150 University of Missouri students caught cheating on exams held online amid COVID-19
While the University of Missouri moved classes online to slow the spread of COVID-19, about 150 students were caught using the opportunity to cheat on their exams.
MU has uncovered three separate cheating instances — one in the spring shortly after all classes went online, and two others in the last few weeks, when the school has offered a mix of in-person and online classes.
“Each of these instances occurred during large lecture classes” held online, said Liz McCune, an MU spokeswoman. Students created a group chat in the GroupMe app to share the answers to exam questions. GroupMe is a free private chat room with no limit on the number of people who can participate either by phone or computer. Each of the cheating incidents involved roughly 50 students.
“The size of these incidents is unusually large,” McCune said.
The culprits were reported by fellow students. Test answers were being shared “in a way that would have been easy to observe had they been in a traditional classroom setting,” McCune said.
“The pivot to more online classes created more opportunity for academic dishonesty, and we are dealing with that head on,” McCune said. “The vast majority of our students are doing the right thing. But unfortunately some students are cutting corners. Ultimately these students are just cheating themselves out of the things they could be learning.”
They are being reviewed by the university Office of Academic Integrity. Students who admit to cheating could face discipline ranging from a zero on the test, a grade reduction or expulsion for violating university rules on academic honesty.
Cases of students who do not admit to cheating could be forwarded to a student conduct committee, which would recommend a sanction that is not subject to appeal.
Nationwide, cheating at colleges has increased since the coronavirus forced classes to go online. Students, in notable numbers, at Georgia Tech, Boston University and Purdue have reportedly been caught cheating on online exams according to news and university reports.
At North Carolina State, more than 200 of the 800 students in a single Statistics 311 class were referred for disciplinary action for cheating, according to a Washington Post report. It said that 93% of instructors think students are more likely to cheat online than in person, according to a survey conducted in May by the publishing and digital education company Wiley.
University of Kansas officials did not respond to The Star’s questions about whether cheating is up.
Hundreds of MU students are already in trouble for violating campus COVID-19 precautions. About 330 students have been put under review for breaking safety rules, and they face penalties as stiff as a semester-long suspension.
University officials said holding students to a promise to abide by safety rules — wear masks, avoid large groups and wash hands frequently — is working to keep infections low.
University officials boast COVID-19 case numbers there are trending down.
“MU’s active case load is down 91.5% since Sept. 5, when it peaked at 683 active cases,” said Christian Basi, university spokesman.
On Aug. 24, when Mizzou started classes, the university reported 159 cases. Since then MU has had 1,724 cases, 1,666 have recovered and no students have been hospitalized. On Monday the university had 58 active cases among students.
But only students who exhibit symptoms are tested, so, some observers say, there is no way to know the true number of cases at MU.
