[net.cse] students editing output / and what happens to them

jss@ihu1e.UUCP (Smith) (09/18/85)

I worked with people teaching intro classes for the last 3 years.  (I was
the system mngr.)  The people teaching the classes would find people who
were obviously cheating (two different (wrong) programs turned in
with the same correct output, People answering Tuesday's exam questions on
the Wednesday's exam ...)  Their 'policy' was "Well, if we can arrange for
them to do poorly in the class we will."

The excuse for not failing/expelling the students was that it took too
much time to do the paper work.  The person would not be given credit for
the piece of work on which they had cheated.   Loosing 25 points out of 1k
is not much of a price to pay.

I was stunned when I was first found out about this.  I was wondering if
this occurred any place else?

-- 
J. S. Smith AT&T IW

	There are lots of opinions around this place, but these 
	are mine and no one else's (pitty the poor soul if they 
	do share mine.)

"One size fits all", "On a clear day you can see forever", "Every thing I
tell you is a lie!"

brian@ut-sally.UUCP (Brian H. Powell) (09/20/85)

> 
> The excuse for not failing/expelling the [cheating] students was that
> it took too much time to do the paper work.  The person would not be given
> credit for > the piece of work on which they had cheated.
> Loosing 25 points out of 1k is not much of a price to pay.
> 
> I was stunned when I was first found out about this.  I was wondering if
> this occurred any place else?
> 
> J. S. Smith AT&T IW

     Paperwork is of small concern in a situation like this.  Even at this
Great University where the president instituted a "War on Mediocrity" (read
Beauracracy) a few years back, the paperwork wouldn't be bad.
     If we can prove somebody intentionally cheated, they fail the class.
Incidental cheating (two people working closely, but not really intending to
co-write programs) calls for a lesser penalty on the first offense.  Also,
our assignments were important.  Failing one could easily cost you a grade
point.
     The class I graded was a four-hour core class.  If you failed it, you
probably weren't going to make the core GPA.  For this reason, we didn't
generally worry about kicking people out of the department/college/university.
The student was going to change majors anyway, and had probably learned his
lesson.
     Another department here is not quite as nice.  Though our Chemical
Engineering department is quite lenient on collusion, some students were
caught in some severe form of cheating.  The students were expelled from the
College of Engineering (though not the University), and the professor saw to
it that the students were not accepted into any other reputable Chem. Eng.
program in the U.S.

Brian H. Powell
		UUCP:	ihnp4!ut-sally!brian
		ARPA:	brian@sally.UTEXAS.EDU

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