Online tests may facilitate cheating

It's supposed to be just you and the computer -- not you, the Spanish dictionary, the online translator and your fluent Latino roommate.

But sometimes, when sitting face-to-face with a computer screen for a language placement test, students feel the rules just fade away.

Most language departments -- including Spanish and French -- utilize an online evaluation that takes roughly 20 minutes and can be accessed by any Internet-ready computer. Based on their score, students are placed in one of four classes ranging from 110 to 140 -- 140 being the final class required to pass the College's language requirement.

This kind of anonymity begs the question: If there is nothing to stop students from cheating, will they be honest?

College sophomore Megan Carlin says she knows many people who have cheated on their exam.

"Most people use those online translation Web sites," Carlin said. "While they're doing the test online, they will paste the question into the online translator and then answer it."

Because of the speed at which Web sites provide translations, it is basically impossible for cheating to be apparent, Carlin said.

Even Lesley Lundeen, the undergraduate coordinator for the Department of Romance Languages, said that the format of the exam may invite cheating.

"At first glance, with this 20-minute online test, it seems that it could be ripe for cheating," she said.

But she said she believes that most students are honest when it comes to their test, although she added that there is no real way to tell if a student is using outside resources to complete the test.

"There is no way that we can determine [if a student cheated], but we can determine if there is something clearly wrong," Lundeen said.

Lundeen personally has the ability to examine data from students' tests. "I can see how long [the test] took, how many questions they answered" correctly or incorrectly or left blank, Lundeen said.

"If we have any doubt, we have them sit down and take our one-hour departmental exam" in person.

Lundeen said this has occurred about three or four times in the past year. Over the past four months, 1,213 people have taken the online test.

By cheating on a placement test, she said, students are only hurting themselves -- and not just morally.

"I think many students find they are doing themselves a great disservice if they try to place themselves out of their level," she said.

Generally, students tend to agree with Lundeen about the consequences of cheating.

"It's got to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard of," College freshman Max Levin said. "The teacher will find out soon enough that you don't belong in there, so it seems counterproductive."

College freshman Logan Currie agreed, saying she would question the judgment of anyone cheating to get into a harder class.

"It seems a little self-defeating, but, you know, whatever floats your boat," Currie said.

College freshmen Nathan Davis and Katie Conner also said that all the people they knew were honest about their tests.

Carlin said that, unlike some of her friends, she did not cheat on her Spanish placement exam.

"I actually purposely got some questions wrong so I wouldn't be placed in a class too hard for me," Carlin said.

Andrew Kaplan, the junior-class president and a third-year member of the University Honor Council, said that he has great confidence in the Language Department's ability to determine if students are truly proficient.

As for students cheating on their placement exams, Kaplan said he believes that students know that it is not right.

"Cheating on placement exams isn't in the students' best interests," Kaplan said. "Students realize that, and so they make sure that they are honest about it so that they end up in the right place."

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