Army knew of cheating on tests for eight years

[unhappycamper]

Army program analyst Al Kahn and training technician Sherry Beardslee help those taking tests in the Army Correspondence Course Program from their office at Fort Eustis, Va. The program is under fire from many who say rampant cheating is taking place by soldiers who are getting test answers from Internet websites.


Army knew of cheating on tests for eight years
By Bryan Bender and Kevin Baron
Globe Correspondent / December 16, 2007

FORT EUSTIS, Va. - For eight years, the Army has known that its largest online testing program - which verifies that soldiers have learned certain military skills and helps them amass promotion points - has been the subject of widespread cheating.

In 1999, testing officials first noticed that soldiers were turning in many tests over a short period, something that would have been almost impossible without having obtained the answers ahead of time. A survey by the testing office showed that 5 percent of the exams were probably the subject of cheating. At the time, soldiers were filing roughly 200,000 exams per year.

But it wasn't until June of this year, when an Army computer contractor complained about a website providing free copies of completed exams, that the Army acknowledged that it had a problem.

A five-month Globe investigation has since found that by then, hundreds of thousands of packages of completed exams had been downloaded by soldiers over many years.

But the Army never prosecuted anyone for cheating - which is a violation of three sections of the military code of justice.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/16/army_knew_of_cheating_on_tests_for_eight_years/

[CarbonDate]

1. CBTs

I think the real problem is promoting these "correspondence courses" in lieu of actual training. The military has been in love with these things since I came in, and while I understand why, they're completely worthless.