200 Students Admit To 'Cheating' On Exam... But Bigger Question Is If It Was Really Cheating Or Studying
from the wait-a-second... dept
A friend passed on this Telegraph story about how 200 students in a Strategic Management class at the University of Central Florida came forward to admit to "cheating" on the midterm exam after the professor in the class, Richard Quinn, gave a lecture where he noted the evidence that about 1/3 of the 600 student class had "cheated" on the exam. He then gave them an option: saying that, if they admitted to cheating within a week,re they would be able to complete the class and the incident would not go on their record and they would not face discipline (they also had to take an ethics class). If they did not, and they were still caught, then they could face expulsion for violating academic integrity policies. You can watch the video of the lecture here:
Not surprisingly, the story of 200 students "turning themselves over" made all sorts of headlines. It's a good story of "cheaters" being pressured into 'fessing up... right? It's leading to typical hand-wringing stories about what should we do about cheating in schools. But, as I watched the video, the whole thing started to feel just a little bit off... My main interest was to learn two things: (1) what the students did to cheat and (2) how the professor was identifying who cheated. Both points seemed like pertinent details.
The answer to that first one surprised me. The "cheating" was that students got their hands on the textbook publisher's "testbank" of questions. Many publishers have a testbank that professors can use as sample test questions. But watching Quinn's video, it became clear that in accusing his students of "cheating" he was really admitting that he wasn't actually writing his own tests, but merely pulling questions from a testbank. That struck me as odd -- and I wasn't really sure that what the students did should count as cheating. Taking "sample tests" is a very good way to learn material, and going through a testbank is a good way to practice "sample" questions. It seemed like the bigger issue wasn't what the students did... but what the professor did.
In looking around, it looks like a lot of the students agree. They're saying that the real issue is that Prof. Quinn simply copied questions from the publisher, rather than actually recreating his own test, and noting that this seems like a massive double standard. The professor is allowed to just copy questions from others for his tests? In fact, some of the students have put together a video pointing out that, at the beginning of the year, Prof. Quinn claimed that he had written the test questions himself. As the article notes:
Can the UCF students be blamed for using all the available tools to study for the test? How were the students to know that Quinn would take his questions from the test bank, when he explicitly said that professors do not do so any more? Moreover, why did Quinn tell his students that he is the one who creates the mid-term and final exams, when in fact it wasn’t so?
The students have put together a video pointing out where he said (in the first lecture) that he writes the questions himself:
The local student news operation sent a reporter to speak to Quinn and ask him about the double standard and his copying of questions, and Quinn totally ignored him:
Now, there's a pretty good chance that some of the students probably knew that Quinn was a lazy professor, who just used testbank questions, rather than writing his own. That's the kind of information that tends to get around. But it's still not clear that using testbank questions to study is really an ethical lapse. Taking sample tests is a good way to practice for an exam and to learn the subject matter. And while those 200 students "confessed," it seems like they did so mainly to avoid getting kicked out of school -- not because they really feel they did anything wrong -- and I might have to agree with them.
We've seen plenty of stories over the years about professors trying to keep up with modern technology -- and I recognize that it's difficult to keep creating new exams for classes. But in this case, it looks like Prof. Quinn barely created anything at all. He just pulled questions from a source that the students had access to as well and copied them verbatim. It would seem that, even if you think the students did wrong here, the Professor was equally negligent. Will he have to sit through an ethics class too?
Was this cheating? Discuss.
This post is a 100% natural organic product.
The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance its individual character and beauty and in no way are to be considered flaws or defects
I'm not sure why people choose 'To Love is to Bury' as their wedding song...It's about a murder-suicide
- Margo Timmins
When it becomes serious, you have to lie
- Jean-Claude Juncker
I don't think so. The students used a legitimate resources as a study aid. If they had, I dunno, snuck copies of the answers into the exam, then yes it was cheating, but using them in revision is often encouraged.
If the professor ir too lazy to write his own questions, then it's his problem not the students. Especially as he said he he wrote his own questions
I think thats why he said they wouldn't get punished, because that would mean formal reviews and shit which would show him up just as much as the kids
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
The professor is shirking his duties to the educational aspect of his job, so no, they aren't cheating; he's just too lazy to even write his own tests.
I guess it falls on what the definition of 'cheating' is and can be nitpicked into meaning nothing or everything. On the whole, is studying test questions really the point of an education though? The 'big picture' where you get a degree but really don't know jack and shit because all you did was memorize test questions for 4 years? Then again, being in University, a lot of classes you are forced to take and are on the whole a bunch of bullshit to justify school income and professors paychecks, why take seriously? What's wrong with just jumping through the hoops to pass a class you don't need anyways, means shit to you, and the fucking professor thinks you should and is pissed when you don't care and just want the grade?
They say, "the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." I suppose it never occurred to them that they are the tyrants, not the patriots. Those weapons are not being used to fight some kind of tyranny; they are bringing them to an event where people are getting together to talk. -Mike Wong
But as far as board culture in general, I do think that young male overaggression is a contributing factor to the general atmosphere of hostility. It's not SOS and the Mess throwing hand grenades all over the forum- Red
Knife wrote:I guess it falls on what the definition of 'cheating' is and can be nitpicked into meaning nothing or everything. On the whole, is studying test questions really the point of an education though? The 'big picture' where you get a degree but really don't know jack and shit because all you did was memorize test questions for 4 years?
If the course is structured such that you can get away with that because the prof's just disinterested in teaching or whatever, it's not your fault.
A lot of questions here. How did the students get a hold of the testbank? Did they know their professor copies questions from the testbank? Is there any sort of feedback form the students can complete in which to complain about how their professor doesn't write his own tests? How big is the testbank? Did the class have a policy about using particular resources as study aids? Watching the video, it certainly sounds like the testbank was regarded as prohibited material. Did the students know that?
I can't condone using a resource that policy explicitly tells you is off-limits. On the other hand, copying questions from a testbank is unquestionably bad pedagogy, and makes it that much easier for students to cheat. I agree with people who have said that taking practice exams is a totally legitimate way of studying, and I can't condemn a student who uses that kind of material without knowing that the professor copies questions from it or that it's being hocked as "advance copies of the test."
One of the best ways to study for the LSAT is to do old tests. The difference is that the LSAT is different every time. It's a legitimate study method that the professor ruined by being a lazy liar.
Phantasee wrote:One of the best ways to study for the LSAT is to do old tests. The difference is that the LSAT is different every time. It's a legitimate study method that the professor ruined by being a lazy liar.
Agreed. This is no different than having a physics test and studying by going through the back of each chapter, only to find out that the professor pulls his test questions directly from said back of chapter.
Unless of course the test bank was in some way barred from student purchase, this was not cheating.
GALE Force Biological Agent/
BOTM/Great Dolphin Conspiracy/ Entomology and Evolutionary Biology Subdirector:SD.net Dept. of Biological Sciences
There is Grandeur in the View of Life; it fills me with a Deep Wonder, and Intense Cynicism.
article wrote:I recognize that it's difficult to keep creating new exams for classes.
Uhm. That's integral part of a techer's work. Either this teacher has too much exams in his hands or is too lazy to be a good teacher.
Sure, students have their faults if they did it on purpose, but I think the main responsible of this is the teacher (or who overloaded him with work anyway).
If cheating is so easy, resisting the temptation becomes pretty hard.
I'm nobody. Nobody at all. But the secrets of the universe don't mind. They reveal themselves to nobodies who care. -- Stereotypical spacecraft are pressurized. Less realistic spacecraft are pressurized to hold breathing atmosphere. Realistic spacecraft are pressurized because they are flying propellant tanks. -Isaac Kuo -- Good art has function as well as form. I hesitate to spend more than $50 on decorations of any kind unless they can be used to pummel an intruder into submission. -Sriad
That's integral part of a techer's work. Either this teacher has too much exams in his hands or is too lazy to be a good teacher.
Or he's a professor at a research institution that evaluates its faculty by quality of research and doesn't give a flying leap about teaching, which is something that, as a graduate student at just such a university, I see all the time. Then again, this is a "management" class, so I don't know what responsibilities that professor has outside of preparing courses.
I've used test banks before, but from an instructors standpoint. Those things have HUNDREDS of questions. The one I used had 40 questions for each chapter, and the professor used one chapter a week. In most cases, a professor would pull maybe five questions for each week. In other words, in order for this to really be cheating, a student would have to somehow memorize the answer for hundreds of questions, most of which they would never need, and do so without learning the content.
Unless the professor had intentionally forbade using such resources up front, this was in no wise cheating.
I'm kind of curious where they got the test bank, though.
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. - Benjamin Franklin
Since that many students got access, I'm kind of doubting they got access illegally. Many textbooks these days come with a coupon for online access to a study centre, which would generally include all the test bank questions as revision questions. That he went out of his way to tell students that he "wrote all the questions himself" when he had not suggests to me that he was aware that they had access to those questions from the very beginning, and was trying to dissuade them from using it without giving away (by forbidding them) that the questions were there.
I don't think it is cheating. More like the prof being an asshole in this case. So what if they answered testbank questions? If they answered them correctly, then they at least show that on the level of the testbanks provide, they understand what they studied. If the professor is not satisfied with that, then he should write his own exams or use a different testbank or something.
Of course, the story is lacking in details.
Credo!
Chat with me on Skype if you want to talk about writing, ideas or if you want a test-reader! PM for address.
If Alyrium thinks it's not cheating, then I'd say it's pretty safe.
Haven't seen the vid or anything, just checked out the article quickly, but unless I'm missing something this isn't even close to cheating.
"I spit on metaphysics, sir."
"I pity the woman you marry." -Liberty
This is the guy they want to use to win over "young people?" Are they completely daft? I'd rather vote for a pile of shit than a Jesus freak social regressive.
Here's hoping that his political career goes down in flames and, hopefully, a hilarious gay sex scandal. -Tanasinn
You can't expect sodomy to ruin every conservative politician in this country. -Battlehymn Republic
Ummm guys, I know people that got their hands on the test banks from the publishers for the test.
Many, or even most of these people I know, don't even bother reading the questions. They either just memorize the order of choices (a, b, c, d , b, b, a) or they merely put it all onto piece of paper or these days on their iphones the entire test bank.
Now if the questions were all jumbled up, and everyone had access to it, it would be different. But the fact that some students didn't and some students did is the huge problem. I hold a lot of animosity towards those students, many of whom actually got very good paying jobs even though that had no clue what they were doing. It also demonstrated that internships are subjective bullshit because none of them got weeded out during the internships.
Brotherhood of the Monkey @( !.! )@ To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. ~Steve Prefontaine Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
I'm not sure it's cheating, since there was no guarantee the professor would have wrong his exam from the testbank. It's a valid thing to study by doing problems like you'd expect to find on the test, and then if it actually appears word for word on the exam, so much the better.
My second cumulative exam was written by a professor who considered the process a waste of time and pulled questions out of various textbooks. One question, a bog standard particle-in-a-box question, had come from Levine's Quantum Chemistry textbook. I know this because the exact same problem was assigned to us as homework previously (admittedly by a separate teacher), recent enough that I knew what the answer was without having to work out the problem. I passed that cume with ease. However, I didn't cheat, I just happened to own the textbook that the teacher had pulled problems from.
The only way I could see this as cheating is if they had illicitly found out which questions were on the test ahead of time and prepared accordingly. That's cheating. However, if they were merely doing the sample tests and they turned up again when they sat the exam, it's the teachers fault, not theirs.
"Show me an angel and I will paint you one." - Gustav Courbet
"Quetzalcoatl, plumed serpent of the Aztecs... you are a pussy." - Stephen Colbert
"Really, I'm jealous of how much smarter than me he is. I'm not an expert on anything and he's an expert on things he knows nothing about." - Me, concerning a bullshitter
Gil Hamilton wrote:The only way I could see this as cheating is if they had illicitly found out which questions were on the test ahead of time and prepared accordingly. That's cheating. However, if they were merely doing the sample tests and they turned up again when they sat the exam, it's the teachers fault, not theirs.
May be different from text book to text book and class to class but some textbooks offer premade exams for the class which plenty of professors just distribute as the test. They would know that this professor does this from asking people who had taken the professor in previous classes.
I knew one girl for everyone of her accoutning class she just bothered memorizing (or writing down) the letter order for the exams that she got from the test bank. She Aced all of the accounting classes. It did not bite her in the ass for any of the classes except for one tax accounting classes where the professor decided to rearrange the teacher's guide given test so that it was not in the same order. She dropped the class after that one though.
Brotherhood of the Monkey @( !.! )@ To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. ~Steve Prefontaine Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
Gil Hamilton wrote:The only way I could see this as cheating is if they had illicitly found out which questions were on the test ahead of time and prepared accordingly. That's cheating. However, if they were merely doing the sample tests and they turned up again when they sat the exam, it's the teachers fault, not theirs.
May be different from text book to text book and class to class but some textbooks offer premade exams for the class which plenty of professors just distribute as the test. They would know that this professor does this from asking people who had taken the professor in previous classes.
I knew one girl for everyone of her accoutning class she just bothered memorizing (or writing down) the letter order for the exams that she got from the test bank. She Aced all of the accounting classes. It did not bite her in the ass for any of the classes except for one tax accounting classes where the professor decided to rearrange the teacher's guide given test so that it was not in the same order. She dropped the class after that one though.
That would not work for anything involving showing calculations.
"This statement, in its utterly clueless hubristic stupidity, cannot be improved upon. I merely quote it in admiration of its perfection." - Garibaldi
"Problem is, while the Germans have had many mea culpas and quite painfully dealt with their history, the South is still hellbent on painting themselves as the real victims. It gives them a special place in the history of assholes" - Covenant
"Over three million died fighting for the emperor, but when the war was over he pretended it was not his responsibility. What kind of man does that?'' - Saburo Sakai
The idea that anyone could cheat by memorizing letter orders for multiple choice, or storing them in a phone, is kind of absurd to me. Even the laziest instructors I've ever had actually bothered to have two versions of the exam, to keep you from copying your neighbour. It's easy enough, just rearrange each section. And nobody is allowed any electronics, if you decide you don't want to bother turning your phone all the way off and just put it on silent, you're fucked if the prof hears it vibrating in your pocket. No hats, nothing but your writing instruments, ID cards, and the test itself. It's been standard since high school, and at both the U of A and MacEwan.
This is pre-WWII. You can sort of tell from the sketch style, from thee way it refers to Japan (Japan in the 1950s was still rebuilding from WWII), the spelling of Tokyo, lots of details. Nothing obvious... except that the upper right hand corner of the page reads "November 1931." --- Simon_Jester
Almost every test I write is a mix of multiple choice, cleverly worded true/false, and short answer. You can't pass without knowing how to do the short answer. Of course, there's always the possibility of sneaking in a cheat sheet in an exam, but that situation depends on the vigilance of the instructor.
I try to acquire questions from past semester. Generally professors follow a pattern in how they teach a course. Sometimes I even got questions that were virtually the same. It beats studying for an unknown exam.
I have to tell you something everything I wrote above is a lie.
Here's a more extreme one. Let's say you have a prior quarter's tests for study material. The teacher then goes and puts the exact same damn test out there. Is this cheating?
It sure isn't in my book. It's as valid material as reading over a prior class's notes, and it's the teacher's fault for not making new questions. It'd be the same if they pulled the test questions right out of the textbook or something.
One of the classes I was teaching this semester (a final year international business course) had a final exam with questions that were almost entirely pulled from exams in that course for the past few years, all of which students had available to them. The students were even allowed to bring in an A4 page of typed notes (No smaller than 12 point font, No smaller than single line spacing, at least 1cm margins), though all the questions were either short response or essay style, no multi-choice. The fail rate for the exam was over 50%.
Which does make me wonder somewhat just what kind of exam this professor gave them, and just how identical to the guide it would've needed to be to make students able to pass it so easily by just using the testbank to study.
