Exam questions style, lab time utilization, and cheating habits in the College of Computer Science and Engineering

Report

Submitted to the Deanship of CCSE, King Fahd University

DATE: April 20, 2009

Cheating habits among students

Students were asked to give a number between 0 and 100 as the percentage of cheating instances in exams and quizzes, coop and senior design reports, course projects, and homework assignments. The experiences of students from their cheater friends were different, but all of them agree that homework assignments score the maximum in cheating, and the least would be coop and senior design reports.

In exams and quizzes, the expectation is that between 0 and 10% of students cheat, based on the experience of the students. This percentage is the most likely answer among the students.

In coop and senior design reports, students say any where between 0% to 5% of students cheat. Few students say that the percent of cheater students can be up to 25%.

Based on the opinion of students, more than 50% of the students cheat in their course projects. The highest percentage is 80% and the lowest percentage is 20%.

On assignments, more than 60% of students cheat, and the percentage can be close to 100% in some cases.

Conduct of cheating

Cheater students use various ways for cheating, the following famous ways mentioned by the students:

Students take pictures of notes, homework solution, and the book using their mobiles and open them during the exam
When formula sheets are allowed, students add more than the formulas, such as definitions, procedures, examples, etc
Students write on the calculator, especially inside of the cover
Students see the exam paper of the student neighbor during the exam
Students write definitions and formulas on the exam table or chair
Students change the exam paper with another student and ask him to solve a specific question
When specific tables are required and instructors allow the use of the book for these tables, students open the inside of the book
In large sections, a student might replace another in the exam

Reasons for cheating

Students say that students cheat for many reasons, such as

Students might have more than one exam in one day
Students cheat if the material of the exam is too long
Students cheat more when the exam is mostly definitions
Lenient instructors encourage students to cheat
Students cheat when the room is small
Some students cheat only because cheating is only a habit
Low performance students rely on cheating either to raise their grade, at least pass the course, or avoid dismissal
Some students cheat only because they do not know the consequences when they are caught cheating, so they do not take it seriously
Students cheat if their friends are going to cheat

Actions to reduce cheating

The following actions are suggested by the students:

Exams should be better coordinated so students must not have more than one exam in one day
Instructors should apply rules relevant to cheating, i.e. dismissal
Instructors should change forms of exam frequently
Exam should be attended by more then one person
Students should be assigned random seats in the exam
Students should be provided with the essential formulas
A class should have small number of students
Exams should not carry a weight in the final grade
When special tables are required in the exam, students should have only a limited time to open the book
Students should be asked to write their names on the exam paper before they can start
Students should be separated from their friends in the exam
Students should not use or open their mobile phones during the exam

Lab time utilization

Labs are used to perform experiments to explain to students the concepts of lectures or to show how a software or equipment is used to do a certain task. Lab instructors have indicated that the duration of the lab is adequate to perform the tasks of the lab. Extreme cases can happen. In some past semesters, certain labs had to be broken into two labs because the numbers of students were so large that it would not be possible to perform the lab task within the lab time.

Lab instructors allow students to stay beyond the lab time to complete experiments and submit the lab report the following lab. Some labs are left open for students 24 hours and on weekends if required.

Style of exam questions

Exam questions are either of two types: calculations based or definition based. Exams might have a combination of these two types. The practice in the CCSE college is that calculations based questions are written in two parts; the first part is a statement of the given parameters of the problem, and the second part is on what is required to calculate. Calculations based questions are not usually given as multiple choice questions. Most of the courses provide questions based on calculations.

Definition based questions can be stated in the form of “define …” or “choose from the following that best suit …”. These kinds of questions are found in introductory courses and courses that have a small math content, such as courses that are based on human behavior sciences. Exams with definition questions are limited in number.