So far, I have not taught an online course. One of the reasons I hesitate is my concern about the validity of assessment. Or to put it more bluntly, it seems too easy to cheat. A recent article on Bright, reinforces my concerns: It’s about a company called StudyPool.
“Studypool, one of a bevy of on-demand tutoring platforms entering the ed-tech landscape in the past couple years, is being used as a vibrant marketplace for cheating and plagiarism.”
(hat tip to Marginal Revolution)
peakmemory 
This is a huge problem. I teach a large online course at my home institution, but if I had my way, I would prefer that our classes were smaller to reduce this problem
I predict that there will be a crisis in online education. As stories of widespread cheating gain currency, a shadow will be cast over all online education and the honest students will suffer. What we need is some system of proctored exams that guarantee that the students have really learned the material.