Technology Detects Cheaters

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Using modern technology—miniature cameras, smartphones, and the internet – has made stealing and sharing exam answers easier than ever. Problems of this type have become so rampant that the Japanese government asked universities to ban mobile phones from rooms used for conducting exams.

Technology now can uncover cheating more easily and software developed by exam-setting firms like Prometric and Caveon detect cheating by calculating the probability of a pattern of answers being honest. If two students' patterns of answers are similar or identical, flags go up. A pattern of changed answers or the same changes by two students is likewise suspicious.

Prometric inserts a unique question in some individual exams. If the question appears later online, a leak is indicated.

Read more in the article in The Economist that ends in noting that gone are the days when a correct answer was scribbled in a student's sweaty hand.

Reported By Dr. Marciene Mattleman, KYW Newsradio