UCF Professor Busts Students For Cheating

Interesting....

A University of Central Florida professor found out hundreds of students cheated on his mid-term and Wednesday he spoke with WFTV. He said 600 students were given until midnight to retake the exam.

The UCF College of Business professor noticed abnormally high scores. Soon afterward, students came forward saying someone had all the answers.

This is what got me...

This is college. Everyone cheats. Everyone cheats in life in general. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in this testing lab who hasn't cheated on an exam. They're making a witch hunt out of absolutely nothing, as if they want to teach us some kind of moral lesson," student Konstantin Ravvin said.

Wow...as an instructor...just wow...


UCF Learns Hundreds Cheated On Mid-Term - News Story - WFTV Orlando

 

I wonder how this student did in his business ethics class.

 

Yes, this who I want working for me after he graduates!

 

These are the employees and business leaders of tomorrow. This is absolutely incredible... almost beyond belief.

 

After I watched the video I Googled the kid who said that everyone cheats and it gave me his "professional" profile.
Konstantin Ravvin - LinkedIn
He works for Siemens now, but with that attitude I wonder how long he will last.

 

It doesn't surprise me at all. IMO, business tends to reward unethical conduct, as long as you don't get caught.

 

The student's response is entirely consistent with the bankrupt worldview of moral relativism ... unfortunately it seems to be the predominant worldview professed by young people today.

 

I watched the interview and just the nonchalant way the kid says this is just ridiculous. I can't wait for him to be a future leader of America.... :tool::banghead:

 

Enron, BP, Wall Street, Blackwater
he should fit right in, probably be making 300 k in 3 years

 

So I'm going to open up the proverbial box of Pandora.

-I don't know anyone who would argue that taking an open book exam isn't cheating on some level.
-There is a very fine line between open book exams and having the test ahead of time. In some disciplines the difference is nil.

Now I'm not saying that cheating isn't wrong. It is wrong. But I do think that the concept of cheating needs to be re-evaluated before people get all up in arms about what happened as a basis for this thread.

The crime here is not that people cheated, but rather the following:

1. The answers got out to 200 students. This is an indictment of the testing process and the processes in place to ensure academic integrity.

2. The professor didn't know that the answers got out to his class. This is less of an issue than the above point, but really? You don't know? I can see how that would be the case, but really? Are you giving the same test out semester after semester or did you just leave it on a podium one day?

3. Somehow the students were all able to take the exam with the exam on them? While being monitored? Really? WTF.

Kids are kids. They act like kids partly because of upbringing, partly because of experience, and partly because the brain's center for rational though processes isn't fully developed until somone is in their mid-twenties. They are responsible for remaining academically honest but there's a responsibility to mitigate temptation too.

What's the other side of it?

IT

 

I concur. No wonder we have Enron and similar situations. No honor in our business system, if there ever was any.

 

The Prof's lecture after cheating is discovered

Here is the link to the 1st 15 minutes of class when the Prof informs the class about the widespread cheating on the exam:

KnightNews.com » UCF Cheating Scandal: Business Testing Lab Fails to Stop Cheating

Shawn

 

Thanks for that, Shawn. I watched the entire clip with fascination. I wonder if he was bluffing about the school using statistical methods to find the guilty parties. It had to be a bit of a bluff, because I don't see how this method could be used to provide conclusive proof that a student was cheating. It could certainly point to the guilty parties, but I don't think you could use it as grounds for expulsion or other penalties.

 

ITJD

From the Webster Dictionary.....

Cheat-
transitive verb
1. to deprive of something valuable by the use of deceit or fraud...

intransitive verb
1. A) to practice fraud or trickery
B) TO VIOLATE RULES DISHONESTLY

When given a test, a Professor will give instructions and RULES.

If these rules are followed, you are not cheating.

An OPEN BOOK EXAM is not cheating if it is allowed.

Jim

 

According to the professor the students used a publisher's test bank for their source of "cheating". I know first hand there are publishers who make a portion of these test bank questions available to students as quizzes, practice tests, etc. An example is this, a course I took a while back:

Practical Business Math Procedures

Drop down the menu and select a chapter, and *bam*, you have access to a range of questions that may also appear on a student's exam.

If the entire roster of test bank questions were obtained unethically, then yes, something needs to be done. If the student downloaded this resource via the internet where another professor at another university had inadvertantly published it, to me, not much should be done. I've used resources posted by other professors and the publishers, including power point slides, lectures, notes, and yes, practice quizzes, to study as well. And it's possible they had no idea the entire test would come from this resource.

Also, you really need to lay part of the blame on the professors complaining about this, using canned questions developed by a publisher in a capstone course mid-term? Really?

 

Hi Jim -

Definition provided is fine and all and if this thread was either a spelling bee or a grammar lesson you'd have a complete answer that I'd agree with.

The world and social interactions are not as black and white as a dictionary definition. I'm sure that academic honesty guidelines in the syllabus of the course were broken. My point is that the reaction of a bunch of hardcore academics on a distance learning forum when presented with such things is NOT at all going to represent the moderate's approach to the matter at hand.

The real world is open book so don't be surprised if and when the definition of academic rigor changes to meet the ethical norms of the times.

 

wow, VERY interesting. Am I missing the point here, because I don't see how this was cheating?? Almost every book I've used over the past few years has an online support materials website. This isn't news. Do a google search- you'll likely find your text there. This isn't hacking. It's public knowledge. How does going into a text site and printing off the test bank *TO USE TO STUDY* unethical in any way??? What am I missing? These students studied the test bank, they didn't sneak in a copy of the answers- HUGE difference in my opinion. What you bring to the test INSIDE YOUR BRAIN is precisely the point

I'm not 100% sure that the professor wasn't just being lazy- using prewritten questions. However, if I have misunderstood, and there was a "secure test bank" that was only for faculty and actually hacked, then that would be a very different issue and is a clear case of cheating imo.

 

The implication is that the secure test banks were hacked - since according to the prof 2 publishers had turned matters over to their legal council for investigation.

Shawn

 

When I went to Berekeley, there was a first time adjunct instructor from East Germany that taught a computer science class that I took. On his first test he gave the class he didn't ask a single question on the reading material or on his lectures. After the test I went in to talk with him to try to understand why. I was very respectful. He stated that there would be no cheating in his class. He then told me a story about how he cheated in his college classes back in Germany. The way he was going to prevent cheating in his class was to not ask any test questions that a cheater could prepare for. Would this be an example of throwing the baby out with the bath water? Later he accused me of complaining about him to administration officials and reduced my grade because of that. I hadn't complained about him to anyone. At the end of the quarter I was disappointed in that they did not bother collecting an opinion survey for his class. I found out later that they had already decided that he would not be rehired.