<pAccording to the Higher Education Technology Survey conducted by the Consero Group, 78% of CIOs surveyed said their departments have little or no ability to stop students from using information technology to cheat. Specifically, 30% said they had no ability to prevent cheating, while 48% classified their ability to prevent it as "low."

 

"With the evolution of technology generally, the ability to cheat has evolved," said Consero CEO Paul Mandell. So he found it surprising that the vast majority of the respondents said the IT function is not involved in preventing cheating.

InformationWeek was at the event when the survey results were announced and also spoke with Bob Johnson, VP and CIO of Rhodes College who said that plagiarism prevention services such as Turnitin can be very effective, but trying to combat every possible form of technology-assisted cheating would be fruitless—nor has it been something that faculty or the school's student conduct leaders have pressed him to make a priority.

While it may seem out of IT's hands to stop cheating, it is certainly not out of the hands of faculty to use technology to further engage students in their work and to use tools like Turnitin's originality feedback as a teaching opportunity.