Who's on the other end?

Once people hear I teach online, I've had a few ask me how I know it's the real student actually taking the online course (assignments, discussions...). What are the latest thoughts on maintaining academic integrity/honesty in making sure online students have not hired someone to take the course for them? There was a recent Chronicle of Higher Education piece that raised some concerns.

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Comment by Robert Piorkowski on March 14, 2011 at 11:52am: I'm not sure why this concern is limited to online students...the same possibility exists for all students, unless professors have started requiring a picture ID from their students.

At SLN, we recommend to our faculty to plan for "daily" interaction with their students, with formative assessments occurring at regular intervals. Rather than a few "high stakes" assessments due at specific times in a semester, students can be expected to submit work 4/5 times a week. We believe that in regard to cheating or authenticity, this approach can mitigate the possibility of students "hiring" others to do their work for them. If consistent, daily work is required, it becomes a 16 week commitment for a "stand-in." Another benefit to this approach is that instructors become very familiar with their students' narrative voices.