While I appreciate the research interest in developing an interface for secure examination at the university level (“Schools turn to computerized exams,” Oct. 9), I must ask what application these programs have at the University of Virginia.
On no fewer than eight occasions as an undergraduate some years ago, I was given an examination by a professor, informed of the time allotted and was free to take the exam wherever I wished. Of course, I was on my honor to not use an unauthorized source for assistance, and I held myself to that standard.
This included five exams I vividly remember taking honorably in my dorm room in accordance with the rules the professor set forth (without a webcam or other monitoring device, I might add). Also, it included two examinations where the professor explicitly stated that the exam was to be taken in two consecutive hours at a place and time of our choosing. Further, far from “needing” a proctor, I have difficulty recalling a professor remaining in the examination room, aside from a few exceptionally large classes.
The statements by Vikram Pole and Diane Quick are quite disheartening to me. Has honor at Virginia fallen so far that a student would assume that their fellow students would cheat, and that this would have to be actively prevented? Now, am I to understand that Virginia students are concerned about the enforcement of “fairness” rather than holding themselves to that standard? This, along with assumptions that the future potential exists for professors to become “concerned about cheating” leads me to conclude that the students have not held their end of the honor system and gives me pause when considering the future of my beloved University.
Jeffrey Erickson
SEAS ‘04
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