Online Education, A Cheaters Paradise?
Cheat cheat, never beat?
Online classes are perfect for working professionals and career beginners who want to complete or advance their education. But are online students actually ”earning” their degree? I’ve spoke to many undergrads who revealed to me how easy it would be to cheat on an exam, and countless others who openly admitted to cutting a few corners.
Online exams are usually timed to help combat cheating by expediting the decision making process for the student. It is assumed that some foundation of knowledge would be required (i.e. completed assignments and reading) to score well on a timed examination. But if the timer is set too long it can easily grant a student ample time to execute a dishonest agenda. Additionally there are no safeguards in place to stop a student from having one of their friends, who happen to be knowledgeable on that particular subject matter, take the exam. Only a students personal code of ethics would stop them. But the real question is why do people cheat?
I’ve heard many passionate arguments as to why students will cut those corners to make the grade. Many rationalize their decision by saying, I’ll never need to know this information in the real world. Prime numbers, Andy Warhol, and conjugating verbs will have nothing to do with what my job consists of some day. Others have told me they’re only taking the class because it’s a core requirement and that it really doesn’t matter much to them. To be honest it is difficult for me to disagree. I’ve worked for some of the biggest companies in the U.S. and have never been asked to solve for x, been quizzed about Andy Warhol’s artistic flare with a Campbell’s soup can, or been handed an essay and asked to conjugate the verbs.
Don’t get me wrong I do not endorse cheating, I simply understand the viewpoint behind why some people do. But earning your degree in this fashion would be no different than going to a Degree Mill and purchasing a piece of paper saying you hold a BA in this or an MBA in that. You will only be cheating yourself today, while setting yourself up for failure tomorrow.
Have you ever cheated on a test – either online or in a classroom? Sound off!
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i’ve cheated but only on hw and the like, never on tests or quizes, others are always wanting to see my papers
of course ive cheated before. always in high school though. we all had crazy ways of cheating and helping eachother. not worth it. never got caught but youve always got that feeling you could be. I never cheated in college, it costs too much money, and its your reputation. if you take your future seriously, you know better.
When it comes to online classes, I honestly don?t think it?s a great method of teaching. Sure, it?s great to be able to go to class while sitting on your comfy couch at home, in your pajamas, eating your snacks, and maybe taking a nap in between, but I?ve always had a problem with the thought of our future generation?s work force ?earning? their degree by cheating their way through college. It is just too easy and tempting to cheat. I was extremely alarmed when I read an advertisement for a nursing degree that you can get online! I don?t know about you, but I would rather see a doctor and/or nurse that earned their medical license in a classroom. However, I did take an online psychology class and I absolutely LOVED it. There was really no way to cheat and I don?t really know how to explain it. They were multiple choice questions but you couldn?t just skim over the bold print in the chapters and find the answers. You really had to read the entire chapter (sometimes twice) to really understand the concept and understand what the answer was and why it was the answer. Of course, I could have sat with other classmates that had their computers and we could have taken it together, but I?m a fan of earning my grades honestly so I chose not to cheat. I finished the class with an honest ?A? and my integrity.
cheating is not helpful to anyone. You dont learn the material and furthermore you deprive yourself of the learning experience
cheating is not good!
I guess my way to passing, especially in my foreign language class. I don’t even understand what the questions are asking me!
I have never cheated. It shows what you haven’t learned at shows your morals
No cheating is not learning. you learn for a life time not for a day. so study to learn not
I’m normally the person others cheat off of.
i try not to cheat, but it’s kind of hard.
I wouldnt cheat but theres a possiblity that there are others out there that may cheat on there tests.
I don’t cheat because I would feel guilty and unworthy.
I have never cheated I feel it is unmoral and in some cases in the same category as lying. I however when aking classes in big lecture halls get very anxious and feel whenever the teacher mentions cheating that they are talking to me but had learned that it was me they were talking to but because it was a warning to cover my tests from the cheaters…..this happened A LOT in my gross anatomy class I had tails of people looking over my shoulder while I was digging and proding around in someone else’s
i totally agree Deanna!!!!
Nope. Why would I want to cheat of other people’s papers when they could be wrong? I am FAR better off using my good ol’ noggin!
It is true that online education is cheaper. However, the same issue always rises about how easy it is to cut corners while learning online. It makes things a lot easier, but if we are not constantly challenged, how do we expect to improve? Besides, traditional education has been around longer than online education and I believe it’s served us well in the past.
Its not good to cheat because that means you do not learn anything new or already learned. Its important to have honestly knowledge than lie. Its also important to have some integrity, that shows of the character and who we are. Karma also will go backfires at cheaters in the end.
nope! actually i wrote a paper in English class about cheating, including statistics and stuff..i think its ridiculous that ppl cheat because they are, in the long run, putting their future in the toilet. thats just my opinion.
I actually have cheated on a test in one of my classes. I learned my lesson though because I messed up and mixed up the answers. I failed that test. Let me just say that was the first and last time I attempt to cheat on a test.
If u cheat ur just cheating urself….if u actually work for something… it would feel so much better when u earn it, rather than cheating ur way thruogh it
I DON’T CHEAT BECAUSE i WOULD NOT WANT TO CHEAT MYSELF
cheating is cheating. don’t we want people to actually learn what thay need to know to succeed in life.
I have always had the temptation of cheating, but I have never gone through with it. I knew that I was better than to take someone elses hard work of studing and use it for my own benefit.it would be my fault for not knowing the material.
i have personally never cheated. but i’ve seen others. but i always tell myself they are going to be the ones struggling when they are on their own in the real world.
I agree with Alexis. There’s no way in the world that most of these people didn’t cheat. You’re cheating now by lying to yourself. You’re cheating yourself from the truth. I admit that I’ve cheated plenty of times but I’m not proud of it. Most of the times I just don’t feel like doing the work.
cheating is wrong. i can honestly say that i’ve cheated and that about 99 out of 100 students have cheated atleast once while attending school. in the long run, it isn’t worth your time.
I can totally see how this could happen. Online classes aren’t the best way to learn for most people. I have to see, hear, feel to learn.
I try to stay cheatfree on every test I take, but on occasion, I can’t help but get so frustrated that I take a little peek at an answer or two.
Like someone above mentioned, by cheating you are simply throwing your money away. Education is supposed to be an investment and if you don’t take the time to study and earn a degree without cheating, I don’t believe you’re getting what you paid for the moment you though cheating was the way to go.
I myself have never cheated, but what the heck are you learning from cheating? Isn’t that the purpose of the class? To LEARN? If you can’t earn the good grade on your own and by using your brain, then you shouldn’t be in school. You’re wasting opportunties to advance in the mind and life.
I try to empasize to my sons that it is so important to do their best and do their own work. I pray they follow this moral code.
I believe you are only hurting yourself when you cheat but everyone has their own morals. i do believe that you learn better by experience and that should be rewarded but these days people have to have an education to set themselves apart.
I’m taking an Anatomy class that’s all lecture. Sometimes the teachers questions for homework don’t quite match what’s in the text book. So if using google to find the answer qualifies as cheating verses using the text book then I guess I’m guilty.
I actually like online courses. I do understanding the cheating side of it all but cheating only hurts yourself. Like commented before, its a disadvantage for you not to grasp the concept. It’s alternative learning but one can’t learn if they cheat.
I’ve made a few cheat sheets because I forgot or didn’t have time to study but never used them out of fear of getting caught or simply feeling guilty.
Sadly, cheating happens in both online courses and in school courses. I do my very best to be honest and not cheat and help others by not allowing them to cheat off of me!
Nope, proud to say that I’ve never cheated!
However, it does happen quite a lot, especially during tests. My question, would it be considered cheating if one saw someone cheating and did not report it?
People who cheat are just setting themselves up for failure. what is a cheater truly learning? to me cheaters are the people that end up working at McDonald’s or some other blue collar job because they never had any ambition or determination to try to learn the information on their own in order to make something out of themselves. I know plenty of people that cheat and all i can do is shake my head at them. it’s a shame that they don’t even try… everyone is smart but not everyone knows or wants to apply themselves…
Lets be honest here! I remember the tests where the answer could be either A or B. They seem so similar, but what one should I pick?? I remeber thinking “Well, i’ll just glance over at my neighbors paper and everything will be gravy, right?! WRONG! It will catch you in the long run. You will either get caught, or get the answer wrong. It’s not smart.
no. theres no reason to cheat. i mean sure i dont always study, but ive got a good eough memory to be capable of not studying and passing perfectly fine. cheating does no one any good.
people would tend to cheat… espicially if no one is around you…
I have never cheated because in the end, when it’s time for you to go on that job site you will not know a thing because of your lack of knowledge and understanding of what lies ahead for you.
I have never cheated on a test before. I think that it is completely wrong to do that and it is the person’s on responsibility for his or her failure.
I have never taken a online course but I classmates that have and I know that a few have cut corners for those courses. They openly admit to it.
It is all about the honor system when someone is taking an online class. Students that cheap their way to get a good grade wont learn anything.
I’m currently taking an online english course, and our teacher assigns work based off of articles from journals and library books. Rarely, had I used the internet in that class, I think teachers needs to circumvent ways that students could potentially cheat by using mechanisms such as these.
Yes. Not much, but still. I think that some of us are too pressured to make the grade that the code of ethics tends to break. Today, grades (etc) are stressed more than knowledge is.
yeah and i felt really bad afterwards
online courses do have alot of pros and cons…but hey thats life!
haha…this is my first time i doing it…
it is so great…because i wish i can win some scholarship so that i go to college easily and pay for my book…
i beieve that it is pointless to cheat when your cheating no one but your education
i believe is not the most exceptional alternative to take online courses since some students might taking the courses could be cheating when it is time to take a test.
I have never cheated or let anybody cheat off me. Never really had to think about it, because I studied a lot, too much even.
I disagree.
I agree what JB said, you know the material one minute and you’ll forget it the next. . . but other from that I do it rarely
I have cheated before. honestly most ppl have. i mean there is no way that all these ppl on here that say they have never cheated really havent.
come on everyone has borrowed someones home wk once or twice.
Are you kidding me? I have been in the business world for 18 years, and HAVE had to solve for x when analyzing a problem for a customer. I have had to use percentages to calculate profit margin. You need to know how to properly write an essay in order to submit your analysis of a problem to an important person: YOUR BOSS. Do you think you are going to impress your boss by not knowing how to spell, using improper grammer, and not knowing the basics of composing a paragraph? You are only making yourself look like an IDIOT in your future workplace if you cheat!!!!!
this is so true. i believe that if you dont go to a public school and attend an online school it is just the same as cheating through school.
Okay, I won’t lie I have cheated in high school! but in college its much more important to do your own work because this is going to be your LIFE and this is your career.
Once you graduate your on to the real world! Dealing with real people in the field you choose! its best to be honets with your self!
I would say that online course are not good if you want to obtain your degree for the simple fact that you arent learning anything and its not honest work. Nothing in life is easy, thats why you have to work a strive hard for it which makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something.
I consider cheating in school to be like throwing your money away on a bad investment! In the beginning you may think you got over – but in the long run – you cheated yourself out of information that you paid for and never received because you didn’t deposit it to your memory bank!
i think cheating is bad and i know you cant get through life by cheating and it is very unfair to the people that you would cheat off because they did all of the work and you didnt put any effort into it
You don’t have to be taking a course online to cheat.
I guess it all depends if the student has all online classes or not. We are trying to say that people who earn an online degree might be cheating. However, there are many other students who decide to take some online classes online and the rest as lecture. I know that they also have the opportunity to cheat if they want to, but we have to recognize that their degree was not completely online.
I’m in school now, and there are kids that i sit next to that do cheat, and honestly sometimes it is tempting but at the same time i would only be cheating myself. If you cheat you’ll never know what you still need to help on and what you actually do know.
whoa
I cheating isn’t the way to go because you’re only cheating yourself
I’d like to say that I’ve never cheated on a test… but my god Anatomy was way hard (lol).
I used to cheat in middle school like copy homework but I have never cheated on a test or in high school. We had a speaker come in and challenge us during the first week of my freshman year and he really impacted my life. It feels good to earn a grade by yourself.
i am more of the person that people have cheated on…i sometimes feel sorry for the one’s who aren’t very fortunate to grasp information.
I have before have never considered doing it again.
I HAVE SOMEONE WATCHING ME WHEN I TAKE TESTS SO IT WOULDN’T BE A GOOD IDEA TO EVEN TRY AND CHEAT
Well i kno ppl who have done both. It doesnt help andone out but no matter what ppl are going to cheat. Thier is always a way they are going to find a way.
No, I’ve never cheated. I’ve always felt that, while it would seem to be a way to cheat the “system”, I would really only be cheating myself. I like to challenge myself too much, I guess.
No, I am a Christian and how could I ever justify cheating. I have known kids that did with different reactions. One was guilt ridden and one just didn’t care. This was about 4 years ago and that one who didn’t care has flunked out of college and is not far from being totally out of control in every area of his life. Did cheating cause it. Not intirely but it may have been to tiny seed that helped it along. This may not be everyones fate but it starts a pattern for life.
I failed a course this year and will have to take it over because of an essay. I could have bought one and probably passed because this is a nessary course but not my major. I took the F even though it looks bad on my transcrip. I could have dropped the course and avoided that but that is also just a form of cheating, myself, even though it is a common practice in college and is condoned by colleges.
I prayed about it and decided that I had failed the coursebecause of my own poor choices and yes I will have to take it again as much as I hate it but I feel it would make me a better person in the future. I am not saying everyone should do this. Everyone has their own convictions of how they have to live their lives but this is just how I have to live mine. Cheating is wrong and how it is handled is the choice by the individual. They will face hard choices every day in their future and how they deal with the the bad ones effects the future of that person.
i have a special lab to go to to take tests and it is impossible to cheat, they monitor your every move and click of the computer
I have never cheated, because I do my studies online from home, if I am unsure about an answer I would check the correct answer, this might also consider cheating.
I have cheated in Middle school but felt so terrible afterwards that I never attempted it again.
Cheating was always an issue. Many people cheat because of the pressure they get or other factors. I try not to let other people cheat off of my papers, but it is good to help each other out by asking them the correct questions that lead them to the answers.
I’ve cheated before, but it was from lack of confidence. I obviously knew the material, but always had a cheat sheet ready in case I didn’t (which was rare, despite how little I studied.)
No. It’s no accomplishment to get through school by cheating, though I know many who have. Once you get in the real world of a job, you can’t get by with cheating. You have to know what you’re doing. Imagine a doctor operating on you who got his degree by cheating. Scary thought!
Well i’ve let people cheat off my paper. I consider that cheating.
Noooo. I have cheated before, but never in school. I didn’t ever have to. I was the one that others tried to cheat off of.
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