High-Tech Crib Notes
The University of Maryland is investigating 12 students for allegedly using the "text messaging" functions on their cell phones or pagers to access correct answers during fall exams.
The students are accused of receiving silent messages from friends who had access to answer keys for the tests, campus officials said Friday.
It is the latest conflict in the continuing struggle between technology and academic integrity. Though quick to jump on the Web and embrace the laptop, schools across the country have been confronted with the problem of students using the same tools to plagiarize essays from the Internet.
Maryland faculty members were shocked a few years ago to discover that some students were using the same high-end calculators required for many advanced math tests to retrieve stored information during exams.
But the use of cell phones "was a new one for us," said John Zacker, the university's director of student discipline. Zacker would not say which professors or departments had reported the recent accusations or whether all 12 cases came from the same course.
The accusations prompted university administrators to send a memo to faculty members Friday advising them to monitor the use of cell phones and other electronic devices during exams.
The incident highlights an apparent generation gap in technology savvy on campus. While students expressed little surprise that cell phones could be used for illicit purposes, Zacker said it hadn't occurred to most faculty.
Zacker said the accused students are suspected of exploiting a common practice at College Park, in which professors post answer keys outside their offices after giving an exam so that students can immediately calculate how they did.
Some professors, he said, have gotten in the habit of posting the keys while students are still taking the exam, assured students would not be able to see the answers until they had turned in their tests.
It is unclear exactly how the accused students may have cheated, Zacker said. But preliminary investigations suggest that they may have arranged to have friends outside the classroom consult the keys and call in the answers.
Some professors had posted answer keys on their Web sites, and officials believe that students may have used cell phones equipped with Web browsers to look up the answers themselves while still in the exam room.
The memo, from Provost William W. Destler, advised faculty not to post answer keys until well after an exam is completed.
Maryland has worked to bolster a culture of academic integrity in recent years, including the institution of a new honor pledge that students are urged to sign on their work. The pledge says, "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this examination." It is printed on most tests and in the "blue books" used for essay exams.
First-time offenders usually receive a failing grade for the course with a notation on their transcripts indicating that cheating was involved. Additional offenses can result suspension or expulsion.