To say the author "intentionally created" an environment where cheating is commonplace I think may be a little unfair to them. Whether they run a given course online or in person is almost certainly well above their pay grade. While the situation was far from ideal and I believe he may have been too lenient in some situations (the plagiarism on the academic integrity assignment for one), at the end of the day he made the best of a very bad situation. No doubt, in-person exams as you described are the most cheat-proof way, but in a scenario where the author has no say in this, it's not a terrible outcome. Look at the semester following the one with widespread cheating - he made significant changes based on the past issues and in the process managed to eliminate a lot of the issues.
I like your line of discussion so I will add some more thoughts regarding the author’s need for self-reflection. I have recently graduated so may provide some perspective:
* They read comments about their teaching, and shrugged it off as “a vocal minority”. I cannot guarantee it’s the case, but it’s not a “minority” it’s most likely the median opinion that most students are too shy to share. And then the online course evals are sent out the last week of the semester and most don’t care anymore to share what they really think.
* The author made no discussion of the add/drop deadline which is usually around Midterm 2. If I was a student not cheating but in the group chat and realized the professor was running a sting operation (instead of reporting cheaters when they discovered them?) I would probably be inclined to drop.
* The Author explains their love of R analysis, then gives no data or statistics on students who were in the chat and still did well on Midterm 2 (still learned material).
* I prefer the weekly quizzes that are basically homework, with free discussion / question compiling on google docs, but then have very strict exams. To claim something is “open notes” but then also that discussing the questions afterwords is cheating seems silly.
Much of the world returned to offline teaching "last semester".
It was like that before the pandemic. If you expect academic integrity in an online class, you are deluded. The students here were just dumb enough to do it in a class-wide chat. Smart cheaters do it in small, trusted, cliques.
I have pre-pandemic experience as a student and as a TA in both an Israeli university and a top American publish university.
The Israeli systems does it as I described above, and the American university does not. The US university held an exam for 350 students in a single conference hall. The proctors were the TAs. We could not check IDs, students seated themselves, and there were no effective supervision. The easiest way to cheat was just to switch the exam forms with a friend.
We intentionally created a massive incentive to cheat. Worse, we curved the grades, punishing non-cheaters.
I tried to protest, but was completely ignored because it was always done like that.
When cheating is easy, and especially if the grades are curved, non-cheaters are harshly punished.
The author intentionally created such an environment and is surprised cheating is going on.
The only possible solution I can see is that the majority of the grade is derived from non-online exams held under strict conditions:
* IDs are checked
* Randomized seating that is announced just before entering the class.
* Enforced distance between test takers.
* Outside proctors that have no sentiments towards the students.
* Even going to the bathrooms should be regulated.
* Smart devices are deposited during the exams.
* Swift harsh punishment to cheaters, and policy violaters (e.g. use of smartphone during exam)
* Constant vigilance in adapting to new methods of cheating.
Without all the above, non-cheaters are effectively punished.
Nothing is perfect, but such steps limit cheating and reduce the incentive for cheating.