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Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

  • 1.  Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 01-26-2021 11:03
    Our district has experienced a rash of cheating by using Brainly. It will show the answers to questions from Edgenuity word for word. I have contacted Brainly directly and received an email wanting information that should be provided by Edgenuity or examples of individual questions, which would involve weeks of reporting every question from every test bank. How are the rest of you handling this issue?

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    Pam Lauderdale
    Whitehouse ISD
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  • 2.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 01-27-2021 05:36
    Hello,

        I have been a Brainly.plus member for a few years for that reason( they give it to teachers for free). I usually use the flag at the bottom right hand corner of the answer/question ( being used for plagiarizing) and report it as just that. It may take a little while but it eventually gets taken down. I have noticed that some of the answers to questions that were formally up there have been removed ( Brainly puts an error message up where the answer used to be). They are trying to work with teachers, unfortunately it does take a bit.  I teach secondary science and quite a few answers from our questions are on there, the one thing is you can not find those answers using TurnitIn, because they do not come up on there as a reputable website.  It does happen quite a bit more at the end of a semester with kids trying to hurry and finish before the course ends.

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    Michelle Steinberg
    Virtual Instructor
    Edgenuity
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 01-29-2021 07:49
    At the TCEA (tech educators in Texas) conference a couple of years ago, I stopped by the Brainly booth in the Expo.  They consider themselves an educational website!  I told them that supplying incentives for students to post answers to quizzes had no integrity, but they argued their role in education (to deaf ears).  Our admin won't block it, and it is a constant challenge to keep kids off the site.  There is also a Chrome extension called EdgenTweaks that leads them directly to the question and answer on Brainly!

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    MGrantham
    Hereford ISD
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 01-29-2021 08:15
    That is horrifying on several levels! I am definitely sharing the chrome extension to get it blocked from the district if possible. Kids will still find a way around. If only they would spend that same energy doing the right thing...

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    Pam Lauderdale
    Whitehouse ISD
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 01-27-2021 07:44
    We use web a couple of software packages (GoGuardian and LANSchool) for web filtering. I have brainly.com blocked for our students here. They don't stand a chance of getting to brainly with that enabled. Good luck!

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    Steven Coen
    Guymon Public Schools
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 01-27-2021 08:30
    Our district has blocked Brainly - so the kids cannot access it - even when working remotely on a district issued computer.  Unfortunately they can see it on their phones... AND now the quiz and tests are showing up on Quizlet.  They are always one step ahead.

    We are discussing changing our policy on allowing students to test out on credit recovery courses.  I think we will be skipping warm-ups and intros and having students complete the instruction and assignments  and some of the quizzes.  It will better resemble what we see in the normal course of the classroom. We want the experience to be academically rewarding to the student.

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    Diane Wilson
    La Vega ISD - Success Academy
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 01-27-2021 10:34
    Brainly and Quizlet are my worst enemies right now. Students have school issued laptops they are using at home, but I do not think there is a way to block those websites if the students are using their own internet servers? It also appears that many of the questions on Edgenuity have been the same ones used for years. My colleague and I use a plagiarism tracker specifically for this reason. It is sad how much Edgenuity content is available online to be used for cheating.

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    Jordan Madura
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 28 days ago
    Hi Diane!  Your response is word-for-word how I feel! Always one step ahead! 

    I am intrigued though as to who is involved in these decisions at your District to allow for test-out options and restructuring courses on Edgenuity. I myself am new to our District (2nd year in) and I have issues with communicating my concerns when it comes to even the Pre-test feature that is currently enabled for ALL of our courses.  The academic integrity is compromised, especially knowing that these sites are providing easy access to answers, and I can't seem to get anyone to hear me out.  Most of our student population consists of credit-recovery students or students that are choosing an alternative setting due to behavioral issues, etc. so they just want to fly through every course presented to them with the least amount of effort as possible, regardless of the potential negative future impacts.

    Any words of wisdom?

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    Amanda Ortiz
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 28 days ago

    It's interesting.  I am in my 4th year at this district and run the program. I did a similar program for years at my previous school.  I happen to have an Assistant Superintendent (who created this program here) that is also the Curriculum guru – and understands my dilemma.  The main function of  the credit recovery instruction is that we address the TEKS appropriately – and as long as we ensure that is happening, all else in the world is good. The instruction and assignments within Edgenuity do this.  The quizzes are a measure of understanding, not a teaching tool.

     

    I have not actually had time to go through a course and set it up this way – but I intend to have it completed by next school year.  I plan on meeting with the classroom teachers to fine-tune what is expected, as well.  I want the course to address the TEKS and be somewhat representative of what is seen in the classroom. I don't know how it will be received – or how it will work – but I have some working ideas in my brain.

     

    Every Pirate. Every Day!

     

    Diane Wilson, Ed.S

    La Vega ISD ~ Success Academy

    901 Maxfield

    Waco, Texas  76705

    (254)299-6752

    (254)265-3350

     




    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 28 days ago

    BTW – it sounds like we serve a very similar population.  I do, however, also oversee the credit recovery coursework at the high school campus. My campus is separate. I'd love to chat with you some day.

     

    Every Pirate. Every Day!

     

    Diane Wilson, Ed.S

    La Vega ISD ~ Success Academy

    901 Maxfield

    Waco, Texas  76705

    (254)299-6752

    (254)265-3350

     




    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 27 days ago
    Diane,

    I would love to be able to pick your brain about a few things as well.  You sound very savvy about the program!

    --
    Christine Murphy
    Pembroke High School Librarian
    District Liaison for Edgenuity
    781-293-1252



    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 27 days ago

    Absolutely.  I can call you – or you can call me... but let's figure out a good time first. Let me know!

     

    Every Pirate. Every Day!

     

    Diane Wilson, Ed.S

    La Vega ISD ~ Success Academy

    901 Maxfield

    Waco, Texas  76705

    (254)299-6752

    (254)265-3350

     




    Original Message


  • 13.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 27 days ago
    I'm always willing to chat. I have worked as a contractor for Edgenuity and have sat on a panel during their last partner conference. I LOVE talking Edgenuity and how to help students!


    LogoLogo
    Maria Cuzzocreo, M.Ed.
    Director of Instruction
    T: (480) 689-5999 Ext 018 | M: (623) 882-6353
    E: maria@iwantmydiploma.com | www.iwantmydiploma.com
    1440 S Clearview Ave #104 | Mesa, AZ 85209
    Facebook icon LinkedIn icon Twitter icon Youtbue icon Instagram icon
    Grad Solutions Icon SmartSchoolsUSA Icon LumosArts Icon StudentsFirst Icon





    Original Message


  • 14.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 28 days ago
    Hello,
    You can turn off pretesting for all courses or for individual students. 
    Look at the "active time" spent in the course (Manage Enrollments) and you will not be happy to see that students who are cheating through pretesting, have very low active time in the course. Take that data to your decision makers and they will HAVE to support a policy change.

    We had students blowing through Alg II in 7 hours! An auditor would have a field day with that! 
    Locking the final exam and requiring in person or virtual proctoring for the final exam has helped my program tremendously. MonitorEDU is a small business that we have contracted with to do our virtual proctoring. They are amazing.

    Changing the grade weights to reflect less weight on the quizzes/unit tests and more on the final/Cumulative Exam. 

    I'd be happy to help connect you to MonitorEDU or discuss how to implement this.


    LogoLogo
    Maria Cuzzocreo, M.Ed.
    Director of Instruction
    T: (480) 689-5999 Ext 018 | M: (623) 882-6353
    E: maria@iwantmydiploma.com | www.iwantmydiploma.com
    1440 S Clearview Ave #104 | Mesa, AZ 85209
    Facebook icon LinkedIn icon Twitter icon Youtbue icon Instagram icon
    Grad Solutions Icon SmartSchoolsUSA Icon LumosArts Icon StudentsFirst Icon



    Original Message


  • 15.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 01-27-2021 14:00
    I contacted Brainly about the fact that they are giving students answers and doing them a disservice by not having them learn the information.  They told me that I have to work for Edgenuity to be able to send them the questions and answers that are being duplicated on the brainly website.  Since I am not an employee of Edgenuity 
    • A statement confirming your name, the name of the relevant educational organization that owns this content, and that you are a representative of this organization
    I could not get them the answers that are being given out by brainly.  I guess edgenuity has to give them this information.

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    Nicholas Bertino
    Premier Academy
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    Original Message


  • 16.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 01-28-2021 08:39
    I have been able to report posted materials on Quizlet and I received this response from them:

    Quizlet
    Hi,

    Thanks for reporting test bank content on Quizlet.

    We take issues of academic integrity very seriously at Quizlet. As is our standard policy regarding test bank issues, we have removed public access to this content.

    Thanks again for bringing this to our attention. We will use this report to learn more about test bank material and improve our ability to flag this content proactively.

    If you or your colleagues find other test bank material on Quizlet, please submit an additional report.

    Quizlet Support
    trust@quizlet.com

    __________________


    Your test bank report

    Date submitted: January 19, 2021

    Grade Level: High School (ages 14-18)
    Subject: Sciences
    Is AP: No
    Content Type: Test Bank
    Content Creator: Other

    Your Email: dweege@isd726.org
    Your title: Teacher
    Your school / Company you represent: Becker

    Description of the content:

    Edgenuity Courseware

    Identification of the infringing material:

    Set URLs
    https://quizlet.com/521066797/chem-modern-atomic-theory-flash-cards/
    https://quizlet.com/554888595/edgenuity-unit-4-test-flash-cards/


    UNFORTUNATELY - we can't keep up with all that gets posted on especially when on multiple sites.

    As an example if one were to look up information regarding A Modest Proposal for which students are supposed to write about for an assignment in English 12A content.  A response can be found on multiple sites


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    Dustin Weege
    Becker Public Schools
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    Original Message


  • 17.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 01-29-2021 07:51
    I have found Edgenuity to be helpful when I send links to the Quizlet pages that are posting quiz answers.  They make Quizlet remove the set of questions/answers due to copyright laws.

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    M Grantham
    Social Studies Teacher
    Hereford Center for Accelerated Learning
    Texas
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    Original Message


  • 18.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 30 days ago
    This is so disappointing, isn't it? There will always be students who resort to cheating and it is frustrating when the answers are that readily available. Some strategies to limit it could include beginning the course session with class discussion about integrity and cheating. Discuss questions such as:
     
    • Why do people cheat?
    • What are the benefits and disadvantages of cheating?
    • What are your personal learning goals?
    • Will cheating help you to achieve your learning goals?
    The discussion also allows the teacher to share their view on cheating; many students sincerely care about their teacher's opinion of them. Hearing fellow peers express disdain for cheating can also be helpful.

    After the discussion, have students sign a personal integrity contract of some form. The contract might contain an explanation of the philosophy and purpose of academic integrity, clear definitions of academic misconduct, and procedures and consequences if caught. The student, the student's parent/guardian, the teacher (optional) should sign and date the contract. 

    In addition to that larger unit tests could be held and slotted for specific days or times  in which the teacher holds a class zoom and students must keep their camera's on as they work. This is how my son has taken many exams in his college courses. There still may be cheating but some of these steps could minimize it. 

    Have any of you tried any of these things and found success?

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    Maryum Mohsin
    CQA Tester
    Edgenuity
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    Original Message


  • 19.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 26 days ago

    Thank you for bringing this to our attention! These are all good comments in this thread and an incredibly important topic. We want you to know that we take academic integrity seriously and have an agreement with Brainly and Quizlet to remove our content. We send them documentation regularly, and they scrub their sites to ensure that any answers are removed as quickly as possible.



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    Ayla Hargrove
    Edgenuity
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    Original Message


  • 20.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 19 days ago
    This is the bane of online learning. Even in college, it's so easy to Google answers. I've found that students who cheat their way through the Edgenuity pretests, assignments, and quizzes make about a 40 on the proctored tests. At that time, we have a discussion (with the teacher playing dumb) and ask them what they think could have happened. I do not allow an automatic retake at that point. Sometimes they'll go back and do the quiz proctored or I've had them go back and use Ctrl F to find the material in the transcript and create notes if they passed the pretest and don't have notes. To direct them to key words, I glance through the assessment to see what topics showed up multiple times. Just a couple of ideas.

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    Tammy Daniel
    Coordinator Of Online Learning
    Birdville ISD
    TX
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    Original Message


  • 21.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 19 days ago
    I would highly recommend removing pretesting. If there is some prior knowledge in the subject (seat time) you can use a Prescriptive Exam but it needs to also be proctored. 
    I have also mentioned previously to change the grade weights on the courses and put more weight on the final exam. 



    LogoLogo
    Maria Cuzzocreo, M.Ed.
    Director of Instruction
    T: (480) 689-5999 Ext 018 | M: (623) 882-6353
    E: maria@iwantmydiploma.com | www.iwantmydiploma.com
    1440 S Clearview Ave #104 | Mesa, AZ 85209
    Facebook icon LinkedIn icon Twitter icon Youtbue icon Instagram icon
    Grad Solutions Icon SmartSchoolsUSA Icon LumosArts Icon StudentsFirst Icon



    Original Message


  • 22.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 19 days ago
    When I train my teachers, I strongly recommend they only use the pretests when proctored and turn the feature off when a student does not pass one. I can't monitor every teacher, though, and doubt this is followed. I do not like prescriptive testing because it removes the content from the tests, and there's no way one question per lesson can determine mastery. I do like that they have a new option to lock it, though. Our final exams have been the same weight as the face-to-face classes, but for summer school it's 50%. That seemed to make a difference in cheating.

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    Tammy Daniel
    Coordinator Of Online Learning
    Birdville ISD
    TX
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    Original Message


  • 23.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 9 days ago
    We also stopped using the Pre-Testing feature after our first year.  Too easy for students to cheat, and too difficult to monitor for integrity.

    In some rare instances, we may have a student do Prescriptive Testing under the supervision of a proctor, but never allow for Pre-testing.  

    We also started creating our own in-house writing assessments.  That way, if academic integrity issues arise, we can have the student redo the assignment with our own prompt.  This seems to have helped quite a bit.


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    Karen Perez
    Coordinator - Alternative Education
    Lammersville Unified School District
    CA
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    Original Message


  • 24.  RE: Students cheating by using the website Brainly.

    Posted 12 days ago
    I just read in Forbes magazine that Chegg Study is now the new "Cheat site".  It will answer any question.  There is a subscription rate that may be a barrier for some kids but I can see them subscribing as a group and using one account. 

    Here is one of the highlights on the website

    EXPERT Q&A

    Ask an expert anytime

    Take a photo of your question and get an answer in as little as 30 mins*. With over 21 million homework solutions, you can also search our library to find similar homework problems & solutions.


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    Marcelle McGhee
    Berks County Intermediate Unit
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    Original Message