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Dozens? Out of 39000 students? Even if there were many dozens this is a small percent of the total student base (390 = 1%).

The number of students cheating at higher institutions is frequently reported to be much higher. For instance:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/is-student-cheating-dr...

The problem is not Coursera. The problem is people who cheat. And I am not sure that this is much of a story at this level.

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Right. A course I used to TA normally had about a thousand students per semester. We'd catch at least 10 of them cheating every time, and I have no reason to believe we caught them all. This was a gen ed CS course for non-majors. There were the eight sorority girls who turned in identical programs, then, when questioned, claimed that it was because there was "only one way to write a computer program". Then there was the guy who had his homework done by an online contract programming service and turned it in with "Written by (online service)" still in the comments. Then there was the guy... but you get the idea.

Cheaters cheat. It's what they do. Onlineness has little to do with it.

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