Take home exams and cheating!

The only thing constant in this world is change. We have seen profound changes in the social, economical and political aspects of life. This is reflected in the way we think, act and collaborate to keep up with the new innovations and changes happening around us. Keeping the above context in mind how should we see the recent cheating scandal that happened in the duke business school. In a nutshell it was a case of a group of students collaborating on a take home exam. Now, let me not address the duke episode in particular here. But let me tell you about collaboration and take home exams in general. Is it cheating? Is it really??

The world of myspace's, facebook's, twitter's and text messaging has made it increasingly convenient for people to come together and collaborate with one another. Moreover, the information that we get at the click of a button is simply amazing. Information of various forms is being shared with people around the world. We are being led to increasingly collaborate with one another like never before. Moreover, to work as part of a team is the mantra that is being preached in the upper echleons of the corporate world. Take home exams as a matter of fact gives students the chance to seek information from the web or from various other sources. How different is this from collaborating with ones fellow classmates. Both pertains to seeking information. A student who is able to collaborate with his peers and get his work done has shown the ability to work as part of a team. One can argue that the individual thinking process is lost here. But, not really. In this case individual thinking has only paved the way for collective thinking. Cheating is when students copy and paste information from the web or other sources into their answer sheets. Is the integrity and ethics of students in question? Not really again. If a student has collaborated and got the work done, why should it be held against him or her. It has rather addressed a vital skill that any student needs to be successfull in todays business world, namely collaboration. Collaboration is not cheating. But, then the rules for a take home exam dictate otherwise. If it is to restrict any sort of collaboration then there is always the option of keeping an in-class exam.

The rules that dictate a take home exam needs a revisit and has to consider the impact that innovations brought about by technology is having on society and its various bearings. Take home exams cannot escape the wrath of change. Bracing for exams? Start Collaborating!