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Catching Cheating Students
Author(s) -
Lin MingJen,
Levitt Steven D.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
economica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.532
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1468-0335
pISSN - 0013-0427
DOI - 10.1111/ecca.12331
Subject(s) - cheating , matching (statistics) , simple (philosophy) , psychology , mathematics education , computer science , social psychology , statistics , mathematics , epistemology , philosophy
We develop a simple algorithm for detecting exam cheating between students who copy off one another's exams. When this algorithm is applied to exams in a general science course at a top university, we find strong evidence of cheating by at least 10% of the students. Students studying together cannot explain our findings. Matching incorrect answers proves to be a stronger indicator of cheating than matching correct answers. When seating locations are randomly assigned, and monitoring is increased, cheating virtually disappears.