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Is your online student really who you think they are?

Cheating is commonplace in education at all levels. Face-to-face or online, it makes little difference although it can be more difficult to catch online. A recent article on chronicle.com by a guy who writes student papers anonymously gives a pretty good picture of how easy it is for someone with the money to get any kind of paper, report, proposal, or thesis written. He even impersonates the students online:

I have completed countless online courses. Students provide me with passwords and user names so I can access key documents and online exams. In some instances, I have even contributed to weekly online discussions with other students in the class.
 Maybe there is more collaboration going on in online classes than people realize...

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