[The University of Florida] is now studying new ways to combat cheating as it launches an online university in the spring. This includes software that uses cameras to monitor students as they take tests, said Jen Day Shaw, dean of students.
Surely you can do better than that. Multiple cameras monitored by multiple camera monitors glaring down at a person trying to be engaged in independent thought is nothing. After all, getting a friend to dress up like you and take your exam (take your whole course) is a piece of cake.
No, no. Here’s where you have to go, UF. Body sensors. That person trying to focus, think, and write needs to be hooked up – heart rate, sweat production, digit-movement patterns… Fingerprinting each time the person logs on. And more.
And what of the authentication of the professor/ facilitator/ air traffic controller? Ever met the person you’ve hired (or your for-profit vendor has provided) to teach the course? Even if you have, how do you know that’s the person teaching the course? If you can’t authenticate the instructor’s identity, the instructor can give the course to a drudge in India, take payment for the course, and give the drudge a cut. That way the instructor can spend her time in a spa or writing an article or something. Just like Julius Nyang’oro, she has figured out a way to collect a salary for doing nothing.
So the instructor will have to be surveilled pretty constantly too. Recall the AAUP draft report on online courses:
Online teaching platforms and learning management systems may permit faculty members to learn whether students in a class did their work and how long they spent on certain assignments. Conversely, however, a college or university administration could use these systems to determine whether faculty members were logging into the service “enough,” spending “adequate” time on certain activities, and the like.
Dylan said it long ago:
I would not be so all alone. Everybody must get stoned.
Everybody – student, air traffic controller, supervisor of online air traffic controller, executive vice president in charge of whether faculty members are logging in often enough — everybody must get filmed.
Well, they’ll film ya when you’re trying to be so good
They’ll film ya just a-like they said they would
They’ll film ya when you’re tryin’ to go home
Then they’ll film ya when you’re there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get filmed
Well, they’ll film ya when you’re walkin’ ’long the street
They’ll film ya when you’re tryin’ to keep your seat
They’ll film ya when you’re walkin’ on the floor
They’ll film ya when you’re walkin’ to the door
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get filmed
They’ll film ya when you’re at the breakfast table
They’ll film ya when you are young and able
They’ll film ya when you’re tryin’ to make a buck
They’ll film ya and then they’ll say, “good luck”
Tell ya what, I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get filmed
Well, they’ll film you and say that it’s the end
Then they’ll film you and then they’ll come back again
They’ll film you when you’re riding in your car
They’ll film you when you’re playing your guitar
Yes, but I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get filmed
Well, they’ll film you when you walk all alone
They’ll film you when you are walking home
They’ll film you and then say you are brave
They’ll film you when you are set down in your grave
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get filmed