There's a new trend in the world of distance learning: teachers pretending to be fellow students. Some professors now create student accounts and interact with learners as a peer.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports:
Is it ethical for teachers to pose as online students? Are the results worth the deception? Post your thoughts in the comments section.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education reports:
"Jane Malan and Bill Reed are cousins in deception. They infiltrate online courses and secretly collect information about students by blending in with them...Experimenting teachers have found that they can decrease dropouts by sparking conversation and encouraging fellow students in disguise. However, after learning about this tactic, many students feel betrayed and deceived.
Both Mr. Reed and Ms. Malan are the alter egos of real professors. They belong to a small group of 'ghost students' that academics in Indiana, Connecticut, and South Africa have injected into online courses to kick-start discussions among students, keep them from dropping out, and spy on their communications."
Is it ethical for teachers to pose as online students? Are the results worth the deception? Post your thoughts in the comments section.
See Also:
Comments
I’ve taken about 20 online courses, and I guess in retrospect I would not like a teacher pretending to be a student. I certainly understand where the motivation comes from, though.
It is not ethical.
Of course it is not ethical for teachers to pose as students. However the underlying idea is reasonable. Professors who participated in discussions and invited input without being defensive were very helpful to me.
Sparking discussion,keeping students from dropping out,encouraging students?…Great! But spying, “infiltrating”, collecting information?…….what??? Would anyone beyond Bush Administration cronies find those activities ethical???
I am always disappointed that my online professors don’t participate in the forums. They certainly have my “permission” to do so, under their real identity as instructors.
As far as disguising themselves as students – phe. I agree with you Leo, it is unethical. And what do they mean by “collecting information?” Such as? And “spying?” Give me a break.
As a former college instructor and now someone who does a lot of editing and writing mentoring online, I think any professor who would pretend to be a student should be fired. It is dishonest and frankly rathr eerie. How much personal information could these professors get without student knowledge?
My guess also is that these so-called “professors” are probably looking for student comments about their teaching to see if their teaching reviews will be good or bad or their class size will drop and they won’t get anothr class, i.e, MONEY. If they see bad comments about their teaching, then they can strike back and get even via a grade. Ethical? No! Dishonest? Yes! In spades.
Why can’t these teachers enter a discussion as themselves? They must either be afraid of their students or are tyrannical in their intreactions and discourage honest discussion. This is a very bad development and destroys the honest mentoring and learning that should be going on in a classroom.
The Internet world has fostered a space in which identities have never in human history been more easily switched like masks. People at their keyboards sit as if beside a rack of masks of a range of social identities. This is one of the reasons that the Internet is so popular. People can leave their real circumstances behind and “become” something that, in real, physical terms, they are not. Professors are not the only ones doing this — not by a long shot.
On the other hand, in all of my online courses, two things were far more likely to occur: 1) professors could hardly be coaxed to participate at all; and 2) when they did participate, students were more likely to shmooze and boot-lick and trip over each other to agree with the professors remarks — an educationally useless exercise. If the professors were inclined to commit more time and effort to the education of the students in their courses — a very unlikely eventuality — they would almost have to do so under assumed names to avoid sycophantism.
I would have preferred that they did participate. So many of the course forums were little more than social salves and coffee-klatches and so few of them were intellectually stimulating or educational that I would welcome under any guise the active presence of involved instructors.
I can see the view from the professor’s point of viw and also the sake of the course to help students from dropping out or to consult on a student basis.
Teacher posing as student – the end does not justify the mean. There is a student/’power-figure teacher’ relationship that in no way should be altered. When we teach we explore more than the subject matter; posing as a student is deceitful. There is no excuse to cross that line. Teachers playing this role must have other agendas. Is the line between honoring and deceiving our students so vague?
As an online professor, I think it is indeed unethical to pose as a student in discussion forums for a class. It is not a great way to engender a community of trust and honesty by pretending to be someone you are not. If all our students are asked to represent themselves honestly. Professors should do the same and also be held to the same standard.
A professor should actively participate in forum discussions to facilitate the learning. In our online classes at Bay Path College, specifically in our Nonprofit Management & Philanthropy program, students are assigned to be weekly discussion leaders to kick off discusisons, pose questions and keep things interesting. The discussion leaders and the professors share responsibility in the week to facilitate discussions. In many classes, discussion leaders then are also responsible for summarizing class learning for the week by posting salient points on a class blog or in the student lounge for the benefit of the entire class.
It’s unethical, and deceptive and certainly goes against my principles. Are colleges really hurting for new online students?
Excuse me, but where are the so-called instructors? Why aren’t they actively involved in the discussion? The best discussion comes when (1) students do have mandatory participation, and (2) faculty are actively involved – asking followup questions, challenging student’s statements, and so on. I’ve been teaching online for 9 years, as many as 20 course in a year, and that’s what it takes. The mandatory part insures that students get in and post. The quality of the discussion is a function of the leadership of the instructor, and the quality of the students.
As a world language methods lecturer and having thought on this topic for some days I am reminded of a teacher using ‘hand puppets’ in the classroom to engage less-engaged students or to draw further insight from participating students with the changed role -where the teacher, in fact, becomes that soft little lamb from former days (Lambchop (?) of Sherri Lewis fame). You can see where the dynamics of teacher/student change greatly in this sort of scenario.
One would need to be quite creative and INTRODUCE one or two identities as puppet sorts and operate under those names. This seems much more conducive to learning and meaningful at the early level than at university level, however; and it would take much more time, and who among us has a minute’s more time to online teach?
Yet, if one had extra time, one or two personae, recognized as such, could add increased interest (…let’s check in and see what “Sir Guy” says)to the online discussion.
I realize that my thoughts here are distinct from the original topic (in my opinion, deceit among faculty).
I do not understand why teachers have to pose as student in order to encourage other students to stay in school. I can remember being highly encouraged by one of my teachers during the first year of my schooling. In other words, a good instructor can encourage without being deceitful. When I am struggling in one of my online classes I go back and read some of the encouraging comments from my previous instructors and they helps me to carry on. I understand the desire to want to encourage students to stay in school, but I do not understand why such action is necessary in order to do so. Furthermore, I do not understand what information is collected. I personally do not care because I do not share any information that I do not want known. However, I always thought that the conversation that occurs in an online course environment is supposed to be kept confidential. At the school that I attend for online classes, all the students must agree to such; therefore, I do not see why it would not also be required for instructors as well.
Why do the instructors need to spy on students this way? I’ve been attending UOP for three years and I thought the instructos had access to all student forums. The only instructor who might have benefitted from “spying” on any students was basically intolerable and got horrible reviews from anyone who finished hte class. (Over 50% of the people dropped.)
Who cares if the instructor acts like a student? What kind of information are they going to obtain? I earned a bachelors and a masters degree online and I wouldn’t have cared if any of my fellow students were instructors rather than regular students. I don’t offer more information to other students than I do to the instructor, actually vice versa!!
All is good as I am finishing my MSP and feel that as a future instructor in the said environment, I feel that the instructor could gain insight endeavoring into that side of the equation. Not just to aid in the confidence of students and reducing the DO percentages, but also to increase their own awareness regarding the putting forth of a given curriculum. This is a positive for both the students’ as well as the instructors.
I agree with those who think that professors posing as students are unethical and deceitful. In a brick and mortar classroom, it would be tantamount to the teacher holding a cup on the door and eavesdropping on the students. A good instructor would be actively in and out of the discussion forums, facilitating the discussion, dropping in when the exchange lags, and otherwise being engaged as their mentor. This type of relationship is the best defense against DO rates, far more engagement than an in-classroom scenario at times.
I think college online teachers should just be themselves. Most of the college population are in college because they want to be and are paying for it in my opinion. Sure, some parents pay for their kids to go to college, but most aren’t.
I also think there is a difference between online college and online high school. While I don’t think that online college professors should do it, I could see it being good for high school online teachers to do it. Particularly if online is a last chance for some kids to get their high school diploma. I also think that people should watch what they say everywhere, so if it’s something you wouldn’t want a professor finding out about, then you shouldn’t be talking about it to another student. And honestly, I doubt that it’s impossible for teachers to see everything that is happening in online forums connected to their online classroom. They would have the information regardless, so I don’t think it’s necessarily unethical when you’re doing it to spark conversation and encourage learning which is their jobs, just a bit odd.
I think it is ethical. I have returned to school after several years and I can tell you the cheating the is going on is overwhelming. It would give instructors a better idea of their class and the thinking process of today’s students.
I should think that a well designed course and an engaging instructor would not need to resort to such tactics. I have found in teaching online courses that the correct blend of open-ended questions will resolve the problem of student dis-interest. Instructors should be engaged with the student body by posing questions to their students directly in relation to the student’s posts, thereby engaging the student in conversation. Otherwise, the prof should observe the discussion taking place among the peer group and get out the way until needed.
I agree with Leo. However, I noticed one instructor always had another student account’s work that we could see as example of the work expected in every session. The account was never in the welcome and introductions session.
I think its a great idea. I feel as if students do not interact enough or rellly use their brains in my classes. I used to love when there was arguments in class about who is right. These days everyone is so nice and chppier. and no real learning seems to take place.