Members of the distance education community are no doubt shocked (and a little embarrassed) by the headlines from Brownsville, Texas in which student employees gained access to the University of Texas - Brownsville learning management system (in this case - Blackboard) to share confidential academic information with fellow students. In other words - cheating!
‘Gross academic fraud' at UTB-TSC rocked Office of Distance Education | online, utb, employees - Local - Brownsville Herald A two-month UTB-TSC police investigation found school employees in 2008 had committed "gross academic fraud" after student employees and regular staff used their positions to steal test answers, according to a UTB police report obtained by The Brownsville Herald. The wrongdoing occurred within the Blackboard Learning System, an online service commonly used at universities. The system allows professors to post tests and course materials for students, teach entire courses online and keep online grade books. Blackboard generally serves to enrich the learning experience; however, former student employees of the school’s Office of Distance Education, the office that manages Blackboard, confessed to a police investigator that they had used the online system to access test answers to help themselves cheat, give the answers to other students, or even to sell.'
While one might be tempted to brush this off with a casual "that could happen to any school", or "if students want to cheat, they'll find a way", I suggest this story provides several object lessons for distance education professionals.
Example 1: It's always hard to find out things the hard way! In other words, sometimes the only way to figure out you need a better policy or procedure is to have something go wrong. So while we might be tempted to disparage the folks at UTB, it's pretty clear that they made a mistake and quickly corrected it.
'After weighing the available options, we felt that it was ultimately an academic issue and handling it that way served the university’s educational mission," said UTB attorney Michael Blanchard. Juliet V. Garcia, the school’s president, when asked why the administration decided to treat the issue as a case of student misconduct rather than pressing criminal charges, responded in a written statement. "After the police investigation and after careful deliberation, we handled the issue under our established procedures for addressing academic misconduct," Garcia wrote.'
Example 2: If it smells like a skunk in the room, you should get out the skunk trap instead of holding you nose. I suspect the folks at UTB wish they had taken the 'rumors of students misusing the Blackboard system' more seriously. A general thou-shalt-not-cheat admonition is clearly not enough.
'Distance Education employees said they had heard rumors of students misusing the Blackboard system, and even discovered signs that cheating was occurring, but that they were unsure of how to safeguard against it. While the school had rules in place — most obviously "no cheating" — university officials admitted there had been a lack of controls to limit access to administrative privileges.'
Example 3: Policies and best practices are essential (e.g. no password sharing, limited student access to systems). A code of ethics for employees can go a long way toward setting higher expectations. With the vast expansion of online systems in education, a number of employees will, and should have access to information about students, faculty and staff. It's how they use it and the code of ethics surrounding that use which become critical. Nothing wrong with employees managing systems. Lots wrong with employee abuse of systems they manage. The old Ronald Reagan phrase comes to mind - 'trust, but verify'.
"As far as we know, no professors’ pins or usernames were compromised," Blanchard said. But Blanchard said that just because information is confidential, it does not mean no employee should have access to it. " ... Appropriate employees on campus have access to confidential information. If we learn our trust has been breached, we take appropriate action."
I wonder aloud how many other schools are treading on thin ice by not looking at these issues in more detail. Thankfully, we have a pretty tight security protocol at our institution but there are always areas for improvement. This example of system abuse should remind us all how important a culture of ethics and responsibility can be.
‘Gross academic fraud' at UTB-TSC rocked Office of Distance Education | online, utb, employees - Local - Brownsville Herald A two-month UTB-TSC police investigation found school employees in 2008 had committed "gross academic fraud" after student employees and regular staff used their positions to steal test answers, according to a UTB police report obtained by The Brownsville Herald. The wrongdoing occurred within the Blackboard Learning System, an online service commonly used at universities. The system allows professors to post tests and course materials for students, teach entire courses online and keep online grade books. Blackboard generally serves to enrich the learning experience; however, former student employees of the school’s Office of Distance Education, the office that manages Blackboard, confessed to a police investigator that they had used the online system to access test answers to help themselves cheat, give the answers to other students, or even to sell.'
While one might be tempted to brush this off with a casual "that could happen to any school", or "if students want to cheat, they'll find a way", I suggest this story provides several object lessons for distance education professionals.
Example 1: It's always hard to find out things the hard way! In other words, sometimes the only way to figure out you need a better policy or procedure is to have something go wrong. So while we might be tempted to disparage the folks at UTB, it's pretty clear that they made a mistake and quickly corrected it.
'After weighing the available options, we felt that it was ultimately an academic issue and handling it that way served the university’s educational mission," said UTB attorney Michael Blanchard. Juliet V. Garcia, the school’s president, when asked why the administration decided to treat the issue as a case of student misconduct rather than pressing criminal charges, responded in a written statement. "After the police investigation and after careful deliberation, we handled the issue under our established procedures for addressing academic misconduct," Garcia wrote.'
Example 2: If it smells like a skunk in the room, you should get out the skunk trap instead of holding you nose. I suspect the folks at UTB wish they had taken the 'rumors of students misusing the Blackboard system' more seriously. A general thou-shalt-not-cheat admonition is clearly not enough.
'Distance Education employees said they had heard rumors of students misusing the Blackboard system, and even discovered signs that cheating was occurring, but that they were unsure of how to safeguard against it. While the school had rules in place — most obviously "no cheating" — university officials admitted there had been a lack of controls to limit access to administrative privileges.'
Example 3: Policies and best practices are essential (e.g. no password sharing, limited student access to systems). A code of ethics for employees can go a long way toward setting higher expectations. With the vast expansion of online systems in education, a number of employees will, and should have access to information about students, faculty and staff. It's how they use it and the code of ethics surrounding that use which become critical. Nothing wrong with employees managing systems. Lots wrong with employee abuse of systems they manage. The old Ronald Reagan phrase comes to mind - 'trust, but verify'.
"As far as we know, no professors’ pins or usernames were compromised," Blanchard said. But Blanchard said that just because information is confidential, it does not mean no employee should have access to it. " ... Appropriate employees on campus have access to confidential information. If we learn our trust has been breached, we take appropriate action."
I wonder aloud how many other schools are treading on thin ice by not looking at these issues in more detail. Thankfully, we have a pretty tight security protocol at our institution but there are always areas for improvement. This example of system abuse should remind us all how important a culture of ethics and responsibility can be.
