In a digital age, it's worth asking cheaters a question or two

Oral exams could be one way to stop students who cut corners.

On November 23, 1499, a young Flemish man by the name of Perkin Warbeck was taken from The Tower of London and executed at Tyburn. His crime? Identity theft.

Warbeck had spent the last nine years masquerading as Richard of Shrewsbury, the first Duke of York. This pretence, he and his supporters had hoped, would bring about the removal of Henry VII, and win Warbeck the English throne. In the end, it cost him his life and earned him the title "The Great Pretender".

This page from European history came to mind while reading a recent article in The National about widespread cheating in the school system. While plagiarism is not exactly treasonable, there is something of the pretender in every student who attempts to take credit for the work of another person. It's as though the student is pretending to be the clever, creative, industrious person who actually did the work.

Academic dishonesty, a euphemism for cheating, is widespread. More than a decade ago, a US study referred to cheating as endemic in North American colleges, estimating that between 40 and 90 per cent of students were guilty of it at some point.

OK, so academic dishonesty is rampant, but so is digital piracy and so-called "file sharing". There are also a long line of deposed despots and terminally ill tycoons sending me emails because they want to send me millions of dollars.

The digital age is changing every aspect of our lives, so why should education be any different? The world of commerce has - often reluctantly - started to let go of the industrial-revolution mindset.

Academia, however, has been much slower to respond. Yes, we have automated and digitised, and we may now use iPads rather than pen and paper, but we have not truly realised the transformation required in the emerging information age.

The article in The National reported that the American University in the Emirates (AUE) had installed security cameras, which reportedly cut cheating by a neat 75 per cent. Personally, I don't think CCTV cameras are the answer. What is really required are innovative methods of assessment, rather than detection.

Innovation - a much-abused buzz-word - need not be synonymous with technological wizardry. Sometimes low-tech, obvious and even retro solutions can be the answer. Take, for example, the case of a student buying an online, off-the-peg essay, or the more discerning plagiarist opting to commission a one-off piece. Campus CCTV, no matter how common, could never thwart these practices.

One form of assessment that could curb this type of dishonesty is the good old fashioned viva voca (living voice), or oral examination. This is a tradition traced back, in Europe at least, to 15th century Italy and the University of Padua. The viva voca was introduced at Padua as a method of verifying, by public cross examination, the veracity of a student's written work and their programme-related learning outcomes.

It also afforded students a valuable opportunity to practise their public oratory skills. While oral exams are still integral to many postgraduate programmes, especially doctorates, they are little used in undergraduate programmes, with the notable exception of Italian universities.

It may be easy to go online and rent an intellect. No doubt "scholars for dollars" are here to stay, and these unscrupulous individuals will happily write your paper for a fee. But try finding one who looks just like you, and is prepared to sit an oral examination and defend the paper on your behalf. Not so easy.

Of course, the oral exam is not the only solution, but it could become increasingly important in an age of digitally assisted dishonesty.

At Zayed University, we recently introduced an oral exam at the end of a psychology course. The students were particularly anxious; for most, it was a totally new form of assessment. The results, however, were excellent. Knowing in advance that you will be publicly cross-examined about what you claim to know is a great motivator for actually making sure that you know a few things.

From the instructor's side, it takes a little more effort than most other assessments. But only those students who really know what they are talking about are rewarded. There is virtually no possibility of cheating, unless you happen to have an evil-genius twin. After all, nothing is absolutely foolproof.

Justin Thomas is an associate professor at Zayed University