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CHEATING! WHAT CAN WE DO?
It upsets instructors when students cheat on assignments or exams. The reactions from instructors range from denial to aggressive measures to reduce cheating. The question is—are those measures effective? And are they legal? A recent ruling from the legal counsel at the state chancellor’s office, which has authority over all California community colleges, states that faculty may not fail a student in a course because of one incident of cheating. According to the legal opinion, “unless and until the Board of Governors changes its policies on grading, it is not permissible to give a student either a failing grade or an incomplete because a student has cheated on a particular assignment. Moreover, whether a student has actually cheated is a factual question which is best resolved through an adjudicatory process according students a reasonable measure of due process. Absent such safeguards, faculty would simply be imposing punishment on student conduct they believe is improper without any reliable process for confirming that this belief is accurate.” (December 19, 2007, letter from Executive Vice Chancellor and General Counsel Steve Bruckman). Some faculty groups are not happy with this decision. There may be further discussion at the BOG with faculty lobbying for the right to use this ultimate tool against cheating. Phil’s ideas: During my past ten years of teaching at GCC, I have come up with a number of methods in dealing with cheating, some more successful than others. My current approach is to let students know, in no uncertain terms, on the first day of class that cheating will not be tolerated. And if I catch them, it is not personal, I am just doing my job and they will pay the price. My two most successful methods have been establishing the “witness protection” program to encourage honest students to report dishonest students and crafting exams in a manner to catch students cheating on the exam. In one class of 40-plus students, I caught 14 students cheating and penalized them. Over the years, I have observed three categories of cheaters: ones who don’t take education seriously and are gaming the system, another group that is focused on getting an A at any cost, and the third type, who are taking the class but have no clue about the subject matter and are just trying to get a passing grade. With cheating in the news on a daily basis, ranging from politicians to journalists, I went on the Internet to research “cheating” for this article and found some interesting information about modern methods of cheating. The Internet is a great resource to assist students in their cheating and plagiarism endeavors. There are sites offering to write, for a price, term papers according to the specifications the students provide. Technology has become the cheaters’ best friend, allowing them to text message each other and photograph exams with their cell phones. In academia, cheating scandals are nationwide. In recent years cheating scandals have been uncovered at the military academies, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale, to name a few. I have also learned of a cheating culture in the professions of law, medicine, education, journalism, accounting, business, and scientific research. Further, there is a substantial amount of tax evasion, workplace theft, insurance fraud, and cheating in sports that takes place in our society. There also stories of misrepresentation on resumes, including individuals in high positions in the business and academic worlds. What can we do? Create a culture of honesty and integrity and insist on it from ourselves, each other and our students. Inform our students of our standards and enforce them in a fair, consistent way. Will we succeed in eradicating cheating? What do you think? & |
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