ByCrystal FambriniAssistant City Editor

The future of many online courses at San Diego State University isuncertain — the ones offered by the College of Extended Studiesthrough the Web site www.2learn2.com.

The university is concerned that students’ social security numbersmay not have been secure on the site and that cheating has become tooeasy. All courses offered by SDSU through the site have been put onhold.

Apparently, an SDSU official became concerned about the site inOctober, and stopped allowing students to register for the fallonline courses, but no one will comment further.

Joseph Vasquez, associate vice president for business enterpriseshere, verified that when students signed up for the fall onlinecourses at the site, they were told they didn’t have to pay the $200tuition fee until November. However, students were notified inOctober that registration had ended, and if they hadn’t paid yet,they would not receive credit for the courses they were taking. Atthat point it would have been too late for them to register foron-campus classes.

Vasquez said he does not know why registration was stopped or whomade the decision to do it. These issues will be addressed in a 7:30a.m. meeting today with representatives from 2learn2. Vasquez saideveryone has been too busy to meet until now.

SDSU entered into a two-year contract with 2learn2 in May andstudents started signing up for courses in summer session. This fall1,597 students signed up and paid for the courses before universityofficials changed the rules.

Assistant Dean of Extended Studies Larry Cobb said the College ofExtended Studies is no longer working with 2learn2 and that onereason is because of questions surrounding the privacy of students’social security numbers.

But Vasquez said it is too early to say what will happen with thecompany. SDSU is still under contract with 2learn2.

“We will be using 2learn2 and other companies,” he said. “I meanthat’s another thing that will come out after our discussion. Thedecision will come out after. We will have an update. It’s just wehave a lot of questions and we don’t have a lot of answers — bothsides.”

Vasquez said there are two sets of issues with 2learn2 — thecontractual issue and the academic issues. Vice President of AcademicAffairs Nancy Marlin and the University Senate are in charge of theacademic side and will be establishing a committee to look into theonline classes.

Marlin’s office said that the controversy surrounding 2learn2 hasturned into a legal issue and she will not talk about it.

Guilty conscience?

Study at your convenience. No classes to attend. Take exams asmany times as needed for better course grades.

These statements are what appear on the home page ofwww.2learn2.com — as does SDSU’s name.

Jennifer, who asked her name be changed because she is stillenrolled in an online course, said many students abuse the Internetcourses and she doesn’t know anyone who has followed the rules whiletaking the class.

She said she heard the rumors that “you could beat the system” anddecided to investigate. Jennifer said it wasn’t hard to figure out away to get around the timed-test system. Jennifer showed The DailyAztec the process which takes advantage of a glitch in the program’ssafety net for timed tests. The Aztec is withholding this informationto prevent other students from cheating.

“Why would I settle for a ‘C’ when I could get an ‘A’ and only puthalf the time into it?” she said.

However, Jennifer said, the writing portion served its purpose.

“That’s legit,” she said. “You have to look up sources.”

Jennifer said she has shown others how to beat the system as well.

Does she have a guilty conscience?

“I probably should, but no,” she said. “People are always going totry to beat the system. They shouldn’t make it so easy.”

History professor John Putman teaches an online course and said hehas also heard the rumors of students cheating. He said cheating isdifficult to control and he tries to avoid the problem by havingstudents write a paper in addition to the online tests.

He said he believes the Internet courses have a lot of potential,but students are not yet used to the concept of taking courses andnot attending classes. The lack of face-to-face action students getin a classroom makes them more likely to put the online course on theback burner.

“This fits a certain segment of students,” he said. “Inparticular, those who have self-discipline. I’ll be honest, a lot ofstudents aren’t able to do that yet.”

If you are concerned about social security number theft, visithttp://www.consumer.gov/idtheft.