do a further investigation into circumstances and determine what action to take with the certification candidate(s). Microsoft has said, however, that forensics analysis is so accurate that it will be used as the sole evidence for enforcement actions, including a permanent ban from certification.

You can read the full article here.

Best regards,

Don Sorensen
Vice President, Marketing
Caveon Test Security
don.sorensen@caveon.com
801.592.3396

Caveon Test Detective is a new web-based statistical analysis service that analyzes test results and produces reports showing possible cheating and collusion.

If you are interested in using this web-based service for FREE during our beta-testing period click here.

 

1 > Students use cell phones to cheat on Peru university admissions exam

Undercover police detained thirteen people suspected of charging Peruvian students up to $1,200 to help them cheat on the admissions exam to get into the National University of Callao. To lure students willing to pay their price, criminals distributed thousands of fliers at the university itself and at a university preparatory academy in San Juan de Lurigancho.

 

2 > High-stakes testing puts pressure on educators

So much rides on public school students’ test scores. They can make or break a principal’s career. Awards, money and promotions often accompany high scores. Low scores can mean state takeover or intense public scrutiny. They can lessen neighborhoods’ home values and desirability. The increasing pressure on educators to post strong results on high-stakes tests has created ripe conditions for cheating.

3 > College Cheating Is Bad for Business - Knowledge@W.P. Carey

In an age where a new cheating/corruption scandal is front-page news nearly every day — think Enron, Barry Bonds, Eliot Spitzer, and Marion Jones for starters — it is perhaps not surprising that dishonesty is a problem on most college campuses. Academic dishonesty, which runs the gamut from plagiarizing to purchasing papers and theses, sharing answers on assignments, taking another’s exam, and failing to do work for a team project, is, unfortunately, part of the college experience for many students today. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University and Washington State University surveyed 5,331 graduate students at 32 universities in 2006. Of these, 56 percent of the graduate business students and 47 percent of the non-business graduate students admitted to cheating one or more times in the past year.

4 > Legislation - New law aims to validate online learning

The higher-education law signed by President Bush last month demands that colleges authenticate test takers in online courses through the use of sophisticated identification technology or with exam proctors. While some high-ed officials believe the law will help lend greater credibility to online learning, others say the new mandate is largely unnecessary.

5 > Classroom Fraud - Courant.com

A national survey of 25,000 high school students conducted from 2001 to 2008 found that 94 percent admitted to cheating in some form or another. Sixty-five percent of students confessed to cheating on a test; more than half admitted to plagiarism.

6 > Cellphones, Handy Tools for Emergency Alerts, Could Be Used for Cheating - Chronicle.com

Although Mr. Burns has no evidence of students’ using ChaCha for academic purposes, he was concerned enough to send an e-mail message to all of his fellow faculty members at Delaware explaining what ChaCha is and how it could be used. In response, some instructors at the university are reconsidering their own classroom policies. Concerns about the service were first reported this month in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

7 > 84 use Web to cheat on GMAT - The Stanford Daily Online

Ten applicants to the Stanford Graduate School of Business and one recent graduate saw their GMAT scores cancelled early this month by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) due to their involvement with an illegal test preparation Web site.

8 > Schoolhouse Rock : Freaks and Cheats

As Levitt and Dubner reported in Freakonomics, Arne Duncan, the CEO of the Chicago public schools, contacted Levitt and Jacob after their paper was published and asked for their help in catching the cheaters. Duncan and the economists chose 120 classrooms—some classrooms with suspicious results, some regular classrooms as a control—and retested them, but with officials from Duncan’s office overseeing the test, rather than the teachers themselves. When the test results came back, the scores from the classrooms with suspicious results had dropped sharply. A dozen teachers were fired, and as Dubner and Levitt write in their book, “The final outcome of the Chicago study is further testament to the power of incentives: the following year, cheating by teachers fell more than 30 percent.”

9 > Postyourtest.com: study tool or cheating site? - JackCentral

This year has marked the apperance of postyourtest.com a Web site created by Demir Oral, a graduate of Saint Louis University’s MIS program. The site has caught the eyes of a few universities and some skeptical professors. The controversy surrounding the site stems from its ability to let anyone view tests from other universities. The site is mostly user-run; all tests, quizzes and questions on the site are uploaded by students or professors who choose to release the information on the Internet.

10 > How data forensics help root out certification cheaters - Network World

The use of data forensics for certification exams is becoming common place among the certifying agencies, and not just in the IT industry. Caveon Test Security is one company that provides data forensics analysis as one of its test security services. Last week I spoke with Caveon president John Fremer and chief scientist and master statistician Dennis Maynes to learn more about how data forensics analysis helps to find anomalous testing behavior that could indicate cheating.

11 > YouTube: Cheating 101

Kiki’s video is one of several dozen on the popular Internet site YouTube that show detailed ways to cheat on tests. Students no longer conceal answers in the sole of a shoe or the underside of a baseball cap’s bill. In the age of continual access to the Internet and laser-precision printers, cheating has gone high-tech.

 

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