How To Tell If Your Students Are Really Who They Say They Are

This is one of the main concerns new online teachers have about their classes.  How do you know if your student is really the one taking the class, writing the papers, taking the exams?  While 'cheating' can happen it can also happen in classroom classes as well.  There will never be a surefire way to stop it.  While in online classes it is a challenge since you don't always 'see' your students.  There are many ways to ensure honesty in your online classroom.  Many CMS systems (Moodle, Blackboard, etc) are also very aware of this and have put tools in to help teachers with this issue.  Many schools also have procedures and protocols in place to help ease this issue.  Here is a good article that has some suggestions.