technology has made academic he is honesty much -- dishonesty much easier. >> it's probably a little easier to cheat online. >> see how technology is used to minimize cheating. and also address the differences between cheating in the classroom and in online courses. on this edition of "equal time." welcome to the campus of san jose state university. and this edition of "equal time." i'm your host journalism school director bob rucker. do college students cheat more

in online courses? what are college faculty doing about it? technology vendors have developed techniques to minimize cheating and address the issues surrounding cheating in online courses and in the classroom. calvin carr has our story. >> reporter: in our digital age, college students have greater access to information thanks to the internet and their mobile devices. however, they also have more methods of cheating electronically. college students changing perception of what is ethical and what's original have professors searching for new ways of dealing with academic dishonesty. english professor swenson teaches in origin county at -- orange county at saddleback college. >> you see almost 50% of the students imagine rising and downloading -- plagiarizing and downloading full papers. >> reporter: for 16 years she has taught online and in in the classroom and they are unaware of what constitutes academic

dishonesty. >> really what cheating is or why. there's a lot of gray area. what i've noticed is students today tend to not want to or don't really know how to think for themselves. >> reporter: online classes are becoming more and more popular today for a variety of reasons but swenson says this new method of course delivery increases academic dishonesty. >> the conversations i've had with other academics that are interested in honesty and integrity. there's a sense that it's happening more in online courses than it is elsewhere. >> reporter: but researchers at marshall university in west virginia at the educational foundations and technology office say cheating is no more prevalent in online courses. >> interestingly enough, our research showed that the percentage of students who admitted to cheating behaviors in online and live classes was the same. roughly about a third. >> reporter: however, public per peck persists that cheating

is rampant in o-line courses. >> one of the questions we asked in arresteddy was we asked the students to -- our study was we asked the percentage who cheated online and in classroom. the percentage was roughly 6 #%. >> reporter: respondents thought just 12% of students cheated in traditional classes. which is nothing close to the actual results. >> anecdotally factually feel the same way. that because you know that loss of oversight or loss of control. >> reporter: while the research shows that the amount of cheating is equal in the classroom as well as online, the question remains, is there a fundamental shift in what is considered to be academic dishonesty in the digital age? >> that's an interesting topic that -- that's really just now being looked at. i mean you know over the last 10 or 15 years or you know even

more, we seem to be from an educational standpoint pushing more group work and individual -- and even individual assignments, they're more deeper understanding. not the objective multiple choice true fault tests. >> reporter: what's considered now as dishonesty because collaboration may be confusing students. sjsu electrical engineering professor says it can be avoided in both the classroom and in online courses. students need to be taught not to cheat. >> we should give the student the moral compass. teaching them what the morality is and what is our ethic of our profession. we tell them there is no shortcut. there's no cutting corners. if you want to achieve something in your life, you really should put your time and effort to achieve it. >> reporter: he says if

teachers do their job properly, students won't have to cheat. and there must be zero tolerance for cheating. >> we shouldn't tolerate it. we should make an example. that everyone else from outside and inside, look at it and come to this conclusion that they shouldn't cheat. >> reporter: he incorporated lessons from a massive open online course or mooc in one of the classes last year. he says professor and students both benefit from the internet. >> the most importantly the student learned how to search the web. lot of information these days you don't go to the library for it. you search it on the search engine and web. so they learn how to do that and they are very eloquent on that. >> reporter: but with the good comes the bad. >> is there going to be a

cheating? always. but we try as much as possible to prevent it and deter it. >> reporter: in order to deter it. the mathematics education professor spitzer says students need to learn what cheating is. >> i'm not sure in this day and age the students understand that line. that's why it's really important for us to teach explicitly what cheating is and what it is not. because i think sometimes they don't know. >> reporter: in spite of the potential for cheating, spitzer says online learning offers many advantages. >> we have many students here at san jose state who work full- time. they have jobs. and they take sometimes a full load here and i don't really know how they do it. being able to take an online course lightens the load in some way because they can do it from home after their kids go to bed or they can do it on the weekends. it's a way to provide access to more students that wouldn't

have access to it before. >> reporter: spitzer says concern is overblown about increased opportunities to cheat online. >> it's interesting. it doesn't occur to me that stints who would be taking these courses online would do that because of the level of work that's involved in an online class. i feel like it's a lot more than if they come in and they just sit in class a few hours a week. >> reporter: in class and online, sjsu graduate student vanessa zuck understands why it exists. she's a teaching assistant. >> i think college students cheat when they don't have time to balance their lives. and manage their time correctly. so that they can study enough. >> reporter: she says online or in the classroom, opportunities to cheat are plentiful. >> it just depends on what kind of strategies the students are going to use. it's probably a little easier to cheat online just because you can open a new page and

google search or if you have a second screen, maybe the proctor won't see you. but in person as well, you can cheat whether it's a large class or a small class. there are just different techniques that students use. >> when we come back, college faculty discuss the reasons for academic dishonesty. and what's being done. welcome back. students cheat for a variety of reasons. and tech vendors have joined forces with college faculty to

minimize academic dishonesty. do they cheat more in online courses than in classrooms? how are educators ensuring academic integrity in our culture of learning? calvin carr continues our report. >> reporter: with the internet fully integrated into college education. the dark side of this technology is a real concern. but with every challenge there's an opportunity. tech venators stepped in to curb academic dishonesty. jason chu is at oakland based turn it in. his company helps instructors catch plagiarism by checking what they write against web based sources. >> it's sort of saying you know, did cheating me exist before technology or did technology perpetuate or increase the students' ability to cheat? it's very hard to say. >> reporter: they studied 38 million papers last year and found 156 million content matches to sources online. >> what we did is we categorized those matches by whether it's -- an academic

homework site. whether it's a cheat site. paper mill site. or it's an encyclopedia. for example wikipedia. we bunk eted those matches under those broad categories. >> reporter: chu says there's this notion that collaboration is appropriate by virtue of the fact that it's online. >> i think that where we fall into problems perhaps is where we're not clear. what constitutes appropriate clap ration in an online course. >> reporter: chu says you don't see as many issues in a classroom with collaboration because there are clear expectations that students should own their own work. >> when you're in an online environment where part of the process of being in a class is participating in on own line discussion forum. it's very i think very easy to align collaboration with what's appropriate. >> reporter: what's appropriate during the online exam is monitored here at proctor u. an

alabama based company with an office in pleasanton. before cofounding proctor u., don casner helped found an online university after teaching economics at sjsu. he developed parameters for proctoring. >> it's really online or in the classroom, it's how you set the rules up and who monitors that in the classroom it's faculty men. online it's -- member. online it's technology and different tools we're going to use. >> reporter: what's the process of minimizing exam cheating online? >> it's really pretty simple. the first one is the student will use a web cam. a one of one experience where we've got the proctor in our center. they connect via web conference to the student and we can see them and they can take their laptops and show us everything around their area. we can make sure they don't have things out. they can really secure the environment. >> reporter: not only is the online testing environment secured, but the online proctor can see what's on the student's screen and can help with computer issues. the third part of the proctoring system validates the

identity of the test taker. >> we have to know who they are. so we go through a process of authenticating their identity and we're using ids. we're using permanent paragraphs and also we're using public record data. >> reporter: technology is there to verify the identity and secure the testing environment and while honesty may be the best policy. cheating mail still come down to the professor's diligence and the students' integrity. ♪

welcome back. for this edition "equal time" our focus today is on college cheating. let's meet the guests. >> hi, i'm don casner, also the former president of andrew jackson university and i was faculty in the economics department here at san jose state. >> thanks don, i am jason chu for turn it in. we're leading provider of plagiarism and software. >> hi i'm vanessa zucker. i'm a student at sjsu and also the vp of marketing for the student association and teaching assistant. >> hi, i'm renee swenson and i'm a professor of english at saddleback college. >> i'm calvin carr, i'm a graduate student here at the school of journalism and mass communications at san jose state university. and i'm a producer of today's show. >> thank you all for being here

today. the public hears all the national and public announcements delivering products online and yet this issue of cheating is starting to be a concern. what are we doing in technology to resolve that issue? >> well, what we're doing at proctor u., we proctor online examinations and really what we've done is bought the proctoring center to the students a home. when i was running the university, i can do all the course work at home at my kitchen table but with a test i have to go somewhere and this is a hassle and i'm already stressed. we brought technology to the home with with web cam and authentication technology we can see the student and we know who they are and those were the same think lines you do in the -- three things you do in the classroom. we're trying to replicate the classroom and take it to the next level. >> renee on the college level we worry about cheating. >> absolutely, and it does happen. the interesting thing is it's not a great proportion of my

students that are -- that i found are cheating -- find are cheating. and i don't see any difference between the amount of students cheating online and those that are not. now most of the work is all in writing and so i deal specifically with plagiarism. you know, cut and paste-type of content and those types of things. and really i find that i've been able to get away from focusing so much on worrying about cheating or stressing about cheating by using some of the technology tools i use turn it in specifically. it's an inherent part of my classroom and so i can teach students how the write better. but having them use turn it in as a form of assessment to check their work and i can actually send more time on -- spend more time on real teaching in that case. >> tell me how faculty feel using that technology. >> well i think that as with any technology that you introduce to a classroom context, you're going to have folks that are sort of leaders they're going to be advocates for using it and some folks are sort of used to doing things

the way they've always done them. what we try to do with turn it in is obviously provide opportunities for instructor as well as students to look at how they're using content within the papers and we also and i think this is sort of touching on where technology is going in terms of engage. we provide instructors with a way to provide students with more targets feedback. so whether that's a voice comment, on their paper. or it's providing them with resources to look up perhaps what a comma splice means. we're providing modalities and i think that's really what the promise of technology is. in terms of introducing the classroom. i think that's really where we're going to -- >> we'll get back to the jitters that the faculty have of learning the you the necknology. but -- new technology. but vanessa, have we pretty much come to the conclusion people don't cheat anymore because new technology doesn't allow it? >> certainly not. i've seen cheating in the classroom and online. i don't think there's a really

big difference. i don't think you can mitigate it completely no matter where you are. but you have to just make sure that you motivate the students. and you get them to a point where they are responsible enough for themselves and they -- have some kind of connection. they feel as though if they cheat then they're losing something. >> i think that we really have to change you know, the whole perception or philosophy of education that there's nothing to cheat for. if we're not looking for a specific answer. and really, fostering critical thinking so that students use foundational knowledge to then apply that knowledge in some way. rather than what's the answer. ? this is the right answer or the wrong answer. and you know, being innovative and how you approach your assignments or you know, being creative. my classroom is very die logic in both my online and face-to- face formats. so students have to take what we develop in those discussions and use that in the papers. so there's no right answer on

the internet even for them to go find and cut and paste into their papers. >> you want to do this? why? >> you know, well, when it comes to college students today, they are a part of what's called the digital native generation. so they've grown up in a world that the internet has always existed or you know, many of the technologies that we're talking about has been part of their lives. and what i'm seeing is that there's more and more of a demand from students to want to learn online. and yet at the same time, there's that challenge of dealing with you know, the academic dishonesty being not encouraged, but enhanced by some of these technologies. so i do think getting back to renee's point i think one of challenges we have is one dealing with changing the perception of what is considered cheating by some of these digital natives. but also as professors, and instructors, helping them

understand -- helping digital natives understand what is really cheating. >> calvin has a good point. it's about engagement and i have just as much responsibility to engage my students online as do in the face-to-face classroom. the more students are engaged. the more they'll think critically and the less likely they'll cheat which is you know basically this buy-in we want from them. they will like they're missing something. it's you know being -- you know, innovative and helping students think for themselves. because if i write you know, tell me about this, they'll jus go you know wikipedia or google and tell me what everybody else thinks about this. this idea of collaboration that they have. they haven't been taught fundamentally the processes of thinking. it's almost like we have to reintroduce that. i would argue getting away from tests where we consider that they can cheat that there's an answer. and all of the work that i do is essay based of course i'm in english but i don't enthesitis you know grammar -- you know even test you know gram moor.

>> i think what we also see increasingly is this sense culturally of a disconnect between having an education and getting a job. so i think there's a way in which weaver challenged just by the broader trend in terms of employment. you know, around what skills students are learning in college. what they're coming away with and that applicability and value in the marketplace. going back to remay nee there's a way -- renee. there's a way in which we need to evaluate what it is the higher institution the providing in the way of skillsets and making sure there's a connect between that. and the workplace. and specifically around critical thinking. because i think that's what's valued. >> i'm sure people are out there watching and wondering, well, do young people of today, are used to the technology. no question about that. but they are wondering are they still getting from a university or from an educational environment a knowledge retention? because if they're not retaining -- playing with toys is not going to help them. how will that affect them in the job market if they don't

understand the concepts because technology made it easy for them to receive it. did they remain it? >> we and ourselves how much we remember from our college experience in terms of the content. probably very little. but we learned how to process you know take things on. you know, deal with our schedules and thinking critically, problem solve. the basic fundamental skills, one of the acts that i make because i do use turn it in and i really push for a campus-wide approach to these types of technologies both for face-to- face classes and online. if it's the one tool that i can see that goes if course to course to course. so when we teach critical thinking and we wrap that in with the writing and then you know they're engaged in this -- this you know, feedback and that type of thing through this t service. then -- the service. then students can do that in other classes and their political science class and it's like oh, this again. i remember. i have to do this this and

this. otherwise it's a textbook here, the textbook there and they sell it back. we teach them dump your knowledge at the end of the course. [ indiscernible ] >> that's great i mean -- i look at it real exciting, critical thinking today has never been more important because of the amount of data that we have. i always like to say look, but "jeopardy" is dead. it's not about what we know. it's what we can process. if you asked us a question about a fact we can look it up and have that answer in two minutes or one minute. 20 seconds. it's the ability to take all of that different data and process it. and so we as educators that's our challenge. we can't sit there in a classroom and just talk about different things that happened. we need to focus on thinking and evaluating and focus on taking that data and processing it and that's important in the job park because what we're doing today i tell my employees, the job you're doing today is going to be different if six months. you have -- in six months, you have to be able to adapt to the change and process data. when i hear the whole discussion it excites me

because that's what we have to challenge people to do. >> i would say online learning. i try to get away from the teaching. it's not about me getting across content to students and in online environment, the students have to do most of the work. you know i set it up and i frame it and you know, i asked them to engage in a certain way. but most of that time is actively involved in you know, reading or coming to some sort of knowledge. the emphasis is not on me. giving them information. and i actually have approached that in my face-to-face classes so i am fostering the same type of critical thinking. it's drawing from the students as they sit there. or they will be on their phones looking at other information. >> i also feel like on that same note, that it is up to the instructor but not only the instructor but whoever sets up the technology to set the stage for the students. so that they become more engaged. so that they can have a memorable moment during the class and then they will retain

the information later. in -- in person classes, it's easier because you have a visual cue. and we need to work with technology in order to figure out what makes those memorable moments in online education. >> and with plagiarisms this really important. so instead of me going into the classroom or telling many students online you can or cannot do this. i will actually and them why do we value intellectual property? why is this important? how does this you know, fundamental to what we do in academic discourse? i feel like students today need that connection. they need that understanding. they're going to question why and why not to do something. and so i allow them to kind of present and we have a discussion about it. so it's not about you can't cheat. it's why do we want to have your voice? why do we want to hear what you have to say about these topics? >> developing technology -- i remember my mom used to say you asked a question why too much.

but the question why triggers those synapses and gets things done. how do you develop technology to trigger the mind to do those sort of things when we as teachers always thought we need to see i and watch your reactions and look at your body language to know if you're receiving what we're telling you. >> it's that essential feedback loop. remay mentioned the relationship and when it comes to the writing assessment that instructors do, we'll turn it in and we're not necessarily changing that. we're finding ways in which to better create efficiencies around that and to connect instructors better with students around feed bank. one of the things we found is that students given the fact they are digital natives now, respond better to feedback that's provided electronically. now they feel safer. they're more comfortable. they can play and replay back your feedback if you're leaving for example a voice comment and really engage with that information. and i think that where we see that belting the instructors is that they're finding that what

they're doing on a paper it's going to get read and not just oh i got a b. and toss it in the garbage can. it's i got a b. and here are the reasons why and i can kind of spend time and read through it. >> they can actually read our writing. >> let me chime in on that. it's not about technology replacing the classroom or replacing the instructor. it's about technology enabling that process. all right, we as teachers have technology that we use, there's some things we don't have to do anymore but we're still responsible for that engagement. we're still responsible for that learning process. we still have to direct the student and we want to engage in that conversation and we want to exchange ideas with them. and lead them down that path. because they've got all the facts. they've got the technology. they have all the pieces they can put into play and we can take that and get them to the nest level. that's what i say. don't be afraid of technology, embrace. it's going to help you be much more effective than you are today. the guy in front of the

classroom with 350 people to 100 students and just using a power point presentation that's not very interactive. 20 years ago that was amazing. but today, it's not. and everyone's growing up in is this environment digitally enabled and they're used to different streams of technology and very short bits of information. and now give me that facebook information or that twitter feed and they want -- they want to engage that way. >> people listening to us though right now calvin, and they're saying what he says makes sense and what you're saying certainly enhances the learning experience for students. but faculty and parents will probably think well wait a minute, these little bits, will it ever come together and will it ever be cohesive enough to create a collective thought that will be valuable for the future their job whatever them to do? what is the research tellings us about stereotypes and technology enabling teaching? >> well, there's a couple points there. on the cheating side, the research proves that the cheating that's going on in the

online courses is about equivalent to what's going on in the classroom. however, and this is where i got involved in this and the development of my online course for my graduate program. i'm dealing with the perception and the marketplace of the parents. of the students, that there's a lot more cheating going on in the online environment. >> this is a fascinating discussion. thank you for bringing this to our attention and thank you for joining us. we hope you will come back for another edition of "equal time." [ captions by: caption colorado, llc 800-775-7838 email: comments@captioncolorado.com ]

like, let's do a live interview. and then we were like, "well, let's bring our online community and do it livestream. and bring in twitter and facebook and allow people to ask their own questions." i really like veronica belmont. i tweeted to her. she instantly responded. she said, "yes." and i was like, "what?" (veronica) if' you're really passionate about a topic and you wanna work in that field, you should already be doing it. (female announcer) roadtrip nation would like to thank the college board for supporting this series. the college board: connect to college success. (male announcer) this public television series is supported by the university of phoenix foundation. helping