Physics Courses in the 21st Century

What are physics classes coming to, now that more information is becoming more readily available via the internet? How can you assign a homework problem that has  "4,392 results" on the internet, found in "0.15 seconds," and grade it as if it were representative of the student's ability?

There are only so many ways that you can write the standard "projectiles" problems, or "Gauss's Law" problems, etc., and today you can find the solution to ANY problem online, guaranteed. A professor can try to write problems in a covert way, but students aren't stupid: they'll sniff out the parallel problem on the internet and copy it to get their 100% homework score, which varies in fraction of the final grade from 30-50%.

    So what purpose does homework serve then?Well here's an illustrative example: I had one professor for E+M who knew all the students had the solutions manual to the Griffiths E+M book (again, found on Google in 0.15 seconds), but he'd assign all the problems from it anyway - this was the part that at first confused me, but by imagining yourself in his shoes it makes sense. He recognized the fact that to try to 'fool' the students by writing one of the standard problems in a covert and more confusing way would be petty and counterproductive, so his strategy was 'screw it, let them copy homework problems if they so choose.' He would assign an enormous number of problems that no student had time to finish without the aid of the solutions manual, and had a firm 'no late homework' policy. The trend was like this: at the beginning of the semester students started the homework early in the week, and used the solutions manual only to check their answers, due at 5pm every Friday in the Reading Room homework box. Then, as the semester went on students would start the homework later and later, to the point that they would start the assignment on Friday -- imposssssible to finish without shutting down your brain and copying as fast as your poor sore hand can write. Sure enough, when you'd look through the box of graded homework on Monday, you'd see all perfect scores. Then, for tests the professor allowed "cheat sheets," up to three pages of notes of any kind. Then on tests the class average would be below 50% with a perfect Gaussian spread --- how? Some students just copied homework and didn't spend time making good cheat sheets, while others put in the time necessary to actually learn the homework problems (no surprise here).  

    When I studied abroad in Italy, their system was different. There were only two exams that decided your grade: the written exam and the oral exam. You were required to first pass the written exam before being able to take the oral exam, but almost everyone passed the written exam; yet again, there are only so many different ways you can write the standard "particle in a box," "harmonic oscillator," and step/delta function problems, so the students simply got the previous exam solutions from last students, then aced the exam, which was always similar to past exams. But then there's the oral exam: I talked with one student who said that he didn't even get the book, for the oral exam the professor simply wants to hear his own words regurgitated back to him.

   My problem with these education systems is that students end up wasting a lot of time jumping through hoops rather than learning. This happens because the institution needs to give the appearance that its students have learned to solve crazy problems, and can give eloquent answers to difficult oral exams, but in reality students are shutting down their minds copying homework, memorizing solutions to problems knowing that it will show up on the exam, and regurgitating what the professor said without thinking at allllll. The students who choose to do things the hard way, 'nobly', spending all week on the problem set and still not finishing it, who don't write problem solutions onto their cheat sheet out of principle, who study from multiple outside resources for an oral exam rather than memorizing the professor's words verbatim, get screwed. There are an enormous number of extremely bright students who just can't put up with the hoops that universities like Berkeley throw at them, which is a shame. I look forward to a future education system in which students end up learning instead of jumping through hoops.