Colleagues cluelessly stealing your assessments right in front of you?

[Caracal]

I'd be annoyed too. There's a difference between sharing and appropriating someone else's work. Walking into a colleague's classroom especially one prepped for an exam and then taking pictures of the actual questions without asking is not normal behavior.

Yes, that's certainly true. I think I'd be more bemused than angry, however.

[Aster]

I mean, it is not clear from the story whether he is going to plop the questions directly into his own exam or if he is going to use the exam as a model for his own. I would also think it really weird if somebody decided to assign the exact same books I did for a class or used the same syllabus. Neither of these is really dishonest itself, just strange.

Yes, these are good points. I'll supply additional information. The dysfunctional professor had not yet written his assessment for his own class, so he was photographing the other professor's assessment questions for direct copying over to his (unwritten) exam. This is a college major with a high student wash-out rate. This was a high-stakes exam for a majors-level course, where if students can find a way to get access to the questions ahead of time, they *will* find a way. We thus keep these assessments under very tight security. Most everyone in our academic discipline is normally well trained (in either or T.A. work as graduate students or as new professors) to understand the importance of assessment security and how crafting our own individualized assessments is a key component of that. That is why it was so shocking and surprising to see one of us so blithely betray our trust in their professional judgement with such abnormal actions. We just do not see somebody in our academic discipline do these sorts of things. If you want to copy somebody else's assessment, you get formal permission from that professor. For high-stakes assessments, half or more of the time, the professor will decline the request or give you older assessment stuff that he/she isn't using anymore. And even with shared content, there is usually an understanding that whatever is shared will not be verbatim-copied in the other professor's assessments. What is shared will be used for study/template purposes only, or heavily modified so that it is functionally no longer the same assessment.

[Ruralguy]

It seems to me that any action to be taken should be by the professor who was copied. Though you did see this happen, so you can ask the copied professor more about it yourself.  Or maybe you should also see the Chair or program director (whichever is relevant here). The chair can see whether the copying professor at the very least changed the ordering of the questions, some wording, and if numerical in nature, say, change the numbers around a bit and maybe at least slipped in some of his own questions.

[Caracal]

I mean, it is not clear from the story whether he is going to plop the questions directly into his own exam or if he is going to use the exam as a model for his own. I would also think it really weird if somebody decided to assign the exact same books I did for a class or used the same syllabus. Neither of these is really dishonest itself, just strange.

Yes, these are good points. I'll supply additional information. The dysfunctional professor had not yet written his assessment for his own class, so he was photographing the other professor's assessment questions for direct copying over to his (unwritten) exam. This is a college major with a high student wash-out rate. This was a high-stakes exam for a majors-level course, where if students can find a way to get access to the questions ahead of time, they *will* find a way. We thus keep these assessments under very tight security. Most everyone in our academic discipline is normally well trained (in either or T.A. work as graduate students or as new professors) to understand the importance of assessment security and how crafting our own individualized assessments is a key component of that. That is why it was so shocking and surprising to see one of us so blithely betray our trust in their professional judgement with such abnormal actions. We just do not see somebody in our academic discipline do these sorts of things. If you want to copy somebody else's assessment, you get formal permission from that professor. For high-stakes assessments, half or more of the time, the professor will decline the request or give you older assessment stuff that he/she isn't using anymore. And even with shared content, there is usually an understanding that whatever is shared will not be verbatim-copied in the other professor's assessments. What is shared will be used for study/template purposes only, or heavily modified so that it is functionally no longer the same assessment.

Ah, that makes more sense. Some portion of academics are bizarrely clueless about norms. Perhaps that's just true in all professions. Years ago an instructor who taught after me in a room kept sending me angry emails about how rude it was that I didn't erase the white boards. That would have been an odd enough thing to fixate on, except I've never used a white board in my life. It apparently never occurred to this person that some people don't use white boards and might not notice or care that a previous instructor had left something on the board.

Probably your colleague should have just politely asked this person not to copy his exams in the moment and I probably should have told this person to leave me alone, but when you're dealing with boorish behavior it can be hard to just politely point out that the person is doing something wrong.

[dr_codex]

I guess some of this is field or discipline specific--it sounds as if STEM people are more worried about this than I would be.

I mean, it is incredibly rude to do what the guy did. But what worries more about it is it bespeaks a general state of cluelessness or anti-sociability instead of any particular attitude towards assessment. I mean, it is not clear from the story whether he is going to plop the questions directly into his own exam or if he is going to use the exam as a model for his own. I would also think it really weird if somebody decided to assign the exact same books I did for a class or used the same syllabus. Neither of these is really dishonest itself, just strange.

I have colleagues ask (and have asked colleagues) to see their exams or assignments before. Sometimes I have used these verbatim, and sometimes I have adapted them. I also do not think that there are really any more original questions to be asked about the causes of the American Civil War or Othello (unless, say: Write an imaginary encounter between Jefferson Davis and Iago).

The key to preventing cheating is not to keep your assessments under lock and key, but to vary them regularly and try to write them specifically to the course material.  In most of my classes, I change the exam questions each time I teach the class, either by writing them from scratch or by alternating questions from previous classes.

I'm stealing the bolded for my summer class. Ok with you?

dc

[ergative]

I guess some of this is field or discipline specific--it sounds as if STEM people are more worried about this than I would be.

I mean, it is incredibly rude to do what the guy did. But what worries more about it is it bespeaks a general state of cluelessness or anti-sociability instead of any particular attitude towards assessment. I mean, it is not clear from the story whether he is going to plop the questions directly into his own exam or if he is going to use the exam as a model for his own. I would also think it really weird if somebody decided to assign the exact same books I did for a class or used the same syllabus. Neither of these is really dishonest itself, just strange.

I have colleagues ask (and have asked colleagues) to see their exams or assignments before. Sometimes I have used these verbatim, and sometimes I have adapted them. I also do not think that there are really any more original questions to be asked about the causes of the American Civil War or Othello (unless, say: Write an imaginary encounter between Jefferson Davis and Iago).

The key to preventing cheating is not to keep your assessments under lock and key, but to vary them regularly and try to write them specifically to the course material.  In most of my classes, I change the exam questions each time I teach the class, either by writing them from scratch or by alternating questions from previous classes.

I'm stealing the bolded for my summer class. Ok with you?

dc

Ii can't quite torture a connection here, but this discussion reminded me of this piece of brilliance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA8mlVJMD0s

[dr_codex]

I guess some of this is field or discipline specific--it sounds as if STEM people are more worried about this than I would be.

I mean, it is incredibly rude to do what the guy did. But what worries more about it is it bespeaks a general state of cluelessness or anti-sociability instead of any particular attitude towards assessment. I mean, it is not clear from the story whether he is going to plop the questions directly into his own exam or if he is going to use the exam as a model for his own. I would also think it really weird if somebody decided to assign the exact same books I did for a class or used the same syllabus. Neither of these is really dishonest itself, just strange.

I have colleagues ask (and have asked colleagues) to see their exams or assignments before. Sometimes I have used these verbatim, and sometimes I have adapted them. I also do not think that there are really any more original questions to be asked about the causes of the American Civil War or Othello (unless, say: Write an imaginary encounter between Jefferson Davis and Iago).

The key to preventing cheating is not to keep your assessments under lock and key, but to vary them regularly and try to write them specifically to the course material.  In most of my classes, I change the exam questions each time I teach the class, either by writing them from scratch or by alternating questions from previous classes.

I'm stealing the bolded for my summer class. Ok with you?

dc

Ii can't quite torture a connection here, but this discussion reminded me of this piece of brilliance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA8mlVJMD0s

Hee. Thanks for the reminder.

[jerseyjay]

I guess some of this is field or discipline specific--it sounds as if STEM people are more worried about this than I would be.

I mean, it is incredibly rude to do what the guy did. But what worries more about it is it bespeaks a general state of cluelessness or anti-sociability instead of any particular attitude towards assessment. I mean, it is not clear from the story whether he is going to plop the questions directly into his own exam or if he is going to use the exam as a model for his own. I would also think it really weird if somebody decided to assign the exact same books I did for a class or used the same syllabus. Neither of these is really dishonest itself, just strange.

I have colleagues ask (and have asked colleagues) to see their exams or assignments before. Sometimes I have used these verbatim, and sometimes I have adapted them. I also do not think that there are really any more original questions to be asked about the causes of the American Civil War or Othello (unless, say: Write an imaginary encounter between Jefferson Davis and Iago).

The key to preventing cheating is not to keep your assessments under lock and key, but to vary them regularly and try to write them specifically to the course material.  In most of my classes, I change the exam questions each time I teach the class, either by writing them from scratch or by alternating questions from previous classes.

I'm stealing the bolded for my summer class. Ok with you?

dc

Great! Make sure to post the best answers....

[egilson]

The dysfunctional professor had not yet written his assessment for his own class, so he was photographing the other professor's assessment questions for direct copying over to his (unwritten) exam. This is a college major with a high student wash-out rate. This was a high-stakes exam for a majors-level course, where if students can find a way to get access to the questions ahead of time, they *will* find a way. We thus keep these assessments under very tight security.

So, the professor who had prepped the room locked it when they stepped out, and the other professor unlocked it to go in and photograph the set-up? If it was locked, that's bad. If it wasn't locked, then they're both at fault.