New Technology Designed to Check Authenticity of Student Work

As the popularity in online courses continues, one developing concern has been ensuring the authenticity of a particular student’s work.

Online courses are becoming the choice of the non-traditional student because of the flexibility that such courses offer. The fact that there aren’t any trips to a classroom nor a firm schedule to keep makes online programming the choice of those seeking to earn a degree while still working and/or raising a family.

The developing concern for schools centers on how to prevent cheating. Because most online programs do not provide direct oversight of students as they do their work, most forgo any form of testing. However, yet another similar issue is a student submitting work under their name yet the work has been created by someone else.

The advent of some very tiny cameras and highly capable software could make student monitoring possible even for online coursework. Requiring students to submit their work from a specific computer or a computer with certain specific attributes could well be in the offing at many schools in the near future.

One school, Troy University in Alabama is implementing the technology. The school will use a small device that will lock down a computer when a student logs on to take a test or to write a paper that demonstrates course knowledge. The locked computer would prevent a student from searching the Internet for materials. Furthermore, the device also includes a fingerprint authentication aspect that will ensure the person at the computer is actually the student that the person claims to be.

Added to that concept is a small Web camera and microphone. The new camera actually points at reflective ball that allows for a 360-degree image of the room while the microphone records any communications going on with the student verbally.

Certainly Troy will not be the only academic institution to utilize the technology.

Such security devices should prove very enticing for the online testing industry, especially the SAT and GMAT should it take its standardized testing completely online. In addition, it could just be possible that students signing up for online learning programs could be required to add such a security package to their home computer.

Clearly, that might be more intrusive than the public would stand for but ensuring the authenticity of student work and ultimately that a student is deserving of a diploma is critical. The latest technological advances surely create some interesting options for online universities to consider.