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

[Parasaurolophus]

Yes, I'll have to do something like that, and set other traps. I'll also have to find a way to see the Chegg answers, however.

[downer]

I recently emailed someone I knew professionally because I stumbled on a recent page on a cheating site that provided the answers for their quizzes.

I was a bit worried that it would seem strange that I would do that, but I imagine that most people would not be upset.

[Liquidambar]

I keep checking for my stuff on Chegg, but I've never found it.  I'm not sure if I'm being naive or if my students really aren't cheating.  I've been giving a larger number of short, low stakes exams.  My hope is that it's easier to just solve the problems yourself than to get someone to solve them for you.

[the_geneticist]

Chegg.com will take down questions from your exams, quizzes, etc.  Just copy the link and paste in a submission form.  It's under "copyright protection" or a similar link at the bottom of their website.

The other way to check is to just do a Google search for your questions.  If it's on CourseHero or Chegg, it will pop up as one of the first hits.

My current head banging moment is learning that one of my most experienced TAs (not trained by me, but that's another story) has been telling students the answers to their assignments before they turn them in.  As in, the student emails to say "Is the answer to question 1 [incorrect answer]?"  and the TA writes back "The answer to question 1 is [correct answer].  And here's the answer to question 2."  Student "Oh thank you!  You are so helpful!"

Seriously?!  Why do you think this is OK? 

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Chegg.com will take down questions from your exams, quizzes, etc.  Just copy the link and paste in a submission form.  It's under "copyright protection" or a similar link at the bottom of their website.

The other way to check is to just do a Google search for your questions.  If it's on CourseHero or Chegg, it will pop up as one of the first hits.

My current head banging moment is learning that one of my most experienced TAs (not trained by me, but that's another story) has been telling students the answers to their assignments before they turn them in.  As in, the student emails to say "Is the answer to question 1 [incorrect answer]?"  and the TA writes back "The answer to question 1 is [correct answer].  And here's the answer to question 2."  Student "Oh thank you!  You are so helpful!"

Seriously?!  Why do you think this is OK?

Get a new TA.

[the_geneticist]

Chegg.com will take down questions from your exams, quizzes, etc.  Just copy the link and paste in a submission form.  It's under "copyright protection" or a similar link at the bottom of their website.

The other way to check is to just do a Google search for your questions.  If it's on CourseHero or Chegg, it will pop up as one of the first hits.

My current head banging moment is learning that one of my most experienced TAs (not trained by me, but that's another story) has been telling students the answers to their assignments before they turn them in.  As in, the student emails to say "Is the answer to question 1 [incorrect answer]?"  and the TA writes back "The answer to question 1 is [correct answer].  And here's the answer to question 2."  Student "Oh thank you!  You are so helpful!"

Seriously?!  Why do you think this is OK?

Get a new TA.

I do not want to ever work with this one again.  But it's not entirely my choice since TAs are assigned by a committee.
We had a follow-up email where the TA said that when students email right before the assignment is due, that they just don't have the time to meet with the student, so the TA thought it was best to just tell the student the answer.  You know, so the student won't "feel bad".

[Parasaurolophus]

Chegg.com will take down questions from your exams, quizzes, etc.  Just copy the link and paste in a submission form.  It's under "copyright protection" or a similar link at the bottom of their website.

The other way to check is to just do a Google search for your questions.  If it's on CourseHero or Chegg, it will pop up as one of the first hits.

My current head banging moment is learning that one of my most experienced TAs (not trained by me, but that's another story) has been telling students the answers to their assignments before they turn them in.  As in, the student emails to say "Is the answer to question 1 [incorrect answer]?"  and the TA writes back "The answer to question 1 is [correct answer].  And here's the answer to question 2."  Student "Oh thank you!  You are so helpful!"

Seriously?!  Why do you think this is OK?

Get a new TA.

I do not want to ever work with this one again.  But it's not entirely my choice since TAs are assigned by a committee.
We had a follow-up email where the TA said that when students email right before the assignment is due, that they just don't have the time to meet with the student, so the TA thought it was best to just tell the student the answer.  You know, so the student won't "feel bad".

zomfg

[marshwiggle]

Chegg.com will take down questions from your exams, quizzes, etc.  Just copy the link and paste in a submission form.  It's under "copyright protection" or a similar link at the bottom of their website.

The other way to check is to just do a Google search for your questions.  If it's on CourseHero or Chegg, it will pop up as one of the first hits.

My current head banging moment is learning that one of my most experienced TAs (not trained by me, but that's another story) has been telling students the answers to their assignments before they turn them in.  As in, the student emails to say "Is the answer to question 1 [incorrect answer]?"  and the TA writes back "The answer to question 1 is [correct answer].  And here's the answer to question 2."  Student "Oh thank you!  You are so helpful!"

Seriously?!  Why do you think this is OK?

Get a new TA.

I do not want to ever work with this one again.  But it's not entirely my choice since TAs are assigned by a committee.
We had a follow-up email where the TA said that when students email right before the assignment is due, that they just don't have the time to meet with the student, so the TA thought it was best to just tell the student the answer.  You know, so the student won't "feel bad".

Sad to say, I had a prof back around 1980 that would give an assignment on Tuesday, that was due on Thursday, and would provide "hints" on Wednesday to help the people who weren't getting it. It seemed to me as a student it was just a way of telling students, "Don't start the assignment until after the 'hints' on Wednesday."

The TA is too young to have had that prof, but is certainly in the same pedagogical lineage.....

[Charlotte]

I have a student (online class) who first missed assignments and notified me it was because he had to take care of his daughter since his wife had COVID. I gave an extension. He missed the deadline, asked for another extension he said because his wife had died. I gave an extension with my condolences. He missed that because he said his daughter died. I gave an open ended extension and recommended he make an appointment with counseling/academic advisors, etc.

Now, after not having turned any of those assignments in and submitting the occasional minor assignment since then, he emails to tell me he needs a D in my class and he has cancer.

Now, if all this is true then I'm terribly sorry. But is anyone else suspecting this might not be true? I don't want to look heartless by requiring proof but what are the chances of this man in his early twenties having cancer in addition to losing his wife and daughter all within a couple months?

[Langue_doc]

I would bump this up the chain. You could be very sympathetic, and advise Stu that you are copying (advisor/chair/dean) who could refer him to the counseling center and also advise the professors in his other classes.

At this point you would need documentation of some sort.

[marshwiggle]

I have a student (online class) who first missed assignments and notified me it was because he had to take care of his daughter since his wife had COVID. I gave an extension. He missed the deadline, asked for another extension he said because his wife had died. I gave an extension with my condolences. He missed that because he said his daughter died. I gave an open ended extension and recommended he make an appointment with counseling/academic advisors, etc.

Now, after not having turned any of those assignments in and submitting the occasional minor assignment since then, he emails to tell me he needs a D in my class and he has cancer.

Now, if all this is true then I'm terribly sorry. But is anyone else suspecting this might not be true? I don't want to look heartless by requiring proof but what are the chances of this man in his early twenties having cancer in addition to losing his wife and daughter all within a couple months?

This sounds like one to direct to the Dean's office (or whoever deals with that). If this student is taking more than one course, then if it's true, there should be similar issues in all courses. (And then puts the verification on the Dean's office.)

on edit: What Langue_doc said.

[AvidReader]

I agree with the above. If all this is true, your student probably needs a retroactive withdrawal more than a D.

If you are curious, most obituaries are posted online and searchable via Google these days. Also, most obituaries include the names of immediate family members, so you likely don't even need to know the name of the wife or daughter.

AR.

[Biologist_]

I've been meeting with students who used Chegg on their exam (despite explicit instructions that using Chegg or similar site is considered cheating and will result in an F).

To a person they are SHOCKED that I caught them.  Mostly shocked that I BOTHERED to catch them.  Their attitude is that online classes mean that everyone is cheating anyway, regardless of any proctoring. 

I wish there was a way that we could anonymously survey the students to get data to show the higher admin folks that students see online classes as an invitation to cheat.

I really, really hope that my classes are back to in person in Fall so that it's back to the staring at students while they take exams in person.

Oh god yes. Except our brilliant college has decided that all online classes will continue to have online exams, and we're mandated to have at least one online section of each class.

I'm very seriously considering resurrecting oral exams.

I did oral exams on Zoom in several classes over the past year. It was very time-consuming for the class with 30+ students, but I was certain that the answers were coming from the brains of the students, at least in most cases.

[AvidReader]

I love oral exams. They take longer to administer, but moments to grade.

AR.

[marshwiggle]

I love oral exams. They take longer to administer, but moments to grade.

AR.

How would you ever handle a grade appeal for one? That's my fear. If you have a fixed set of questions that you ask every student, there's the possibility of cheating by early students letting the questions out, but if you have different questions for different students it seems that would leave you wide open to charges of unfairness.