Is this cheating?

[BlackShanglan]

I think this is cruxt of the entire matter. Does it really matter that the study group is on the internet or sitting in some room on campus?

Personally, I think that that whole argument (as supplied in the article) was a smokescreen. The professor isn't complaining that they used computers; he or she is complaining that they collaborated on an assignment that was specifically required to be done independently. The only thing the Internet site did, so far as I can tell, was make it possible for the professor to prove that the collaboration had occurred. I can't vouch for the professor's perspective, of course, but personally I'd be just as likely to call it cheating if they'd been caught exchanging notes in person. It's just more difficult to detect that way.

Dr. M., I'm curious about this:

You can't have it both ways: use homework as a pedagogic tool and as a test of a student's knowledge, yet that's what he's trying to do.

Why not? Are you saying that homework shouldn't be used to test student knowledge at all (due to the greater difficulty in establishing authorship), or that testing knowledge and helping students learn are inherently opposed processes? I feel that I've learned a good deal from some grade-assessed work I've done, although as Roxanne points out, that's a great deal more likely in fields where non-quantitative answers are sought. They tend to have a very extensive "show your work" element built into them, as they require that you explain why your answer is correct or appropriate.

 

[ishtat]

?

Academic institutions themselves need to take some responsibility. Many hand out too many soft grades to home based assignments. Rigorous examinations will always sort out an academic order of ability and test knowledge much more than home based assignments.

When I was an academic a significant minority of my colleagues were too damn idle to put students through a programme of tough detailed work. So much easier to give them an assignment and tell them to toddle off and bring back the result in a week or two.

I know this is another topic but why are professors routinely allowed to get away with having their names put down as joint authors of their graduate student;s work.It is a far worse example of cheating than that described in this article but most senior academics do it. I know they come up with excuses like "it helps with publication," but it stinks.

 

[Pure]

good points, ishtat. 'soft assignments' for major parts of grades *are* an issue.

a particular issue, in this age, is giving assignments that can be filled on the net, by purchase, e.g. giving the whole class an assignment on, say, imagery in Hamlet, or the moral stance of the protagonist in To Kill a Mockingbird.

as i mentioned in my last post, it is simple to see if a student is doing work on his own. ask to see drafts. but that is time consuming, and is not done.

also, if a prof acquaints himself with a student's writing and thinking, then a bought essay will be much easier to spot. even a "custom essay" will usually be obvious, although an acquaintance of mine, in the business will, on instruction, INSERT as number of misspellings and grammatical errors to match a foreigh student's English problems!

students, like everyone else, are going to figure ways to cut corners, and minimize effort. while some will participate fully in a group, in good faith, other groups contain free riders.

IF there is full participation, and for instance, a group divides up the problems, and each person does one, and shares it, at least there is some learning. IF each student has to show evidence of understanding the answers of other students for their problems, he or she will learn.

unsupervised internet groups invite free riding and parasitism and corner cutting, although the probs are NOT peculiar to the internet.
looking up a smart student's answer on the internet, for an assignment is not different from calling me up, as a tutor, and asking for directions in solving a problem.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Sorry, but I don't see the issue here. The problem is, this professor is trying to use homework as a take-home test, in which case no copying or co-operating or outside help should be tolerated. It's his duty to make that clear to the students and he either has to either go with the honor system or find some way of enforcing that rule. At the very least he has to make it clear that there's to be no sharing of information or study groups.

If, on the other hand, he's using homework as a pedagogical device, as a means of teaching them skills, then he should allow them to use any expedient that furthers this end - study groups, tutors, the web, whatever.

What am I missing?

We face a similar problem in teaching lab courses in chemistry. We spend semesters drilling into their head that science is a matter of reporting objectively and empirically what they observe during an experiment, then we set up some chemistry experiment and some of them screw it up and instead of getting a mass of fluffy white crystals they get what's known in the business as a "black, intractable tar." What are they supposed to report?

They know if they report they got a tar they'll lose points for screwing up the experiment, but if they report they got crystals they're going against everything we've taught them about science. So what do they report and how do you grade them?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Dr. M., I'm curious about this: [You can't have it both ways: use homework as a test of a student's knowledge and as a pedagogic tool--dr.M.]



Why not? Are you saying that homework shouldn't be used to test student knowledge at all (due to the greater difficulty in establishing authorship), or that testing knowledge and helping students learn are inherently opposed processes? I feel that I've learned a good deal from some grade-assessed work I've done, although as Roxanne points out, that's a great deal more likely in fields where non-quantitative answers are sought. They tend to have a very extensive "show your work" element built into them, as they require that you explain why your answer is correct or appropriate.

I was thinking specifically of chemistry and math where you're learning specific problem-solving and application techniques, applications of calculus, say, or analytical chemistry. It's not fair to test a student on a technique he simply hasn't mastered yet, and I'm afraid that's what this chemistry professor is trying to do.

There's just so much of this in chemistry. They give you one or two examples of a technique and then deluge you with harder and harder homework problems till you're pulling your hair out. Usually they reveal the techniques for solving the problems the next day in lecture, after you've broken your teeth on them, and that's how you learn. But if you were graded on these problems, you'd throw up your hands in despair and quit.

I've heard a lot of teachers say they use homework as a way of assessing a class's weaknesses or progress, but how can you do that when they're working for a grade and doing everything possible to come up with the right answer, even cheating? They're masking their weaknesses and cheating you as a teacher as well.

Besides, the even numbered questions have the answers in the back of the book anyhow.

That's why my homework counted for 5% of the grade and all they got was a check or a minus for completed or not. The homework problems showed up in modified form in the tests and quizzes and they knew that.