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Why is copying content easy from display from courses hosted on coursesite.com
I conduct courses whose exams/ quizzes I do not supervise. I want all enrollees to try the quizzes on-line. (The quizzes are essentially surveys now and not graded, but I would like to track completion at least in future when I can handle Coursesites better). To force them to practice as many times they need but not download questions and share with those do not attempt I moved online for the first time via a free site.
Instead of attempting it on-line, the participant's have designated 1-2 among them to engage with the coursesite. It is only taking some time as one-by-one the questions reveal themselves (since I opted for it). But at end of an attempt when the answers are shown all questions and answers are shown together. So the designated 1-2 persons skip to the end and paste this entire question/ answer displayed at one go and paste in word file and circulate that file to all in printable/ searchable format. This is in this case is a means to help senior attendees to mug the answers for specific questions rather than try it independently. But in other settings it can be handed to "junior" batches in advance of course. If this is feasible, at the other extreme chances are there of misuse when loaded on mobile devices as searchable text and lax invigilation.
Why does the cursor work across the screen (enabling selection of entire text) – they all need only to click options. There are websites that restrict ability to copy and paste text. Perhaps screenshots are a work round even then but it is not normally providing content as searchable text thus restricting misuse.
Assuming you can completely prevent the copy and paste feature, what prevents the students from simply taking pictures of the screen with their phones to accomplish the same thing?
What prevents students from simply remembering the questions then writing them down on paper after they leave the exam so they can share the questions with others? They can even do that with paper exams.
The problem isn't with students copying the questions. The problem is with reusing the same exam year after year which makes it possible for those old questions to be useful to students.
You need new questions for each student, or new questions for each class. For example, by selecting your set of questions randomly from a large question pool. Then change 10% of those pool questions each year so there are always new questions nobody has ever seen before.
This is not a technology issue so technology cannot solve it. Students can remember and share questions no matter how the questions are presented. The better solution is to make it so it doesn't matter by always changing the questions.
- Kevin Lowey