Penn State goes Big Brother with new high-security testing room
By Nilay Patel 
posted October 11th 2007 4:18PM
posted October 11th 2007 4:18PM
Our attempts to cheat in college pretty much boiled down to a smeary mess of indecipherable acronyms written on our palms, but apparently the kids at Penn State have moved on from iPods and calculators, because the school has resorted to building a high-tech cheat-proof exam facility to cut down on the fakers. Students first enter through a security gate which displays ID photos to proctors on monitors as kids swipe their IDs before sitting down at individual cubes outfitted with network-disabled PCs to take their tests. Proctors are given strict lists of what's allowed and what's not -- everything from textbooks to pencils can be outlawed -- and continually monitor the room with a bank of ceiling-mounted video cameras as well as random spot-checks. We're not certain why Penn State wants test-taking to be even more nerve-wracking than it already is, but something tells us profs who give 24-hour take home exams are going to be mighty popular from now on.[Via Switched]
Its only more nerve-wracking for those wanting/needing to cheat.
No, actually having to go through a security check and then being monitored on camera messes up your concentration just a little bit, even if you're totally honest.
If you think this isn't bad, just wait for the big brother state that will ensue. The only hope is Ron Paul.
Too bad they don't do this at the ballot box.
It's only nervewracking for those who cheat? Not when big brother makes it easier to get on a plane than go into an exam room.
Oh by the way take homes are not what they are cracked up to be.
Well Tim, when you actually get to college, you'll think differently. I've never cheated on any exam in college and I get nervous when I am in classes where the professors walk around and do random spot checks, and look over your shoulder. Nerve wracking indeed.
This would multiply that times a thousand.
Well Paul, aren't you clever by insinuating I haven't been to college. As part of my first degree, psychology, I learned the insecure try to belittle others in order to make themselves feel better. I feel sorry for you, Paul.
A couple nondescript video domes on a ceiling should be less nerve-wracking than professors walking around and looking over your shoulder. When in a test students will tend to forget about the video domes. Its the professor spot checking that takes students out of the test taking zone and is ultimately distracting. If anything the professors will rely more on this technology and less on random spot checks that are the real distraction. In this case video cameras shouldn't be a cause of anxiety for those who do not wish to cheat. The cameras would soon be forgotten when the test starts.
haha, im sitting in the computer lab right above the new testing center.
Computer room right above, huh?
time for a little cottage industry with wifi/bluetooth dongles that look like pens?
Where's Solid Alliance when you need them?
First Comment!
Fail.
seriously?
This isn't all that new. The University of Central Florida has a room that uses camera monitoring, limited accessibility on the computers (which also are having each action tracked by multiple exam proctors), and ID authorization at the door (which doesn't stop someone from falsifying an ID). This exam room was opened in 2003 in the Business Administration II building.
I had a similar setup elsewhere when I took the GRE recently
Thats why every student needs emp grenades on their person at all times.
AMEN!!!!
...and that canned smoke that lets you see the laser-trip wires.
...And those ninja smoke grenades to make a quick escape when the machine-gun armed proctors come after them.
...And spray-paint for the cameras.
...and Thermite to take out teh mainframez.
F*** it, I'm not going to college. Being a spy would be easier.
I'm glad I graduated in 2001 and got out of there before this started happening!
Hell, I had classes where text books, notes and even laptops with access to the internet were allowed and the class average would still be in the 60s.
Were you in my Physics class??
A couple of my Physics class at PSU allowed us to have at least a full sheet of notes in the exams - literally ANYTHING you could fit on to the one sheet - in any writing, any font, any size. And the averages would still be terrible.
Srsly. There wasn't THIS much concern when I was at PSU just 4 yrs ago. I wonder if there has been a strange rash of cheating to drive this new room.
And I didn't read the article or anything, but I'm guessing this is just for those few profs that really choose to use it. I'm sure most classes will just continue as normal.
Penn State? More like the State Pen!
our teacher used to say that he purposely ignored all of the anti-cheating rules like sitting people in every other desk because to do that to us would actually make us think about cheating where 95% of us would never think of it in the first place.
Treating people like cheaters, even potential cheaters, frquently turns people into cheaters.
Hmm, I go to Penn State and haven't heard of such a room. Now, I really want to find it.
its on the bottom floor of the pollock library
It's sad that this is necessary at the collegiate level. There is something seriously wrong with the academic culture of this country when we have to go to such great lengths to stop adults from cheating themselves.
It's official, college has turned into nothing more than extended high school.
The method for defeating this kind of security was already established by Emmett Hitz-Fume. All that is required is a fake cast, an eye patch, and a small scroll of answers neatly tucked in your cheek.
For those of you with trouble remembering the 80s this is reference to Chevy Chase in "Spies Like Us".
I remember that scene in "Spies Like Us."
Here is a video clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiIR8DF94aU
I want our 24-hour laptop library that gives free coffee back.
Penn State better think a bit more about this... If there really are that many cheaters in their University they might be setting themselves up for some major embarrassment.
Wow, this is just breathtaking.
These students are missing out on going to school at a place without any functioning honor system, apparently.
I went to a school where it was taken pretty seriously. It made the testing process a lot more pleasant, quite frankly.
It was an unstated rule that the professor would leave the room and be available for questions in his/her office after handing out an in-class exam. I once had to explain this to a poor visiting professor who couldn't figure out why the entire class seemed angry with him at the end of an exam.
It wasn't uncommon for exams to be picked up from the department office, taken at a convenient time, then returned for scoring prior to a due date. While I'm not naive enough to think that this didn't present an opportunity for cheating, it wasn't widespread. I never saw any evidence of knowing academic misconduct during my entire time at the school.
People will generally live up to the trust placed in them, so I have to say that this program sounds like a spectacularly bad idea.
I have friends that are university professors and they say cheating and academic dishonety in general is pretty rampant. I guess the shift in viewing education as a commodity that can be bought and sold rather than an experience that is supposed to enhance your life probably has something to do with it (and to all the people who are gonna spaz out and say you don't need college; ok, point taken.)
"So when I took the test, the answers were stuck in my brain. It was like a whole different kind of cheating!" -B.S.
I go to Penn State and I just found out about this yesterday. They remodeled the pollock computer lab and put it in the basement. Personally I think it's yet another great way for Penn State to waste money and my tuition. I mean imagine all the money being wasted on this to have someone and I'm sure there's more then one person staffing this at night. They could maybe spend the money on other things that we need here at Penn State. I'm sorry but this is dumb and I'm glad i don't have a class that requires me to use this lab because I would be flipping out.
I am also a student at Penn State. However, to me this is old news. This was announced a long time ago and has even been in the school's newspaper several times. I agree that this is a major waste of tuition dollars at Penn State. The fact of the matter is that the administration does not care about student interests. I would know because I am a member of the student government...scratch that...student advocacy group at Penn State. The truth is that this is nothing new technology wise and Penn State is severely behind the curve in technology. We do not have many things that are cool and innovative. Penn State loves to waste money, loves to brag about things that are not interesting and loves to not care about students.
Well put!
I agree with Phil. Have colleges become so liberal that they have no honor anymore? But this type of testing has been going on for a long time! Just ask any pilot. FAA testing is highly monitored. Big Brother is getting much bigger!
Loss of big points for making this political. If I could vote you down 10 times I would, as all available evidence points to exactly the opposite of what you're implying.
Wow, my alma mater is now going big brother for testing? Penn state was always good for wasting our money, now they're going a leap farther by making science majors lose even more hair when they take the o chem finals
I went to Penn State, and this doesn't surprise me. Some of you will not identify with this claim, but this is exactly the sort of action I expect from liberals like Graham Spanier. It's his mission to solidify the university as an institution, meaning, it's "grand destiny" is one where power is not distributed. That reality would be one where only he gets to drive to campus, all the through roads are closed, the university has it's own police squad, classes and education are distinctly NOT free, and attendance and exams highly monitored in the police state that he, or his like controls. Education in this case is an excuse for the non-profit existence of this power hungry machine. Certain aspect might seem appealing, like "free" Napster, but they are just an indemnification of the kids that go there. I can hardly agree with an alliance with the RIAA. Contrast that to a 1960s Berkeley, or any university where students can "drop in" on classes. I think you'll see that the word "liberal" education has changed.
Um, don't you mean extremely "conservative"? You might want to research what "liberal" would entail.
Nice try Jeff, but you lose.
I live in india and the university I attended has (well had :D) lots of CCTV cameras in all of the examination halls when I was in the first year bachelor of engineering... lot of my friends were frightened at the beginning but as time went by we found out that:
1) the cameras were switched off most of the time and its just the motor that rotates the camera was working
2) neither was any one monitoring those cameras nor they were being archived
3) finally all the cameras were damaged due to zero maintanence and it became a piece of junk
the officials finally concluded that the only effective cheating prevention method is a good invigilator :D
I love India
Hell, I go to Penn College (of Technology) A Penn state affiliate, and out testing center has had CCTV and controlled entrance and such. You can't wear hats, bring in your cell phone even if it's off, no iPods, no textbooks, nothing, just a number 2 pencil, and maybe a calculator, and it must be checked before you can use it, and it must be a TI-83 or 84 series. And they don't even do spot checks, if they see it on the CCTV, which is closely monitored, you get an automatic 0 on the exam. Luckily this is only for math.
After attending a University that had an "honor code" and also did not allow professors to monitor tests, I understand how much of that was actually in place to prevent the university from actually having to do anything about cheating. They did not want to catch it and frankly did not care if it happened even if that was completely contrary to the "code" set in place. The honor code was nothing more than a poorly written set of blinders that were put on anytime it mattered.
They expected students to police themselves. Yeah, right...that will work wonderfully.
In fact, during a discreete mathematics course, just minutes before an exam i went to my professor because i had overheard people talking about how they had written notes in pencil down the margin of the "blue book" we used for most testing. Since we were responsible for purchasing blue books and always had them in our possession prior to testing, this went on all the time, but this time it really pissed me off because it meant a gigantic advantage went to anyone who cheated. The professor listened to my concerns and actually said "i've never seen evidence of that happening" as if the people who cheated were also dumb enough to leave proof.
So would I mind taking a test in one of those rooms? HELL NO.
I never cheated in College, never. I paid a high price for not doing what 50% of the top students were doing, cheating, in the form of my GPA being falsely curved against higher performing students who mostly survived through cheating. Cheating was so bad that when I got to an advanced Operating Systems class(partner based for projects), I was astounded how the two other people on my team had absolutely no understanding of anything they learned over the last 3 years and yet had stellar gpa's....i picked them specifically because I thought they were definitely on point enough w/their GPA that I wouldn't have to worry about them being a weak link. I was far from the only student who got paired with people who obviously had not a clue about what was going on or had been going on in prerequisite classes. The professor decided the only thing to do to keep half the class from failing(and hurting his standing with the university for failing students and increasing the amount of time it would take a person to graduate on average -> newsweek takes points away for schools that average more than 4 years)
the whole thing was just a scam to keep our top 3 ranking for as long as we could without actually having to produce top 3 students and deal with the cheating and horrible instructors.
You may hate the idea of these testing rooms, but that's probably because you're cheating or have the silly idea that there's such thing as privacy when you're on school grounds. Nobody is stomping on your actual civil rights, just your right to cheat and as far as i'm concerned nobody has the right to that.
I applaud Penn State for having the courage to address a problem that is rampant on college campuses across the US...maybe it's a drastic measure to you, but i doubt everyone would agree that it's such a terrible thing. probably people who aren't cheating and resent the fact that they have to compete against those who are.
and yes, i suppose there is something to be said from having to compete on a completely unlevel playing field as the world is hardly fair and in business people cheat all the time to get ahead...but nothing is more important in life than personal integrity and it's time we reclaimed a little bit of that for the good of all of us.
what the hell would happen if people were just honest and played fairly? who knows, but I'd like to see what that looks like, even once.