My Inspiration
Facilitating Virtual Integrity
As a professor of criminal justice, I have provided students with the knowledge needed to excel and make their own educated decisions, along with an online learning platform focused on integrity, values, and personal responsibility.
Financial aid fraud has always existed, but it is my opinion that Covid pandemic was the catalyst for what is likely the most prolific financial aid scam that will likely exceed billions and billions of dollars, never to be seen again. Not only have the criminals taken advantage of the free-flowing pandemic aid, but many of our community colleges have taken advantage of the funding received for "teaching" students who do not exist and in return, inflating enrollment. Real students, in need of classes at community colleges, often cannot enroll in classes because those classes are full of "fake students."
My class that began April 10, 2023 had 40 students enrolled....38 were fake.
People cringed at the "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal perpetrated by wealthy parents who paid enormous sums of money to college consultant William Singer who then funneled that money into bribing college personnel so children of the wealthy parents would be accepted at prestigious universities.
This doesn't involve wealthy parents yet pulls at the most underprivileged and deserving...community college students. This is the steppingstone and sometimes only stone available for some seeking higher education or technical certification. It is where I started as the first in my family to attend college. Community colleges also provide our lifelong learners and retirees with much needed classes to keep them engaged in our communities and give them opportunities to keep their minds sharp and up to date on technological advances.
All 116 of the California community colleges are aware and have been since 2021 that there is a prevalence of fake students/bots enrolled and continuing to enroll in college courses. The criminals behind the scheme are involved in application fraud, enrollment fraud, financial aid fraud and identity theft. Many of the community colleges are complicit in permitting this to occur. The community colleges are funded per enrolled student so if integrity is removed, then there is no incentive to remove the fake students. Taxpayers are paying community colleges to teach students who do not exist and funding the spending sprees of criminals.
So, where do we go from here? I have not only led my life around being authentic, but have made that the foundation of this next step in my professional career and what I have to offer. If what we do and how we do it is set up with the mindset of being authentic we have created a stable platform to build upon.
Educate the "educators" and administrators about various steps that can be used to identify fraudulent students, but ultimately prevent fraudulent students from becoming embedded in classes and student information systems. In return this prevents criminals from having access to general personal information about faculty and FERPA protected information.
Promote academic integrity. It is better to be proactive than to be reactive. As an educator, leading by example and offering various activities in online classes that can promote academic integrity is the first step. In doing so, students learn that honesty is the best course of action. This will lead to less work in the long run by preventing some academic dishonesty and knowing the foundation of honesty was forefront in the class.
Being realistic, not all academic dishonesty can be prevented, but there are many tools that can help in identifying academic dishonesty. I have taught online for almost 20 years, starting with Moodle. I have taught exclusively with Canvas for the last several years and have learned there are many options within that LMS that can assist in detecting academic dishonesty. It takes time because it is never just "one" thing that identifies academic dishonesty. It is really a puzzle and it is important to make sure all of the pieces fit before accusing a student of engaging in academic dishonesty.