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A comment on EFF sues Proctorio on behalf of student falsely DMCA'd. Parent comment

Re:EFF sues Proctorio on behalf of student falsely DMCA'd by mkl on Thursday April 22, 2021 @10:40AM (#26903274)
Well, people aren't born cheaters or not, they choose to cheat as a result of circumstances [1]. Opportunity is one factor. Another is perceived unfairness about what they're asked to do. Our institution becomes better as our students do, when they don't feel the need to cheat. Avoiding opportunities to cheat and unfairness incentives is key to doing that. Invigilation software, the same test for online students as local students, and plenty of online tutor help are three approaches we're using for remote assessments. A small, brief reduction in privacy comparable to their online tutorials is proving perfectly acceptable to students. Unfortunately custom projects and the like won't work for teaching fundamental maths skills.

[1] There's quite a bit of research on this. Bretag is a key author.

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Re:EFF sues Proctorio on behalf of student falsely DMCA'd by necovek on Thursday April 22, 2021 @03:20PM (#26906983)
Thanks for the references! I am simplifying a bit to get my point across: I am well aware that nobody is a born cheater, and that the fear of getting caught stops many from cheating too.

> Unfortunately custom projects and the like won't work for teaching fundamental maths skills.

I am not sure I agree. One of the projects I did for my projective geometry class was to do an inverse of a projected drawing (in AutoCAD) and save a 3D .obj file. In differential equations course, I was given a project to prove a theorem that is generally missing from the school books (or usually given as an exercise). You can also let people devise proofs in a closed system of axioms and a few theorems.

It is a hard and different type of work, but I am certain you can both teach and get to know students with theoretical math projects. If they get someone else to do it for them, yet they are able to present it in front of the class (online) convincingly, they have likely understood the concepts, which is what teaching is all about.

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