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Could tech prevent rampant international admissions cheating?

A program used by Chinese students, owned by test giant ACT, and recognized by admissions offices at many U.S. institutions has been found by Reuters [1] to encourage cheating among its students. ACT says a computerized version of the test could help. But is there more that can be done; specifically, by more sophisticated technology-based strategies?

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(Next page: More on the GAC in China; international admissions cheating habits; how tech could help)

How the Program Works

According to Reuters, the sell on the GAC for Chinese students is strong: Take English-language courses in a program recognized by admissions offices at more than 60 colleges in the United States – including state universities in New York, Michigan, Iowa and Missouri—and prepare for the ACT, one of the US’ most popular college entrance exams. The curriculum at GAC centers is designed to teach non-native English speakers reading, writing and other skills for college, notes Reuters. The program has about 5,000 students in 11 countries at 197 centers, with 75 percent of the centers located in mainland China. The vast majority of GAC students take the ACT, which US institutions use to assess applicants.

However, Reuters found that at three different GAC centers, school officials and proctors ignored and were sometimes complicit in student cheating on the ACT, according to seven students interviewed by Reuters.

The GAC program, which can cost students $10,000 a year or more, has emerged as one of many avenues in Asia used to exploit weaknesses in the U.S. college admissions process. In March, Reuters reported that test-prep operations in East Asia [3] were taking advantage of security flaws in the SAT, which – like the ACT – reuses exams. Those operations harvest items from past exams [4], enabling students to practice on questions they may see on test day. Reuters also found companies in China that fabricate entire college applications [5] for students seeking to study in America. Some companies even offer to do coursework for students attending U.S. colleges.

What Can Be Done?

According to Reuters, one student who had obtained a GAC, and now attends the University of California, Los Angeles, said a GAC administrator in China let him practice answering almost half the questions that would appear on the actual ACT about a week before the exam was given. Another student, now at a major university in the Midwest, said his Chinese center provided students with two articles that appeared on an ACT he later took there. “Eight teachers or administrators who have worked at seven different Chinese GAC centers described cheating in program courses,” noted Reuters. “Some said it was widespread. They said students turned in assignments that were plagiarized. At two different centers, former teachers said, officials encouraged them to give students exam questions and sometimes even answers in advance to ensure that they passed.” The article goes on to mention many more instances of international admissions cheating.

ACT’s head of test security, Rachel Schoenig, told Reuters that the organization had cancelled suspicious ACT scores of GAC students, and has taken many steps in security to address the GAC activities, such as shipping the ACT in lock boxes to some overseas test centers. This month, ACT Inc. announced that, to combat cheating, it planned to introduce a computerized version of the ACT for overseas test-takers in the fall of 2017.

Like other standardized testing companies, ACT Inc is battling an “emerging trend of organized fraud rings … who, for a lot of money, a lot of their own personal gain, are seeking to undermine the system for honest test-takers,” Schoenig said in the article.

eCampus News has been reporting on the rise of student online cheating since 2013, when online learning and digital textbooks began to take hold in colleges and universities across the country. In order to combat student online cheating, college and university faculty, often with the help of the campus IT department, began implementing tech-based solutions [6] to curb these actions; including: keystroke monitoring software, creating multiple exam forms online, browser lockdown solutions, and authentication of test takers using biometrics.

Recently, researchers from the University of California at Riverside and zyBooks found that most college students make a legitimate attempt to answer questions in homework assignments, even when a short-cut to the answer is available to them through the click of a button—but the integrity may be dependent on “…the right interactive material…” said Dr. Alex Edgcomb, University of California at Riverside research specialist, zyBooks senior software engineer, and co-author of the study, in a statement. According to the researchers, both teaching style and online material design play a large part in deterring student cheating.

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