Straighterline partnering with TESC and Excelsior

[P00057870]

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I work at a Technical Center in Florida -- actually I teach under a special certificate due to many, many years in my specialty and being certified by our professional association in it as well, again for many, many years. Although currently I'm teaching in a blended online course, with only 3 hours a week with face-to-face contact, prior to this past year I only taught face-to-face. How about some tales from the trenches....

We've all heard about the usual: Students who write on their arm or try to sneak a peak at a piece of paper. Try some of these on for size: A student who wrote in very small print with a Sharpie on all sides of a number 2 pencil, another who wrote on the bottom of their shoe, then the one who took off the lable from a bottle of water, wrote the answers on the inside and then glued it back. Now we also have to deal with cell phones taking pictures of tests and selling them or e-mailing them to friends, texting someone for an answer, and even special pens with cameras built in.

Bottom line, even in an atmosphere where people are supposedly looking to get educated for a career and should realize they will not be able to pass a licensing exam or certification exam, test out for the job, or last any period of time once on the job, there are still a small number who will cheat due to concerns more about a grade than gaining the knowledge.

Hope this made some of you chuckle.