Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Iowa State U.: Cheaters take advantage of messaging technology

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 09:14:02 -0500

Iowa State U.: Cheaters take advantage of messaging technology

March 11, 2003 3:32pm

U-WIRE-03/10/2003-Iowa State U.: Cheaters take advantage of messaging technology © 2002
Iowa State Daily Via U-WIRE

By William Dillon, Iowa State Daily (Iowa State U.)

AMES, Iowa -- Short Message Service on cellular phones, widely known as text messaging,
has become another popular
convenience of our technological age.

Text messaging has also become a way for college students to cheat.

Through Short Message Service, cellular phone users are able to send and receive text
messages to and from their cellular
phones. Messages are directly delivered to the phone similar to the way e-mail is sent and
received.

Messages can usually run 140 to 160 characters long, except for Nextel subscribers, who
are able to send messages up to
500 characters long.

Nine students from the University of Maryland have admitted to cheating by using their
cell phones to receive text messaged
answers during an accounting exam last December, according to University of Maryland's
student newspaper, The
Diamondback.

The students are said to have received the answer key in a text message during the exam
from their friends outside the class.
The answer key had been posted on the Internet by the professor once the exam had started.
Suspicious that something like
that was going on, the professor set up a ploy to catch the students who were receiving
the answers by way of their cell
phones.

The answer key posted on the Internet was fake, containing 22 wrong answers to the 30
question exam. The key was then
checked against the students' exams to see which students followed the fake answer key.

In a similar case, Hitotsubashi University in Japan failed 26 students last December for
using their cell phones to receive exam
answers, according to The Associated Press.

Bethany Schuttinga, Iowa State University assistant dean of students, said no cases
regarding text message cheating at Iowa
State have been brought up to her to this point.

"That doesn't mean that [text message cheating] is not going on," she said. "We might just
not be catching it."

Schuttinga said there is no ban on having text messages or cell phones in the classroom,
but faculty members are able to
individually enforce the ban in their classes.

Grace Weigel, head of Judicial Affairs, could not be reached for comment.

Curtis Eckerman, lecturer in zoology and genetics, said he has not noticed a problem with
text message cheating in his large
Zoology 155, Basic Human Physiology and Anatomy, lecture.

"In Zoology 155 I have about 400 students, so I employ three or four lab [teaching
assistants] to assist me in proctoring the
test," he said in an e-mail. "This cuts down on the amount of attempted cheating quite a
bit."

Thomas Hill, vice president for Student Affairs, said he was unaware of this new advance
in cheating.

"We'll have to identify it as it surfaces," he said. "[Students] are using [technology]
and using it well."

Several professors at Iowa State said they think it would be hard not to notice text
message cheating in their classrooms.

Cinzia Cervato, assistant professor in geological and atmospheric sciences, said text
message cheating would be both
time-consuming and noticeable.

"I usually patrol the auditorium together with one or two other TAs and I think that I
would see it if somebody would write a
message on their cell phone," she said in an e-mail.

Jackie Blount, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, said she has been aware
of this problem and said she does
not believe text messaging is always obvious to the instructor. "Text systems are very
easy to conceal," she said. "It would be
difficult to catch."

Blount said she believes the coming technology will increase cheating.

"There are [a few] students who will always look for a way to cheat," she said.

Anthony Townsend, associate professor of logistics operations and management information
systems, said he doesn't believe
cheating is worth the effort.

"Really dedicated cheaters will succeed at beating a test or two," he said. "But they
haven't learned the material and they've
wasted their tuition and time."

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