Stupid Students I taught a Criminal Justice class once and had a student copy the only chapter out of the textbook that we had skipped in class and turn it in for his term paper. He admitted to having his girlfiriend type it. What an idiot.
stupid students redux One of my students turned in her 10 page academic paper, nicely formatted, good list of references, etc. However, it was pretty obvious she had cut and paste from the Internet, as three full pages of her paper were in German! Regards, Adrienne
Quote": 'Thanks largely to the Internet; cheating has become much easier and easier to catch. ' Serious problem. Simple solution: abandon the pedagogy that gives grades for essays, assignments, term papers, and projects. No grades, no purpose in cheating. Cut the link between web derived, or market induced, fraudulent essay papers. Keep the link and you won't stop it (even with 'Honour' codes - cheats have no honour, and in time in the US, then the rest of us, it will be a breach of a neurotic student's human rights to create stressful guilt by such methods!) You have to re-think your pedagogy, especially in DL (and DT!).
Hmm, I'm not quite sure I agree that this would be a simple solution; there are so many factors that sustain this pedagogy. As an example, in a uni in Abu Dhabi in the late 90's, our provost announced to the students in our English prep program that they would not be traditionally graded as they moved through the levels of the program; rather, we used alternative forms of assessment that involved student awareness of the desired learning outcomes from their study. This move was a complete failure, as by removing the "grade" incentive, our students exhibited a marked decrease in motivation, application, and indeed, improvement. Only a very select few (out of hundreds) were able to excel in this system and complete the program. I do agree that this is a huge issue for DL, and from my experience, issues of cheating and plagiarism can be dealt with pretty well if the consequences are serious, applied with rigor, and students are educated regarding exactly what constitues cheating. Of course, with my students, I still have one or two every semester that plagiarise. Once they realize that it's pretty easy for me to uncover, and they see the result of such in a low or failing grade, they usually learn their lesson and don't try it again. Just my two cents, Adrienne
My friend Jacyntha (www.jacyntha.com) is a member of the UK Society of Authors and listed by them. In November last year she had three people contact her and asking her to ghost-write a 3,000 word paper "for which they had done all the research". All of these had to be done by January. She wrote back in each case saying yes, provided the researcher would guarantee that this was not a paper intended for grading for college or university. None of the applicants came back to her on that! (She was not just taking a moral stance here, although that was a part of it. What if she wrote the paper and the student failed? Litigation city!!)
Adrienne We can debate the pedagogic value of graded essays, assignments, and off campus, out of sight projects and how we get to that position, but that was not my point. In response to a complaint, or revelation that massive fraud was being experienced in this pedagogy, the removal of the incentive to cheat - which has nothing to do with learning and much to do with teaching (the ability to show a role for teachers) - I suggest you change the pedagogy and eliminate this form of cheating, which can only get worse with technology (and expensive to counter). I reject 'Honour codes' as next to useless when norms change and of dubious value - what is the worth of a promise extracted under duress? Don't blame the students - it's the pedagogy. If a thread starts on this issue I will contribute, if anybody else is interested.
I certainly agree with this -- kind of what I was trying to say with my comment pointing out that "there are so many factors that sustain this pedagogy." Students didn't create the pedagogy, but in most cases this is all they know (which is certainly true here in the Middle East), and is also what they expect. To a certain extent, the use of a formal grading system is the key, if not only, factor to many students' motivation for doing well. Once it is removed, especially if it is done without warning, students will oftentimes find themselves at a loss in how to readjust their learning styles, awareness, and motivation to any new form. Again, not their fault, but in my experience, just a sudden change in pedagogy does not bring about the desired results. Such a massive change requires enormous psychological and social adjustment on the part of the students and their families, and would take a bit of time before it is effective. However, if students are given explicit guidelines in an assignment, e.g. how to avoid plagiarism, good paraphrasing techniques, proper citation styles, etc. (as I do through weeks of exercises with my writing students), and then they ignore all of what they've learned and just copy off the Internet, from a book, etc., anyway, then they should be held accountable. I most often give them the chance to redo their work properly. If they don't, then under the current pedagogy rules, they will pay the price, and that's certainly their choice, but one they make consciously. Regards, Adrienne
When Prof. Kennedy wrote "If a thread starts on this issue I will contribute, if anybody else is interested" I think he meant a separate thread (with a less frivolous start than this one). So you should probably continue this elsewhere.
You're right, Oxpecker, I should have posted this reply in a new thread. My apologies. Regards, Adrienne
