I am a College Instructor and I know that there are many
tools/methods out there for students to use to change the date
created to an earlier date to "show that the document that they
weren't "able to submit" had been created prior to the due date.
Is there any method/tool out there to see if the student used a tool
or manipulated the date created.
No.
It's too easy to change and leaves no traces unless they do something
really stupid. And, neither of those dates are necessarily accurate
either. Copying a file normally creates a new "created" date, meaning
the "created date" will be when the file was "created" on THAT disk!
That's how you can actually find some create dates to be LATER than the
Modified dates, which don't change during a copy process! Besides,
"create" date is only when they "started", not finished, and "modified"
is simply the last time they changed something in the file.
You can change the Created date easily by simply changing the
computer clock momentarily, saving the file using that old date, and the
put the clock back to the right date. Or use an application to do it;
one is called "touch" and there are many others. In fact, some OS's
include the ability to change the date stamps.
You . can . not . depend . on . those . dates . unless you have
absolute control of the computers and they are locked down from making
changes like that.
If the computers aren't under your control, you can not do it. Now
"able to submit" to me, is no different than not handing in paper work
on time either; both should receive the same or weighted penalties.
There's always the mail if it's needed in an emergency; the post office
doesn't lie about postmark dates.
HTH
