Students should be aware that taking another person’s clicker to class in order to answer for them constitutes an academic integrity violation.  There have unfortunately been cases where students brought their classmates’ clickers with them and answered all of the questions on multiple clickers.

There are steps that instructors can take to help ensure that students do not cheat using their clickers.

  • Clearly state in your syllabus that you consider the act of bringing another student’s clicker to class cheating and a violation of Academic Integrity.  We have a Syllabus Excerpt for Instructors Using Clickers on the use of clickers that can be incorporated into your syllabus which includes a note on cheating.
  • Set time limits for your questions.  Setting a time limit for your questions discourages cheating by giving the students only enough time to make a decision and answer on one clicker.
  • Encourage the use of PointSolutions Mobile, the smartphone app that can be used instead of a clicker, in classrooms with adequate wireless coverage.  While a student might give another student their clicker, it’s unlikely that they would give another student their phone.
  • Have your students sign a pledge that states that they understand that bringing another student’s clicker to class to answer for them is cheating and that lays out the consequences of doing so.  That way if a student cheats with clickers you can reference the paper as secondary proof that they knew what they were doing was wrong.
  • Do periodic spot checks as suggested by Cash Acrey in the article Faculty Innovation Spotlight: Preventing Academic Integrity Violations with Clickers.