Trust in God But Tie Your Camel is an Arab proverb and one of the reported sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to Tirmidhi, one day Mohammed noticed a Bedouin leaving his camel without tying it. He asked the Bedouin, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?” The Bedouin answered, “I placed my trust in Allah.” At that, Mohammed said, “Tie your camel and place your trust in Allah.” (Wikipedia)
I think I first heard the phrase several years spoken by Anthony Robbins, using a slight variation: “Trust in God, But Tie Up Your Horses.”
The phrase came back to me today as I sat watching my students take their midterm exam online. I trust my students to act in a professional and ethical way, particularly when it comes to taking a test. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take some precautions.
We had made the test open book and open notes but told them they could not be using their phone during the exam and they could not search the Internet.
While such behaviors are hard to control 100%, I believe having an implicit level of trust in my students goes a long way towards preventing cheating. But despite that trust, it is also important to minimize temptation for engaging in such behaviors. So we required the students to be on Zoom while they are taking the test. Such monitoring, while perhaps not perfect, cuts down dramatically on the temptation part, while also reinforcing in the students’ minds the importance of protecting the integrity of the academic process.
I do have to admit it is not the most exciting way to spend 90 minutes, staring at a computer screen and watching 24 students take an exam. But it seemed to go OK.
And while some students may not have done as well on the test as they would have liked, the fact that they behaved ethically is much more important to me, and hopefully to them as well.
So we’ve got a modern take on the old Arab proverb:
Trust Your Students, But Use Zoom When Testing Online.
*image from Astro Alchemy
Open book exams are difficult so it’s good that the students could not use the Google machine as well.
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Yes, students can find a lot of useful info on Google… 🙂
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Trust but verify.
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I guess that means don’t trust.
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Are you replying to your own comment? 🙂 and yes, the good old trust but verify…
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I had not thought far enough along to consider how online education would apply to testing. I agree with you that there must be a level of trust between professor and student. Considering you were kind enough to make it “open book and notes”, I can’t imagine how the internet could provide better or more accurate information than what they already have access to. Although we can never fully remove the opportunity or temptation to cheat, I stand by another old saying, “Cheaters never prosper”. Interesting post, Jim! I hope they all surprise you with their scores!
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Thanks, Brad. The students did OK; as usual, some better than others. And yes, it does not get more basic than cheaters never prosper…
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ah, the old use zoom when testing online technique goes way back to the cave days of yore. tried and true.
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Exactly. When cave kids took their tests on cave walls… 🙂
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Yep, scratching out answers with a stick
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and using emojis…
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That’s a modern take. 🙂
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Just a couple thousand years… 🙂
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🙂
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I hope they did really well under the strange conditions. And I hope your playlist while you watched included School’s Out and Don’t Stand So Close To Me, and perhaps Another Brick In The Wall too 😉
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Now I know who to turn to when I need the perfect playlist! three great choices once again! the students did OK; I was hoping they would have done better…
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All part of the service! I would imagine the strange circumstances might have caused a dip in results?
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I am sure that’s one part of it…
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I like “Trust in God, but tie your camel”! But seriously, your version should be the motto of all teachers!
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maybe I should start selling t-shirts with the new motto… 🙂
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I’ll buy one! (Or make one myself #climatefriendly)
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I like how you are always thinking about the environment!
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Thank you! I have actually gone a bit too Much, now I can’t not think about it…..but it’s fine, as long as I don’t get a depression over McD’s;)
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there are far worst things to become obsessed with. just stay hopeful that things will get better, and that you can help make it that way.
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You’re right, i will
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Happy to hear that!
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Camels wander away. Supposedly, God does not. Perhaps this is what Mohammed meant.
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or perhaps Geico might come along in the middle of the night looking for a new camel for its ads…
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That is a very good idea, Jim. Invigilating an examination taken on Zoom. Brilliant!
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I wish I could say I thought of the idea, but we had faculty doing so this past Spring. And I learned a new word today – invigilating! 🙂
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I passed this idea along to my sons school this morning. It is just to good not to share.
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I’ll be curious if they start using Zoom for testing…
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I’ll let you know. They are thinking about it for kids who can’t go back to school for health reasons.
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that seems like it would be a good use of such technology.
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A clever take on that quote! 🙂
I hope you were listening to good music at least while watching the students take their exam. Like a Mama Mia soundtrack perhaps!
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I don’t think I could have multitasked like that! But if I could, Mama Mia would have been my choice… 🙂
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Of course! 🙂 Smart guy!
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I hope that many other people put as much value on ethics as you do. Some of society’s values have somehow gotten screwed up. I won’t label all the unscrupulous people in government (both sides of the aisle), but I long for the day when someone’s character was more important than their politics.
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I couldn’t agree more about our politicians. Although I was a bit surprised to read the results of an AARP survey that asked members what is the most important issue when you go to vote – and a person’s character was fifth on the list! I thought it would have been first or second! I’m not sure what that says – have we given up on caring about the character of the people we vote for?
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That’s my point. While I don’t want to tell other people how to live their lives, I place a high priority (higher than policy) on a person’s character. Another way to look at it is I would have a hard time being friends with someone who has a questionable character, but I can be friends with people who have a different political viewpoint than me if they have upstanding character.
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great way to point out the importance of character…
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Zoom, character, playlists and selling t/shirts and all from one statement…Love it! sorry, I can’t like posts WP thinks it’s my browser…it is also intermittent…I don’t know what to think as changing browsers hasn’t worked…back to the drawing board 🙂
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yes, the comments have gone in a lot of directions! I never understood intermittent software problems. If it works, why would it stop working?
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My thoughts exactly, Jim…
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A very interesting saying. Behaving in an ethical way is definitely important.
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ethics>test score
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I like “trust but verify” 👍✨👍
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that’s a much more succinct way to put it!
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Zoom sounds like a good idea. We used Proctorio in one of my classes, and it was nerve-nacking, being watched (Jim Gaffigan’s “international travel” seems relatable here).
With international travel, not everyone is hiding drugs or seeking to terrorize the country, but security methods are used to protect the country from possible threats, which can still make honest people uncomfortable regardless of their plans to enjoy a drug-free and crime-free vacation.
Some people will be honest and some will cheat. Use the technology needed to monitor your students.
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Nerve-racking… Autocorrect strikes again.
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I agree it’s a bit over the top, but we need something to protect the integrity of the testing process. Thanks for adding your perspective!
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