Used to be that changing exam results through a computer could get you expelled. Now it's perfectly ethical in some cases - and you don't have to be a hacker to do it.
When students in Frank Wolfs's physics class get exam questions wrong, they don't get stressed - they get online. Wolfs, an award-winning assistant professor at the University of Rochester in New York, has set up a computer system - based on one developed at Michigan State University - that his students can access for up to 40 hours after the exam. When the computer tells the students they've given a wrong answer, they can ask for subtle hints. Should they get the question right before Wolfs's due date, they receive partial credit.
The students are sold on the concept. "It gives me a chance to rethink concepts I didn't understand at first," says one freshman.
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