{"id":2840,"date":"2012-09-17T12:18:48","date_gmt":"2012-09-17T18:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/?p=2840"},"modified":"2014-09-12T11:58:25","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T17:58:25","slug":"coursera-gamification-curiouser-and-curiouser-cheating-in-a-course-with-no-credentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2012\/09\/17\/coursera-gamification-curiouser-and-curiouser-cheating-in-a-course-with-no-credentials\/","title":{"rendered":"Coursera Gamification: Curiouser and Curiouser – Cheating in a course with no credentials."},"content":{"rendered":"Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

It seems that people out here at the Interwebs are searching around using the problem statement in the (my) coursera gamification course.<\/p>\n

Hmmmm, I say.<\/p>\n

I decided to make my learning experience public because I thought it might be interesting to try “learning out in the open”. If we can have MOOCs where thousands of people are learning at the same time, why not let people watch me as I go through it. (By the way feel free to comment on any of the stuff I’m doing).<\/p>\n

It should have been obvious, but it never occurred to me that people might want to take my solutions to the assignments and use them as their own. Why would anyone want to do that? Apparently, they do. How lame do you have to be to cheat at something where winning makes no difference? Pretty lame I guess.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, it occurred to me that this might provide a lovely opportunity for anyone interested in studying cheating in coursera. So, without further ado, I hereby invite anyone who’s interested to use my solutions as bait. Let me know what you catch.<\/p>\n

I posted a comment in one of the course forums. I’m curious to see what happens next. This is the message I posted:<\/p>\n

For various reasons I decided to post my work in this course (and another I’m taking) publicly on my blog.<\/p>\n

Part of the reason is that I think free and open education should go both ways. A colleague posted some comments about my 2nd assignment on his blog and then noted a large spike in hits on his post. These searchers were searching on the problem statement so it is likely they were looking for answers they could plagiarize.<\/p>\n

While I really can’t see what anyone has to gain by plagiarizing work submitted to a course that carries no real credential, I thought I would alert the powers that be to the fact that I am posting my answers publicly.<\/p>\n

If you are reading this and are enrolled in the course – DON’T ASK ME FOR THE LINK.<\/p>\n

If you are an administrator of this course – feel free to email me privately and I’ll give you the link to my blog. Feel free to test submissions against my solution to see if they copied me. If nothing else it will provide you with a good indication of just how much cheating is going on. I’m also happy to forward the emails of anyone who asks me for a link to my answers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n