I’ve never been more interested in the results of anonymous survey. Last week I asked my students to tell me all about their academic shenanigans this past school year. I used the word “shenanigans” because it has gentler connotations than “cheating” or “dishonesty,” both words that probably describe the behavior with better accuracy.   

I wasn’t questioning whether or not it happened. It seems pretty self-evident that with most students working from home there would be a huge amount in the sort of academic dishonesty spelled out in policy 5030.

For English class we used Turnitin for all summative assignments. We also got rid of summative multiple choice by the first quarter, and implemented several other strategies to ensure a certain degree of accountability. But when the vast majority of students never even set foot in your classroom all year, it’s impossible to even know who created the work that is being turned in, and how much has been completely without outside assistance. 

I wasn’t very stressed about it though. We were trained on the fly to teach online under extraordinary circumstances, and students were expected to learn under the same conditions. A lot happened along the way. So I wasn’t interested in a simply binary of whether or not the student cheated. What I wanted was 1) notable stories about cheating, stories that went beyond just having notes out or using quizlet 2) ways students were able to cheat in my class and beat Turnitin and 3) students’ opinions on how this cheating affected their perception of the overall value of the online and hybrid school experience.   

Of my 52 Lang students asked to take the survey, 45 completed it, which seems to indicate they trusted my disclaimer that my interest in this topic was philosophical.

The answers for the first set of questions were not terribly revealing. No responses touched on ways to game the Turnitin filters. A few noted ways that students had figured out to buy extra time on the multiple choice feature on Schoology. I never had to deal with this in my classes, as all of our multiple choice was formative. Some noted the process of intentionally submitting corrupted files in order to buy more time on an assignment (which also seemed a little silly given that there was no penalty for late work this year unless it was submitted after the summative assessment in which the skills were assessed, which is almost impossible to define in a skills-based class like Lang where the skills are constantly being reviewed and refined).

The student opinions were much more interesting.

I should have asked them to explain their response to this question, but I didn’t. However, in our class discussion after the survey, a lot of students voiced a stance of “I can only control what I do and I don’t worry about what others are or aren’t doing to get their grade.” I salute those students’ maturity, and I empathize with the 53.8% who felt their grade was cheapened by the cheating.

I expected a stronger majority to be in favor of grades. Those who were in favor of a pass/fail system cited the crazy circumstances as well as the unmonitored environment.

I feel like I would have learned a lot more instead of just memorizing it for a test. With all the craziness of what happened at school, at home, and in our country it makes no sense for it to be a normal year with grades.

i think that given the circumstances of this year, letter grades put more pressure on students who were already struggling and having a pass/fail system would have been a more understadning way to go through school this year

all grades are inaccurate but im not complaining too much because I did well this year

I feel like nobody really earned their grades, so I think pass fail would have been much better for integrity purposes. IF it was pass fail, I don’t think there would be as much pressure to cheat.

Those who viewed the experience as easier generally cited their own self-control and ability to control their environment. A few also said the ability to cheat made it easier. Duh.

Most, though, said the online experience was a total drag.

Ironically, I feel like only school was harder due to the surronding factors. While the work may have been easier, it was a lot harder to focus.

Personally, it was harder for me to find the motivation to do work at home when it was so easy to get distracted. I also think that it was hard to get the necessary help from my teachers sometimes when in the online setting.

It’s so much harder to focus when you are alone in your room with just your phone versus being surrounded by friends and classmates

I had no motivation to give any effort at all this school year, it was easily the most miserable year of school I have had to attend. This greatly hindered my own performance.

I also asked a few questions that I had been curious about all year.

I gave a final space at the end for students to share any other thoughts with me. The responses ranged from non-sequiturs to melancholy reflections on a really rough year.

in all honesty, i’d be all for camera and mic required classes. i personally like it but it sucks when your teacher points it out or if you’re the only one with a camera on

this doesnt really count as cheating but it still feels slightly wrong. Many juniors have found out their ranking by clicking “inspect” on their GPA in phoenix so now all of us know as opposed to finding out in august.

thank you for a great year

besides the impacts of being isolated during online school from the pandemic on my mental health, the [negative] academic effects are definitely huge as well. 

I realized that what I was most excited for (info on cheating) was actually the least revelatory part of the survey. Behind the wall of anonymity, without the risk of losing face with me or their peers, they shared some poignant and emotionally vulnerable observations about the past ten months. I should also note that in each of my classes we had a twenty-thirty minute discussion about the responses after the survey, where I displayed the results to the class and looked at them in real time. Some students were more than happy to claim responses as their own and unmute to expand on ideas they expressed (especially if the responses didn’t have to do with cheating). Even if the majority of students stayed silent, as usual, it made for a productive discussion.

In the responses many expressed disappointment at themselves for cheating in the first place, and wondered if they’d lost key learning skills. While I’m still agnostic about the value of assigning letter grades this school year, the frank responses to the survey helped me develop greater empathy for the mental stress many students have dealt with since March 2020. Some have been dealing with it even before that. Like cheating, it hung in the periphery of every class, always present but rarely acknowledged.

this year was really bad. I’m literally holding on to the fact that it won’t suck next year.