On The National, Peter Mansbridge reported the results of a survey on cheating in Canadian universities. Reference was made to data gathered from over 40 universities about the number of students found guilty of cheating. The main point made was that universities are not doing enough to curb the “rampant” cheating that is taking place. The evidence for this level of cheating came from other surveys that ask students if they have ever cheated. The percentages are high, but there was no clarity on the frequency of the crime or whether it was committed in 4th grade or in university.
The news report emphasized that universities are not doing enough to curb cheating. Karen Pauls remarked that “There is no evidence that the universities are finding a formula to prevent it”. Maybe she didn’t listen to the 45 minute interview I gave the CBC, of which they selected only a few seconds of remarks.
I am not objecting to my limited air time so much as to the leaving out the key point that McGill is the only university in the world that has Senate-mandated regulations for multiple-choice tests requiring scrambled exam questions. This has been the case for almost 24 years and has reduced this significant form of exam-copying to almost zero from a scientifically demonstrated 3-6% per large class before the 1990 regulations. Other universities were urged during this interview to get the lead out and help level the playing field for the students and faculty by such measures. The CBC fully blew it and provided a highly slanted report that seemed to justify the time put in to acquire the information but ignored the last 24 years of a very clean slate for this form of examination at McGill.
I have colleagues across the country who have either hoped for or tried to enable their own universities to establish clear rules about conducting exams (assigned seating and scrambled exams) but have not been successful. The CBC had the right idea to tackle this issue but missed the key point that fully demonstrated techniques to improve the situation exist and are widely implemented at McGill.
