Phones, web help students cheat

Smartphones and the internet have ushered today's students into a new realm of cheating on schoolwork, but teachers can use the tech upgrades to their advantage as well.

In Hugh Curnutt's classes at Montclair State University, his students are met with a "no phone" policy. It's harder for students to cheat on tests, he said, when the devices aren't allowed in the first place.

Folded pieces of paper, better known as cheat sheets, have been replaced by four-inch screens that can be found in almost every student's pocket or bag, if not their hands.

"Cheating and plagiarism have always been an issue," said Curnutt, an associate professor with the school of communication and media. "What's different now is just how easy it is."

He manages to limit cheating as well through asking exam questions that can't be easily researched on Wikipedia or Google. For example, students wouldn't be asked when the printing press was invented. The question would focus more on the significance of the invention and what its impact is on media today.

The bigger issue, specifically at the college level, is students who plagiarize when writing an essay at home or in the dorm. Some students truly don't know the difference between stealing someone's work and using it correctly, but others know all too well that what they're doing is wrong; they just hope they don't get caught.

"Sometimes they even don't go through the trouble of changing the font, so it's obvious that something is going on," Curnutt said of his students.

Students can easily find pre-written papers online. Luckily for teachers and professors, though, software is available to match students' work with documents on the web.

When Curnutt suspects an essay isn't the product of the student who handed it in, he simply enters a sentence or two into Google to see if there's a match.

Teachers can also help themselves by assigning essay topics that are unique; students are more likely to find what they need online when the same subject is discussed everywhere year after year.