It didn't take but a few days after beginning work as an TESOL instructor here in Thailand to realize one fact about Thai students: cheating is a viable option in the land of Thai. At my school, not only is it widely practiced in every subject, but it is also encouraged by the instructors. After spending half a semester futiliy trying to root out cheating in my classroom, I decided to use a much more creative approach than just saying 'no'. Through my efforts, I learned some tips that may help others to circumvent the power of cheating.

Homework
1. If you give homework, make sure you collect it and grade it. If you never collect homework, most students won't do it. This means these students won't learn the material and will need to rely on cheating when quizzes, tests, or exams are given out.

Quizzes
1. When giving students written quizzes, ask students to pass in completed quizzes as soon as they finish. This keeps completed quizzes from discreetly circulating through a classroom before they are turned in.

2. Don't return graded quizzes until the next class period. In a large class, it is hard to keep track of those who've finished and those who are 'posers', that is, students pretending to be finished but are really waiting on graded quizzes to be returned so they can snatch them and copy, copy, copy. When the class is over, accept no quizzes after that time. This will force posers to finish by the closing bell.

Tests
1. Use multiple-choice, short-answer type questions with no numbers or letters assigned to the choices. This forces students to write in correct answers. A cheater will be forced to speak entire answers if he is a 'provider', and write entire answers if he is a 'requester' . Many times students will call out correct answers to each other in their native tongues during tests. If he or she does this, make sure he must call out the entire answer and not just a simple letter or number.

2. Make up several versions of a test for each class. This forces each student to actually perform on the test, as any answer spoken by a 'provider' will be meaningless to anyone with a different test version.

I've found these strategies to be extremely helpful in gauging my students' true abilities and motivating my students to try harder. After a year in Thailand, I've learned that if the proper strategies are used, cheating CAN be reduced, and can even be turned into a learning experience for my students.