Cheaters

[writingprof]

For the students that even bothered to come in and take the final exam, half of those students didn't even have the "cheat sheet" that they're allowed to use. They all know about it, they've been allowed them all semester for every exam, and the cheat sheets are very permissive (you get an entire full-sized sheet of paper to put whatever you want on it).

I used to love these in high school, although we never got a full page. It's amazing what one can get on a 4x6 index card. To be honest, I'm amazed that professors are still allowed to do this. It's not "racist" somehow?

[Hegemony]

I teach a rather technical subject (I mean one with problems and clear right and wrong answers), and the seats are packed too closely together for me to separate the students for exams.  But it doesn't matter.  Some of them may well be peering at the exam of their neighbor and copying the answer.  But the more fool they — because their neighbor has no idea what the answer is either! Extensive experience has proven!  I suspect that trying to copy from their neighbor actually lowers the grades in that class.

[onthefringe]

For the students that even bothered to come in and take the final exam, half of those students didn't even have the "cheat sheet" that they're allowed to use. They all know about it, they've been allowed them all semester for every exam, and the cheat sheets are very permissive (you get an entire full-sized sheet of paper to put whatever you want on it).

I used to love these in high school, although we never got a full page. It's amazing what one can get on a 4x6 index card. To be honest, I'm amazed that professors are still allowed to do this. It's not "racist" somehow?

I can't even imagine what you mean by that. Allowing students to make an exam cheat sheet is actually an excellent way to get (some of) them to engage with the material while they try to decide what to put on the sheet. The best students don't need it, the worst students don't know what to do with it, and the B and C students are frequently helped by the process of making it. Why on earth woukd it be "racist"?

Allowing a cheat sheet also allows me to give exams that ask questions higher up Bloom's Taxonomy. I'm much more interested in whether students can figure out how to apply a formula or idea, than in whether they can memorize something that they could google in two seconds if they were a working professional in my area.

[pepsi_alum]

I'm also in favor of letting students use a notecard on exams for the reasons that Onthefringe mentions. It doesn't really do much to the overall exam average, but it seems to reduce the amount of whining that I hear from students in the run-up to the exam. (I used to get an average of 4-5 unprofessional "panic emails" from students in the lead-up to the final exam. After I started allowing a notecard, that dropped to 0-1).

A parent of a current student just bragged on Facebook about writing their child's paper for my class.  WTF?

Ooof. Yikes. It sounds like the apple didn't fall very far from the tree.

[LetsGetCooking]

Just reported a cheater who used their phone for the entire exam. I watched them stare at the phone while simultaneously writing on the exam. (I did not interrupt since I did not want to cause a disturbance for the rest of the class taking the Final).

After the exam, good ole google let me find the 100% word-for-word sources that the student transcribed onto their exam...including material that was not covered in this class at all! I submitted the exam and copies of the sources used as part of my report of the incident.

Stu Dent's excuse...they didn't know anything about any websites and the reason they held the phone was that their friend kept texting. LOL! (BTW...Just touching the phone is a violation of the policy...Stu Dent's lie was a confession!)

Fantasy Response 1:
Wow! You are sooooooo multi-talented. You are able to psychically channel websites even while being distracted by your phone! I am soooooooooo sorry that I made such a terrible error. Here's your A!

Fantasy Response 2:
HahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaHahahahahahahahahaha

Real Response:
This violation of the Academic Integrity Policy has been reported. The process is outlined in the student handbook. This matter is closed.

[Antiphon1]

A parent of a current student just bragged on Facebook about writing their child's paper for my class.  WTF?

Ooof. Yikes. It sounds like the apple didn't fall very far from the tree.

Yep.  Too bad Mom should have followed the assignment instructions.  I'm gearing up for a grade appeal. 

[RatGuy]

A parent of a current student just bragged on Facebook about writing their child's paper for my class.  WTF?

Ooof. Yikes. It sounds like the apple didn't fall very far from the tree.

Yep.  Too bad Mom should have followed the assignment instructions.  I'm gearing up for a grade appeal.

Had this experience early in the semester. A student complained about his B+ on the assignment to me, told me I was being too subjective in my grading, and that I "just can't tell from looking at a thesis that it's a bad one." This from a 25yo graduating senior in a first-year class. So I sent him to the program director, who kindly told him that his prof was being generous with a B+. The kid's response was that his mom "helped." The program director sussed out that the mom had indeed written it, and since didn't understand the assignment, was lucky to escape without further punishment. The whole situation was weird from start to finish.

[Aster]

A parent of a current student just bragged on Facebook about writing their child's paper for my class.  WTF?

Ooof. Yikes. It sounds like the apple didn't fall very far from the tree.

Yep.  Too bad Mom should have followed the assignment instructions.  I'm gearing up for a grade appeal.

I am pleased that at least someone in the student's household  is capable/willing to complete a writing assignment. I feel bad that Mom can't get a grade. Maybe she could get a sticker on student's paper.

[larryc]

I had four students (two groups of two) in my last summer class who had a friend send them their paper, and then just used a thesaurus on every third noun.

There are websites that do this automatically--paste in some text, hit a button, and get back an oddly-phrased but undetectable plagiarized essay. A not-very-technical colleague just sent me two such essays his students had submitted and an hour of Google searches gave me nothing.

I am not sure what the answer is, except to craft assignments where the students are required to create something so specific that there is nothing they could plagiarize from.

[0susanna]

I had four students (two groups of two) in my last summer class who had a friend send them their paper, and then just used a thesaurus on every third noun.

There are websites that do this automatically--paste in some text, hit a button, and get back an oddly-phrased but undetectable plagiarized essay. A not-very-technical colleague just sent me two such essays his students had submitted and an hour of Google searches gave me nothing.

I am not sure what the answer is, except to craft assignments where the students are required to create something so specific that there is nothing they could plagiarize from.

My department has seen several of these auto-paraphrased papers recently. I expect that a desperate student might resort to such measures no matter how plagiarism-proof the assignment might be ("I haven't even read The Big Novel, so I have no idea how to do this creative thing. I guess I'll just run SparkNotes through a paraphraser..."), but crafty assignments do help.

[polly_mer]

I had four students (two groups of two) in my last summer class who had a friend send them their paper, and then just used a thesaurus on every third noun.

There are websites that do this automatically--paste in some text, hit a button, and get back an oddly-phrased but undetectable plagiarized essay. A not-very-technical colleague just sent me two such essays his students had submitted and an hour of Google searches gave me nothing.

I used to record a D for such papers as being non-college-level work.  The advice years ago on the fora was to have a rubric with categories, but without weighting for categories.  When I checked the lowest box in every point for a certain category, like readability, I then had a fully justified overall D.

Students who only needed a general education requirement tended to be OK with that.  Students who objected in person tended to end up giving enough information that I could then record the F for plagiarism.

[collegeprof19]

....

Real Response:
This violation of the Academic Integrity Policy has been reported. The process is outlined in the student handbook. This matter is closed.

Thanks for sharing! Am wondering what discipline/decision was taken by the administration? Did you follow up and find out?

[collegeprof19]

.....but I can tell you this: higher education is neglecting the discipline and control of cheating anytime it has faculty who can be fired at any time for no reason, or any reason not required to be divulged. Individual chairs or deans may do their best to mitigate the structural flaw that creates this situation, but the situation is there.

I agree that the administration at most institutions are not disciplining students when violations are reported. Do you have any personal experience with reporting instances that are not disciplined appropriately?

[collegeprof19]

......
The place where I had the least support when I was a tenure-track professor where tuition, fees, room, and board was more than the surrounding community's median household income.  Even the most blatant cheating with the starkest evidence resulted in the grade penalties being overturned every time upon student appeal to the academic standards committee.  Following the syllabus and the student handbook meant I was out of line because <retention and graduation>. 

I got those practices changed when I became an administrator to hold the line on our degrees meaning something.  We did not offer new contracts to a couple people who were reported to continue to have low standards, even after being officially warned in writing with concrete actions to take, and offered those part-time positions to people who would do the job including upholding academic standards.

Fear of being fired for doing the job indicates a seriously dysfunctional place from which one should be attempting to flee.

I agree that the administration at most institutions are not disciplining students when violations are reported. Do you have any personal experience with reporting instances that are not disciplined appropriately?

[xerprofrn]

I teach a writing-intensive course in a department in which writing is usually bullet points.  I am fully on-board with the difference between intentional and unintentional plagiarism.  I am also fully aware of the lack of writing skills for most students, at least in my student population. I tell them that I am interested in your ideas, not your run-on sentences, misplaced modifiers, or sentence fragments.  However, if I can't understand what you are trying to say, that's a problem.

Regardless of my explanation of leniency on actual writing skill, I have encountered blatant, intentional plagiarism at least once per term.  It galls me.  I have reported it...nothing done.  Exam cheating issues were dutifully reported under a previous structure, and nothing was ever done.  Students (yes, students) then walked into the president's office of my very small upper division school, and he claimed to have never been apprised of these issues. What?

So now, cheating prevention is a priority.  A new process was put in place for exam cheating and for plagiarism, and I followed it.  I even sent a follow up message about the blatant plagiarism to the one-person academic affairs office to find out when I would be brought in, per the policy.  Said policy also requires an investigative follow through within 5 to 7 days of the faculty member reporting it.  It's been four weeks, and nothing.

I'm so freaking frustrated.