Hi everyone! I teach at Florida Virtual School and I love teaching virtually! Initially, I thought I would have concerns about not really getting to know my students that well in this mode of learning, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! There’s only one down side: when students want to hide, they can…and they sometimes even hide behind someone else’s work or what Google knows.
”Kids are using the world wide web to get answers quickly for tests and homework, and it’s a red flag that can’t be ignored. ‘Cheating’s been a problem for a while and it’s certainly getting worse with the students at home,’ said Ethan Fieldman. He’s the CEO of Math Nation,” (Fox). Not seeing your students complete their own work can make it difficult to identify whether it is truly their own work, especially in the beginning of a class. As you get to know your students, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to cheat, in front of you or not, but academic dishonesty is definitely the dark side of virtual learning.
”With the assistance of the Internet and related technologies, students today have many more ways to be academically dishonest than students a generation ago,” (Watson). Because they have so many options and opportunities to cheat and take the easy way out, it is our responsibility to make learning an innovative and engaging platform so they choose to learn and complete their own work. It is also imperative that teachers and parents are monitoring student work and progress to make sure that all work is authentic to the student. An easy way to monitor students is to conduct discussions with the students that are based on their assignments and lessons. If a student is unable to discuss work that has been submitted, it would be easy to determine that the work is not their own and consequences should be assigned. If a student is able to discuss the work that was submitted, then it is authentic to the student and should be celebrated as an opportunity to build the relationship with the student virtually.
Another way to ensure individualized work submissions is to use a platform such as Turnitin.com that can check the submitted work for matches to other student work or online sources. If using such a platform, it is also helpful to explain the platform to both parent and student so they understand how the work is scanned and matched. It would also be useful to teach them how to read the reports so they can also be more accountable to the citing of sources and usage of materials.
Technology is incredibly important in the education of our students, and it is important that we utilize the tools of their generation to meet them where they are to help them reach higher to meet their goals. The caveat is that, although we are meeting them with the tools they need, we need to make sure they do not venture into the dark side of virtual learning. To do that, we must stay vigilant, communicate regularly to discuss learning, allow them to be part of the discussion when explaining the expectations of the class and how to read Turnitin reports, and we must put the building blocks for the relationship in place from the first contact to the class.
“Cheating in the Digital Age: Do Students Cheat More in Online Courses?” Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, University of West Georgia Distance and Distributed Education Center, www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring131/watson131.html.
“Online Cheating on the Rise with Kids Working Remotely.” WXMI, WXMI, 2 Sept. 2020, www.fox17online.com/news/morning-news/online-cheating-on-the-rise-with-kids-working-remotely.