After creating assignments and quizzes for my course for undergrad students, I found out several of my course material (e.g., assignments solutions) on websites like Chegg and Course Hero. Although you can open an investigation to know which student downloaded the materials, the process to remove the material is lengthy. I wonder how are other instructors dealing with this very upsetting reality?
Patricia Cam , I considered myself good at solving this problem when I was a full professor of business/supply chain. I included a few of my published studies showing some of my assessment methods if case you are interested. It looks like you are testing your students with qualitative approaches, essays? My approach was to use mostly tests for 80-90% of the grade when possible. WHen I had to use qualitative approaches, such as student projects or reports, I would control the format, develop a grading rubric and share that with students to force them to use my preferred outline (that way I could find what they should be writing about and learning!). THen I always required my students to pick a unique personal topic, maybe a job situation, media topic, or whatever. The key is to have them POST that topic and tell them it MUST be unique from all students. It worked for me as I had smaller classes like 20-50 students so they used the ongoing post list to make sure their topic was unique. In one course Project Management I required students to post their project title and I pretending to be the sponsor had to approve before they could start their project (as to simulate the real business world). These strategies work well. A student posts their topic focus lets say in a few days or a week, then as they work on the assignment, lets say over 1-4 weeks, they cannot easily cut-paste what they find on the Internet (well unless they think proactively - if the Internet topic fits their topic - and most students dont). Actually many will still paraphrase what they read on the Internet rather than read their textbooks but I can accept that if they are learning - the bottom goal is are they really learning? I hope this helps>?? _-Ken
Che, F. N., Strang, K. D., & Vajjhala, N. R. (2021). Using experiential learning to improve student attitude and learning quality in software engineering education. International Journal of Innovative Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 2(1), 16-38. doi:10.4018/IJITLHE.20210101.oa20210102 https://www.igi-global.com/article/using-experiential-learning-to-improve-student-attitude-and-learning-quality-in-software-engineering-education/20273133
Strang, K. D., & Vajjhala, N. R. (2017). Student resistance to a mandatory learning management system in online supply chain courses. Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, 29(3), 49-67. doi:10.4018/JOEUC.2017070103 Retrieved from https://www.igi-global.com/article/student-resistance-to-a-mandatory-learning-management-system-in-online-supply-chain-courses/2017181676
Strang, K. D. (2013). Cooperative learning in graduate student projects: Comparing synchronous versus asynchronous collaboration. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 24(4), 447-464. http://www.editlib.org/j/JILR/v/424/n/444
Strang, K. D. (2011). How can discussion questions be effective in online MBA courses? International Journal of Information & Learning Technology in Campus-Wide Information Systems, 28(2), 80-92. doi:10.1108/10650741111117789
If the classroom transaction is good, a student will not incline towards such websites to get answers. My solution to this problem would be:
1. Engage the class more with examples
2. Discuss some probable questions and extract answers from them in the class.
3. Instead of question and answer assignments, give higher order questions and critical analysis. These will be rarely found on web and also engages students.
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