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As the Chair of the Department of History at the University of Texas San Antonio, I often have a bird’s-eye view of some of the trends emerging in undergraduate classrooms. Students visit to share success stories, voice frustration at course offerings, and offer insight about their perceptions of great teaching practices. Recently, a classroom scenario offered an opportunity to examine several theories about teaching practices and assessment, student’s perceptions of fairness, and administrative oversight. I share this scenario and its outcome as a way to introduce an alternative discussion to classroom cheating, that directs attention to strategies we, as instructors, may implement to encourage, promote, and improve student success.
Many history classes at UT San Antonio are large, well over 100 students, and in classrooms with limited space. On testing days, as students squeeze into tiered rows of fixed seats, instructors shout reminders about turning off electronics and putting away texts. The classroom space becomes filled with tension and many students experience anxiety in these pre-testing minutes. Often, instructors employ additional strategies to deter cheating, such as passing out multiple versions of the exam or checking student IDs, and by the time the exam is distributed, everyone needs a few moments of calm to settle into the session. In spite of this preparation, cheating continues.
Just over one year ago, the History Department confronted a potential cheating trend occurring on GroupMe, an application that allows groups to have easy online discussions. A few hours after administering a midterm exam in a large class of approximately 200 students, a colleague received a series of screen shots from students enrolled in the class. The screen shots revealed that a Group Me exchange had taken place during the exam, and students had proudly shared cheating strategies. One illustrative conversation outlined an effective cheating technique:
Doug: “Write notes on one scantron, bring another for your answers.”
Bre: “Honestly, I never thought abt that”
Bre: “thats smart”
Doug: “I brought like three scantrons full of notes today and just had only one showing at all times lol”
The GroupMe discussion also illuminated a tension among students. Some wanted everyone to mind their own business, and others believed those who cheated should be punished.
Clearly, many students involved in the chat disrespected the testing process, ridiculed the exam process, and openly shared their disregard for moral considerations involved in cheating. Perhaps, like many of the documented studies, these students felt an intense need to improve their grade and felt frustrated by the testing process (Yu et al, 2017; Kaufman, 2008; Watson, 2014). Regardless, other students in the class reported the incident, captured evidence on screen shots, and reported the episode with a demand that the system have more fairness.
The professor visited me as Chair of the Department to brainstorm possible solutions. Efforts to curb cheating in higher education have been a constant, and there is no end in sight (Lang, 2013). Although modern technology offers new venues for cheating, it has not introduced the concept, and cheating reflects a larger tension in a system of education where grades matter and testing can seem random, arbitrary, and unfair. Both the professor and I agreed that a solution needed to speak to fairness.
In recent years, several UT San Antonio historians have invited students to bring an index card to exams. This allows students to create a test guide before the exam, offers students some control of exam, reduces anxiety, and often eliminates the sense that exams are random. As students prepare, they prioritize important information and record it on the index card. Memorization is far less important, and students prepare by ensuring that understand material and can apply the information on the index card to any questions of the exam. I suggested that the cheating illustrated with the notes recorded on the margins of the Scantron be transformed into an approved study strategy. In short, students could plan for the exam, prioritize important information, and record it on a small space, but with the permission of the instructor.
The professor liked the idea of reframing this “cheating scandal” into a “learning moment.” She shared the idea with students, encouraging all to bring notes to the exam, as a way of creating a fairer playing field in the exam (for a variety of reasons, the index card offers an ample amount of space and is easy to review, and so she quickly adopted this method). Students responded with enthusiasm.
Although historians prioritize teaching and learning critical thinking skills, ideas of causation and effect, and historical significance -- students often get stuck on the detail of memorizing factual knowledge. Recording critical dates and moments on the index card allowed history students, and more importantly encouraged students, to move beyond memorization and to consider historical significance, cause and effect, and implication. Moreover, the index card strategy reduced test anxiety, fostered good studying habits, and emphasized the importance of historical analysis.
As our conversation expanded, we invited other professors and disciplines into the conversation. We learned that the practice, in one form or another, had been implemented in engineering classes, biology classes, psychology classes and more. A literature review highlighted the large quantity of studies on cheating, and the relatively small number of studies on allowing study material in the classroom. Moreover, the data on testing outcomes in open testing environments proved very limited.
Therefore, beginning in Spring 2018, we started collecting data on more than 600 introductory students in an effort to quantify the impact of index cards in the large introductory classrooms. To date, we have discovered several important trends:
- Allowing students to create and use an index card for studying did not change grade distributions significantly. The most significant shift occurred in the C and D range, as many D students moved to the C range.
- Students experienced less test anxiety.
- Students who earned high grades felt rewarded for their study time.
This is a work in progress, but the work thus far illustrates the value of the index card in shifting conversations toward student success.
