Using Blackboard to Eliminate Homework Copying

It is well known that doing homework improves students understanding of the material that is being taught and instructors assign homework with this knowledge in mind. However, it is not uncommon for a teacher to receive homework assignments that are exact copies of each other. This happened regularly in my physical science class when I assigned written homework. In an effort to overcome this problem I adapted the Blackboard testing system for homework assignments. The Blackboard testing system allows the instructor to create a quiz which the students take over the internet. In this method the students are given an assignment containing ten problems and are given ten days to work them out. A quiz is created on Blackboard containing five of those ten problems and five multiple choice and short answer questions from the notes. The students are given ten days to take this quiz before it goes off. After completing the quiz the students are given their grade and which answers were correct and which ones were wrong. The Blackboard system randomizes the questions and answers making it harder for the students to copy answers directly as indicated by three years of data.