Frustrated with cheating and plagiarism in your classroom? You're not alone. Earlier this year, a teacher asked other teachers in the FinLit Fanatics Facebook group for advice on handling cheating. Here are four suggested methods. 

Below are snippets from educators who replied to the post in FinLit Fanatics. View the full thread with additional suggestions and comments here.

1. Use AI

• "I use the Brisk AI extension and it shows me a fast video how they edited their google doc (how long they took on it, what date and time they were typing… best part is it shows how many copy and pastes they did!) and shows me them doing it (like it looks like you are watching a recording of them doing it. Worth looking into! I always check if it seems suspicious."
• "I use Revision History and it does the same."

2. Print Packets & Change Some Details

• "I create unit packets with the NGPF student packets. I pull certain questions, change the names, and details. At the end of the unit, I collect the packet and grade. We barely do anything online unless it’s a project that they submit through the portal."
• "I typically print hard copies for class so they have to write instead of paste. I usually remove NGPF titles to make it harder to cheat as well."

3. Do the Work as a Class, Grade for Completion

• "I use NGPF packets and we do them together as a class. I'll play a video, then let them answer the questions in small groups, then I call on someone. They have discussions. Or, we do activities in groups.... all on paper. They turn it in, then my student aid grades it for completion."

4. Use Unique Real-Life Scenarios

• "I make a lot of the activities ones where they can't copy. Like, when we learn about mortgages, they pick a house and then do calculations around different payment scenarios. I then check their work myself, which takes longer, unfortunately. I also warn them that if they copy it will be super obvious because why would two people pick the same two houses."
• "I focused on making my assessments for grading purposes as close to real-life scenarios as possible. This provided relevance for students and made it very easy for me to see what they knew while also making cheating very difficult."

About the Author

Hannah Rael

As NGPF's Marketing Communications Manager, Hannah (she/her) helps spread the word about NGPF's mission to improve the financial lives of the next generation of Americans.