How to Catch Cheaters With Algorithms
In today's high-tech world, computers can analyze data in ways that used to be unimaginable. For example, statisticians have developed methods for catching teachers who feed their students answers to standardized tests. The key is to set up a "reasonable" display of identical answers within a given test that would not happen "naturally." Here are some guidelines on how to set up an analysis that will reveal who is cheating.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Pick your data set. This works best for large groups, cases where you suspect that an entire class has the same copied answers. You'll be picking through all of the data, looking for specific similarities. You can use the same idea to compare only two students, but it's usually easier just to do this analysis by hand.
-
2
Now, construct your algorithm: for i = 1 to (end of test), you'll want to compare the first student's answer for # i to the second student's answer for # i, and so on.
-
-
3
Set up your "trapping" code. If student 1(i) = student 2(i), save the resulting identical answers to a text file.
-
4
Get the program to return "blocks" of identical answers. This is your key to discovering possible cheating activity.
-
5
Now look at the results. Finding examples of where a long string was answered identically by many students is evidence. Finding examples of where wrong and right answers were identical also indicates that cheating occurred.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Usually, your results will not be "hard" evidence of cheating. The use of algorithms to detect human intent is still in its infancy, and not reliable. The best use of analysis programs is to "clue in" people on possible cheating activity. Whoever is doing the research would need to follow up with some kind of next step to target cheaters.
