| 2020-11-04 | Yes, 1200+ personalized versions of the test paper! Near the end of 2019 Fall semester, due to the social unrest in Hong Kong, it was no longer safe for students to return to HKU campus for lectures and exams. Due to such safety issues, we were forced to conduct the exams online. Teachers were caught off-guard. We knew so well that cheating would be very common in online exams. We wanted to believe that most students were honest, but we were also sure that a non-trivial percentage would try to cheat when the cost of cheating (the chance of being caught) was so small.
Several days before the final exam, a student wrote me an email message, sharing with me rumors that some students were going to work in groups in the Chi Wah Learning Commons. (I cannot thank him enough.) With this information, we felt obliged to check at the Chi Wah Learning Commons. With the help of the Exam Unit, our teaching team caught around 20 students working in groups (different groups, of course) at the scene. Then, we managed to identify around 20 cheating cases based on student's answers.
We were sure, the number of students cheating in the final exam far exceeded 40. It was just that we were not able to catch them.
Economists understand very well how people make decisions. For any given benefit of cheating, cheating will become very tempting when the cost of cheating (being caught) in the exam become so much lower -- in an online exam. Suddenly, we realized such online tests are not just a test of knowledge but a test of honesty, a test of our education system in teaching our students the value of honesty. Are you honest? Do you derive any guilty feelings when you cheat? How much is that guilty feelings?
As a teacher, I hate to see my students cheating in any assessments. Cheating in assessments is the biggest enemy to learning. I want to see learning. I want to see fair and honest assessments.
When we were all hoping that teaching and learning, and assessments can return to normal in 2020 Spring semester, COVID-19 hit. Our dream of in-hall exam vanished. We were told to have on-line exams again.
As an economist, my hope is to correct the cheating behavior through the change of benefit and cost of cheating. I had thus decided to set personalized exam papers for my students. "n" personalized versions of exam papers for "n" students. This semester, "n" is more than 1200.
The cost of setting personalized versions of the exam paper is nontrivial. It required the knowledge of several software packages to do the randomization of parameters, and then to stick these parameters into the questions, to produce numerous versions of PDF question paper, to keep track of the answer keys for each version. Later, we would need to extract the answers from the PDF files submitted by students and then compare to the answer keys.
Yes, my colleagues set the template of questions, I made them into personalized versions of the exam paper. I was also responsible for the grading work.
Yes, the cost of doing so is huge. My colleagues were excited about what I achieved (numerous personalized versions of the test paper). When I share with my colleagues the details of my experience, nobody wanted to adopt the same strategy. Obviously, to them, my strategy is too costly.
You ask me how much I value learning? You ask me how much I value fair and honest assessments? Just look at the cost I am willing to incur to prevent cheating!
| 2020-02-18 | Let students focus on learning, teachers on teaching, and thus together achieve the intended learning outcomes. | | 2020-02-10 | Online learning requires Discipline, DISCIpline, DISCIPLINE! | | 2019-01-15 | Supposedly not difficult to get a B grade. | | 2018-12-11 | This quality is more important than grades. | | 2018-11-15 | Late dropping | | 2018-11-15 | Unreliability of average SETL scores due to the high non-response rate | | 2018-11-13 | Let go! | | 2018-10-24 | No, please do not use my lecture time for your society's announcement. | | 2018-09-26 | Scheduling an appointment | | 2018-08-27 | None of my business | | 2018-08-21 | Course evaluation bounds and response rate | | 2018-08-09 | Be a responsible job applicant | | 2018-02-10 | No calories browsing.... | | 2018-01-24 | Would "uncertain" help your postgraduate study application? I would say, CERTAINLY NOT! | | 2017-09-14 | When helping your friend is NOT HELPING YOUR FRIEND! | | 2017-09-13 | My life as a student -- AGAIN | | 2017-09-05 | You like easy grade, easy honor, easy graduation? | | 2017-07-18 | My Facebook friends, please protect me just as I protect you. | | 2017-07-12 | An internship | | 2016-03-01 | You know me. But, do I know you? | | 2015-12-17 | Why learning fails to happen despite the great design of the course and the great teacher? | | 2015-10-20 | Can I trust you, my friend? | | 2015-10-17 | If we have the second chance to "retake", failing or getting a low grade would not be so stressful. | | 2015-09-18 | My first-hand experience on why learning is not taking place in lectures! | | 2015-08-20 | Are you sure Econometrics is useless? | | 2015-05-04 | Eating 100 bowls of rice in a day | | 2015-01-31 | You say you love me. How can I tell whether you truly love me? | | 2014-10-24 | I would be happy to write recommendations letter for your PhD or Master application if .... | | 2014-10-23 | Master of Finance at MIT | | 2014-10-06 | Are you sure what you saw was black? | | 2014-03-05 | GOLDEN opportunity -- only to the hard-working students. | | 2014-03-01 | What to do when your teacher's teaching style does not fit your learning style? | | 2013-11-28 | A negative experience? Not completely. It can be made into a positive one! | | 2013-11-27 | Many thanks for your appreciation of my teaching (II) | | 2013-07-23 | My next stop is Barcelona! | | 2013-06-01 | Her decision to pursue Master of Finance after her undergradaute study at HKU | | 2012-11-10 | What should I do at HKU (activities versus study and many other things)? | | 2011-09-12 | Coach, can you teach me to swim? | | 2010-02-18 | How government policy with good intention can create frustration and political instability? | | 2009-12-01 | Cherish our beloved ones who are still around us -- when we still can! | | 2009-11-27 | Trust your teachers, but don't trust them blindly! | | 2009-11-26 | You can give me a low score but please write some comments to help me improve my teaching. | | 2009-08-26 | The similarity in health care service provision and fire fighting service provision | | 2009-03-23 | Be brave. Visit your teachers. Ask them questions. Your teachers are a lot nicer than you think. | | 2009-03-14 | How can you verify this is really you -- Dr. Ka-fu Wong of HKU? | | 2009-03-09 | I dream to work in the business sector. Should I pursue a master degree before I join the private sector? | | 2009-02-19 | Any economist can predict this... Can you? | | 2008-12-21 | My students performed poorly in the final exam.
Help me help them.... please. | | 2008-12-20 | Learning should not end with the final exam! | | 2008-11-19 | Exchange in Europe can be very rewarding! | | 2008-11-18 | UC Berkeley is my top choice for exchange! | | 2008-11-02 | Why did we not have fresh mushrooms twenty years ago? | | 2008-02-23 | Dialogue is preferred to monologue. | | 2008-02-13 | If I were a single unemployed old man who lives on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) | | 2007-12-17 | Is forecasting a pure guessing game? | | 2007-12-16 | I want zero emission of CO2! | | 2007-11-30 | How would I choose universities for exchange? | | 2007-11-28 | Excuse me. Can you write a recommendation letter for me? | | 2007-11-12 | No pain, no gain! | | 2007-09-14 | Teaching is to be enjoyed, and so is studying. Grades should only be secondary. | |