Topic: Bang Your Head on Your Desk - the thread of teaching despair!

[apl68]

Sounds like the student was incredulous that the exam was actually, really-and-truly-and-honestly going to be online.  Must have been a lot of wishful thinking otherwise that it was painful to have to let go.

Maybe, but I often have students who just get anxious that they could be misunderstanding something. I think it might sometimes be a result of dealing with uncaring bureaucracies where someone will say something in a confusing way and if you misunderstand it, all the consequences fall on them.

I think that anxiety is a good explanation, for as exasperating as it can be from an instructor's perspective. The world through which my students navigate, especially in my large, bureaucracy-heavy university, is often capricious, and they know they bear the risk, not the institution.

You're probably right.  They do live in such an anxious world.  When you're consumed by anxiety, your thinking starts looking addled to others.  The growing levels of substance abuse noted on another thread may also have something to do with it.

[EdnaMode]

Stu is taking, for the second time, a 100-level course I teach. He is a senior. He needs a C in this course to graduate (and for whatever reason, my institution of higher learning lets students go on to the next course if they earn a D in the prereq, they just have to go back and retake the prereq at a time of their choosing). Stu just earned 12/20 on an assignment the majority of the actual first-years are easily earning 20/20 on because he didn't bother to follow the instructions. He currently has an overall grade of D. The average grade in the course is around 80%. He's a personable young man but if he thinks I'm going to give him a grade he didn't earn, he should have learned that the first time around, or maybe taken the course with someone else who may be influenced by puppy dog eyes and "I NEED to graduate!" He can do the work, he could do it the first time through, he just keeps making poor choices.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I caught someone cheating using my sleuthing skills. This student posted questions from my test to a 'certain' website (where they solve them for you) during an online test and did it in the stupidest way- posting pictures of the actual test (stu's screen). And of course they only match to one individual. Why do they waste my time?

[the_geneticist]

Stu has missed three weeks of class due to a medical concern.  And said they will be missing a fourth.
They said they are "feeling motivated" and will "work hard to catch up".
They have missed: 3 midterms, 3 weeks of [pottery labs], 3 [baskets labs], at least 2 quizzes, etc.

And there are only 3 weeks left. One of which they will still be absent.

I've told Stu they need to petition for a late Withdrawal.  They are refusing "I promise I'll work hard!".

They have already failed once, second failure and they are out of the major. 
Just. Drop. The. Class.

[fishbrains]

Stu has missed three weeks of class due to a medical concern.  And said they will be missing a fourth.
They said they are "feeling motivated" and will "work hard to catch up".
They have missed: 3 midterms, 3 weeks of [pottery labs], 3 [baskets labs], at least 2 quizzes, etc.

And there are only 3 weeks left. One of which they will still be absent.

I've told Stu they need to petition for a late Withdrawal.  They are refusing "I promise I'll work hard!".

They have already failed once, second failure and they are out of the major. 
Just. Drop. The. Class.

In the mid-South (US), we call this the "All things are possible with God" syndrome. People refuse to understand the difference between "possible" and "not statistically probable." Alas.

[AmLitHist]

Spent over an hour documenting a verbatim plagiarism case.  All that work (on my part) over a stupid 15-point reading-response homework (out of 1000 points in the semester). And no, I can't just let it go unreported; if I do, I'm part of the problem.

[downer]

Spent over an hour documenting a verbatim plagiarism case.  All that work (on my part) over a stupid 15-point reading-response homework (out of 1000 points in the semester). And no, I can't just let it go unreported; if I do, I'm part of the problem.

That's one way of thinking about it. There other ways.

[fishbrains]

Spent over an hour documenting a verbatim plagiarism case.  All that work (on my part) over a stupid 15-point reading-response homework (out of 1000 points in the semester). And no, I can't just let it go unreported; if I do, I'm part of the problem.

That's one way of thinking about it. There other ways.

Our Senate asked our student affairs VP to explain the level of documentation needed for plagiarism cases, and she clearly told us that she just needed to know we could make our case should the student choose to challenge the action--that she didn't actually read all the nitty-gritty details in the initial paperwork. We all just sat there blinking. Apparently, the Law and Order level of initial documentation was something from a previous VP. It's worth having your reps ask about it.

[Caracal]

Spent over an hour documenting a verbatim plagiarism case.  All that work (on my part) over a stupid 15-point reading-response homework (out of 1000 points in the semester). And no, I can't just let it go unreported; if I do, I'm part of the problem.

That's one way of thinking about it. There other ways.

Yeah, when students do that on reading responses I just give them a zero and write a comment that what they are doing is incredibly dumb and is going to get them in real trouble. If it occurs again, then I'd report it. Perhaps, this is wrong, but I just feel like there are kinds of academic dishonesty that are so stupid, pointless and self defeating that making an official case just seems superfluous.

Curious though. At my school, I wouldn't need to document anything officially at this stage. I just call the dean of student's office and ask them if the student has any previous academic dishonesty convictions. If not, I can meet with the student and propose a resolution. If the student accepts my proposed penalty, they just sign the form, I take it to student affairs and we are done. I would only have to document anything if the student contested the charge. I gather that's not how it works where you are?

[arcturus]

Spent over an hour documenting a verbatim plagiarism case.  All that work (on my part) over a stupid 15-point reading-response homework (out of 1000 points in the semester). And no, I can't just let it go unreported; if I do, I'm part of the problem.

That's one way of thinking about it. There other ways.

Yeah, when students do that on reading responses I just give them a zero and write a comment that what they are doing is incredibly dumb and is going to get them in real trouble. If it occurs again, then I'd report it. Perhaps, this is wrong, but I just feel like there are kinds of academic dishonesty that are so stupid, pointless and self defeating that making an official case just seems superfluous.

Curious though. At my school, I wouldn't need to document anything officially at this stage. I just call the dean of student's office and ask them if the student has any previous academic dishonesty convictions. If not, I can meet with the student and propose a resolution. If the student accepts my proposed penalty, they just sign the form, I take it to student affairs and we are done. I would only have to document anything if the student contested the charge. I gather that's not how it works where you are?

Your approach would not be allowed at my institution. We cannot penalize a student for academic misconduct without reporting it, which requires a meeting with the student.

I document all the cases of misconduct at the time, so that I don't have to go rooting through old material to find it later. Strictly speaking, I do not need to have all the documentation submitted with the misconduct report itself, but it is helpful to the person who meets with the student to discuss the possibility of an appeal. If she/he is able to show the student the documentation, that helps the student come to the realization that there is no point in appealing, thereby saving me (and others) time. So, while time consuming to document each case, I do think it is time well spent for me in the end.

[the_geneticist]

Spent over an hour documenting a verbatim plagiarism case.  All that work (on my part) over a stupid 15-point reading-response homework (out of 1000 points in the semester). And no, I can't just let it go unreported; if I do, I'm part of the problem.

That's one way of thinking about it. There other ways.

Our Senate asked our student affairs VP to explain the level of documentation needed for plagiarism cases, and she clearly told us that she just needed to know we could make our case should the student choose to challenge the action--that she didn't actually read all the nitty-gritty details in the initial paperwork. We all just sat there blinking. Apparently, the Law and Order level of initial documentation was something from a previous VP. It's worth having your reps ask about it.

We used to have to meet with the student and fill out an agonizingly detailed report.
The exponential increase in cheating during the pandemic changed all that!
Now you can report them in bulk, thanks to an ENTIRE [Baskets 101] course that used Google Drive during an exam.  They were careless enough to send the invite to the entire class, including the instructors.

[apl68]

Plagiarism cases can get really involved when you have a student honor council procedure to follow.  I and a fellow TA had to deal with a rash of plagiarism cases in one class.  I remember meeting with the Honor Council in a kind of court-like setting.

This was back in the early years of the internet, when options for plagiarism were much more limited.  The students in question had plagiarized the Cliff's Notes!  We ended up getting some convictions.

[downer]

There's always been cheating, but it does seem with AI and paraphrasing and various ways students have of communicating with each other, the problem is getting worse. Sometimes I rush to the apocalyptic, when a more measured response is better. But still, it seems that schools that make the reporting and proof of cheating onerous for faculty are asking for big problems. The occasional conscientious professor will still go through the process, but most will skip it.

I am thinking of doing away with online submission of assignments for regular classes and devoting about one third of class sessions to in-class writing assignments or multiple choice tests. The main problem is having to read what they write. Right now, the efficiency of grading online with a rubric is so attractive I can't imagine going back to reading blue books. And I still have plenty of students fail or do badly, so I am far from giving everyone an A. I suspect the proportion of students who get away with cheating in my classes is increasing, but so far it's not a problem I'm forced to do much about, apart from creating assignments that make it harder to cheat.

[Caracal]

There's always been cheating, but it does seem with AI and paraphrasing and various ways students have of communicating with each other, the problem is getting worse. Sometimes I rush to the apocalyptic, when a more measured response is better. But still, it seems that schools that make the reporting and proof of cheating onerous for faculty are asking for big problems. The occasional conscientious professor will still go through the process, but most will skip it.

I am thinking of doing away with online submission of assignments for regular classes and devoting about one third of class sessions to in-class writing assignments or multiple choice tests. The main problem is having to read what they write. Right now, the efficiency of grading online with a rubric is so attractive I can't imagine going back to reading blue books. And I still have plenty of students fail or do badly, so I am far from giving everyone an A. I suspect the proportion of students who get away with cheating in my classes is increasing, but so far it's not a problem I'm forced to do much about, apart from creating assignments that make it harder to cheat.

I do all essay exams in person on blue books because of this. But, I don't really worry too much about the low stakes assignments. Yeah, it's not that hard to cheat, but the truth is reading responses don't count for much of the grade anyway. It's just a way for me to get more students to do the reading and it does seem to accomplish that goal for many students. The students cheating on low stakes reading assignments are just going to end up in trouble on the exams anyway.

[quasihumanist]

But still, it seems that schools that make the reporting and proof of cheating onerous for faculty are asking for big problems.

No they're not.  The tolerance of cheating is intentional, or at least intentional-by-default.

Unless it's enough to make it into the news, having some level of cheating *helps* a university, because having students pass courses is good for retention, which is good for enrollment, which helps the bottom line.

Only when you get to the point of having a genuine reputation of universal quality among graduates to protect does cheating become a problem.  Most universities don't have a reputation to protect.