Cheating at Universities is more common than you think

[UWdude]

I was here a while back, and I said something to the effect that cheating happens all the time at universities, to which I got a bunch of "nuh-uhs" and "prove its". I couldn't, and still cannot find the poll in which 50% of university students admitted to having cheated at least once, but it is out there somewhere.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/business-15749628/students-busted-for-cheating-22954742

I want you all to take special note of the student at about 2:10 here.

Note his shocking take on cheating. This is not uncommon, especially in business schools. I have actually seen girls on their laptops looking at a website to buy papers before. I have heard a guy on his cell phone talking extensively about his hustle, eventually saying, "I am tired of selling papers, that's why I am trying to set up this non-profit". This was on his cellphone in a computer lab, while he was writing someone's paper.. for an economics class.

I love the commentators at the end, in typical American fashion, cringing their noses at not the cheating itself, "well maybe everybody cuts corners here and there" but, the matter of fact way the student said it, "but to say it in such a fashion".

But this doesn't end at the Universities. These cheaters go on in life, and they knife their way to the tops of corporations and pension funds. Cheaters win all the time, no matter what little fairy tales your momma told you when you were young. If cheating was not a good way to get ahead, then people would not do it.

[Madalch]

I quite frequently get papers that have obviously been written by the same person (even though they've got the names of two different students on them). They get zeroes, and letters are written to the dean.

[UWdude]

I had a professor that got a paper from a football player, the issue was about race, and the writer's race and the students race didn't match... ...he gave the student a D. My professor nonchalantly told me this in casual conversation.

[UWdude]

I also had a professor from Russia that told us schools over there had a way to combat cheating:

tests were verbal. The professor asked you questions in private, and you had to answer them verbally.

[pgwenthold]

I quite frequently get papers that have obviously been written by the same person (even though they've got the names of two different students on them). They get zeroes, and letters are written to the dean.

I had that happen this year. I failed them both, and written letters to the Deans and departments.

My syllabus clearly states that the penalty for doing that is to fail the course. They did it. They failed.

If you "quite frequently" get papers like that are obvious, then you need a more forceful policy to prevent it.

[keale]

When i was in college there was a group a students that used their pagers to send the answers to each other on the tests that were multiple choice type.

[Madalch]

I also had a professor from Russia that told us schools over there had a way to combat cheating:

tests were verbal. The professor asked you questions in private, and you had to answer them verbally.
I am under the impression that a number of European countries still give oral exams, including Germany and the Czech Republic. The only oral exams I ever had in Canada were in graduate studies (one of them being the thesis defense, and the other a candidacy exam).

I remember reading about Werner (famous German chemist, did a lot of work with coordination compounds) and his oral exams- he'd ask questions such as "What is the percent by mass of phosphorus in phosgene?" Requires a great deal of thought if you're guessing at the formula for phosgene, but very simple if you know that it's 0%.

One student was asked, "What are the oxides of bromine?" (At the time, no bromine oxides had been made, since they're extremely unstable.) She guessed, "BrO2?", and he replied, "And....?" After three or four similar guesses, she was told the exam was over.

After telling her friends that she had passed the dreaded Dr. Werner's oral exam with one question, they laughed in her face and assured her that she had failed. So she went back to the exam room, poked her head inside the door, and asked, "Excuse me, Herr Professor, but I did pass, didn't I?"

In response, he threw a chair at her.

I always tell my students that story the day before they do their evaluations of me- it makes me look kind, considerate, and patient in comparison.

[drkitten]

I quite frequently get papers that have obviously been written by the same person (even though they've got the names of two different students on them). They get zeroes, and letters are written to the dean.

I stopped giving them zeros and started failing them on the spot.

I no longer "frequently" get them. Word gets around quickly.

[elgarak]

I am under the impression that a number of European countries still give oral exams, including Germany and the Czech Republic. The only oral exams I ever had in Canada were in graduate studies (one of them being the thesis defense, and the other a candidacy exam).

I remember reading about Werner (famous German chemist, did a lot of work with coordination compounds) and his oral exams- he'd ask questions such as "What is the percent by mass of phosphorus in phosgene?" Requires a great deal of thought if you're guessing at the formula for phosgene, but very simple if you know that it's 0%.

One student was asked, "What are the oxides of bromine?" (At the time, no bromine oxides had been made, since they're extremely unstable.) She guessed, "BrO2?", and he replied, "And....?" After three or four similar guesses, she was told the exam was over.

After telling her friends that she had passed the dreaded Dr. Werner's oral exam with one question, they laughed in her face and assured her that she had failed. So she went back to the exam room, poked her head inside the door, and asked, "Excuse me, Herr Professor, but I did pass, didn't I?"

In response, he threw a chair at her.

I always tell my students that story the day before they do their evaluations of me- it makes me look kind, considerate, and patient in comparison.
Indeed, while I was studying to become a physicist in Aachen, I had to take oral exams. Standard class test were written (typically two per semester in the physics courses, and they were big deals. 2 hours long on a Saturday, under strict supervision). Additionally to that, I had to take oral exams in dedicated fields after 4 semesters in experimental physics, theoretical physics and chemistry (to get the "Vordiplom", pre-diploma, roughly equivalent to a bachelor. There was also a written math exam), and again at the end to get my Diploma (again, experimental and theoretical physics, my self-chosen special field, either solid state or elementary particles, and an elective, not taught by the physics department, in my case astronomy). The oral exams were one-on-one with the prof, plus an assistant doing a protocol, lasting for about 30-45 min. Typically no accessories. You got a pencil and paper to jot down a diagram or a formula, nothing more.

In the written exams, cheating was hindered a lot. Typically no accessories (usually, just a calculator in some classes. Programmable, but not graphing or alphanumeric display and keyboard). Students seated far apart (every second row, two empty seats between each pair of students). 4 or 5 assistants (PhD students of the professor) patrolling. Paper was provided.

From what I hear, things have changed. Instead of the standard diploma curricula, a lot of universities have switched to a bachelor/masters program. In some cases, departments have simply renamed the pre-diploma/diploma degrees, but usually the whole curriculum has been re-organized (to give out degrees that are easily recognized internationally, and to reduce the length of the curriculum. At my time, the program was intended to get the diploma in 8 semesters/4 years. The average in my time was 15 semesters [for the physics degree], and [male] students typically started with 21 or 22, after military service. Girls were typically a year younger).

[Travis]

I find that weird because I never cheated in college nor did I know anyone that ever did (or at least let me know they did).

[DarthFishy]

It's really quite bad here as well. I've gotten Assignments that are copied verbatim from Wikipedia (which was one of the sources given for discussion in class!)

Other students here have over 50% plagiarism levels for their dissertation proposals! It's gotten so easy to cheat or to plagiarise that it's really become a very wide spread phenomenon.

I personally blame liberal teachers of course :p

[Andrew Wiggin]

I find that weird because I never cheated in college nor did I know anyone that ever did (or at least let me know they did).

Seconded. I remember being vaguely aware that there were places where people could go to buy prewritten essays, and I remember one professor saying that he'd recieved one once, and could recognize the writing style, but I never knew anyone who said they'd done that.

I'd be a fool to turn in a purchased paper in any case. I tend to have a distinctive writing style.

[Andrew Wiggin]

I remember reading about Werner (famous German chemist, did a lot of work with coordination compounds) and his oral exams- he'd ask questions such as "What is the percent by mass of phosphorus in phosgene?" Requires a great deal of thought if you're guessing at the formula for phosgene, but very simple if you know that it's 0%.

I love questions like this. I've had professors who would test this way, and it's my favorite way to take a test. I remember an anatomy test where my question was something along the line of 'name every structure from the kidney to the lung, in the order a blood cell passes through them'.

I would have been able to answer the percentage of phosphorus in phosgene too, even if I didn't know the structure, as long as I remembered the warnings about handling chloroform. There's no phosphorus in that, so there's no phosphorus in any of its breakdown products either. (as long as my hearing was working fine, and I didn't think he'd said phosphine)

[Alan]

I know of one time that people at uni cheated. It was on a test about mathematical things within psychological research. The week afterwards, the tutor said that they knew that a few people cheated. I can't remember the consequences, but I think it was a conspiracy by some people in the two tutorial groups. I assume they got zero.

Oh, and there were signs up everywhere about what plagiarism is and what the consequences were. But I hadn't heard anything about somebody doing that.

[Two Toed Sloth]

While in a medical physics exam, someone asked the invigilator if they could go to the toilet. About 5 min later he came back, and then 5 min after that a man came in wearing rubber gloves and asked him quietly to follow him out the room.

Why the rubber gloves? I have only speculation.

That was only notable as it was an actual exam, I've seen people cheating in the class tests all the time, the gits.

[Aepervius]

At the programming course, psysic diploma, back in the 90s when it was not widespread, I was the only one which had passing note.

At the exams, the university asked me to go into a separate room, because suddenly everybody was throwing eyeball to my paper, and there is no way I could work without somebody looking.

They still found the way to go into the toilet , and throw a paper to me thru a window asking for answer.

Yes, in university cheating is widespread, for the first years. But on the second, or third or even last year, cheater usually get caught very quick, as the number of people dwindle. By the time I was in Quantum Mechanic specialisation, tehre was no cheater at all as far as I can tell.

[UWdude]

Yes, in university cheating is widespread, for the first years. But on the second, or third or even last year, cheater usually get caught very quick, as the number of people dwindle. By the time I was in Quantum Mechanic specialisation, tehre was no cheater at all as far as I can tell.

I would bet in economics classes, as well as other liberal arts, it continues for all the years, especially since the difference between 100 level courses and 400 level courses is not that big.


I find that weird because I never cheated in college nor did I know anyone that ever did (or at least let me know they did).


When I was in high school, I was pretty sure nobody smoked weed, (except maybe the rockers).
Come to find out, its use was widespread. If you aren't in the culture, you may never even know it exists.

[Delphinium]

Cheating has always happened but I really wonder why, because it's always seemed to me that if you plagiarise or fake something that the person you're cheating is you. Even if it seems the easier route to somebody, what they've lost is an opportunity to learn as well as risking an even bigger loss if they get caught out and end up being failed.

[UWdude]

Cheating has always happened but I really wonder why, because it's always seemed to me that if you plagiarise or fake something that the person you're cheating is you. Even if it seems the easier route to somebody, what they've lost is an opportunity to learn as well as risking an even bigger loss if they get caught out and end up being failed.

In many types of classes, especially economics classes, the whole point of going to college is to make connections, not to necessarily learn anything.

(as you can see, I have an axe to grind)

[TragicMonkey]

Apparently another student tried to copy my answer in a history exam once. It was a pretty foolish move, since it was an essay. Doubly foolish because we were allowed to pick our own topic, anything from Roman history. Triply foolish because this was me, and I had a habit of writing essays arguing ridiculous things (imagine that). The professor was mightily amused, said he certainly never expected to receive two essays arguing that Constantine's conversion to Christianity was subterfuge to disguise his membership in the Mithraic cult, and he was just hiding it from his mother due to an unresolved Oedipus complex.

[roger]

I remember grading an undergraduate course in grad school. I found several papers that were obviously exact copies of each other. I failed them. They complained to the professor. He asked why I failed them. I told him. He restored their grades to 75 or something (if you are going to cheat, at least copy somebody smart).

Talk about taking the wind out of your sails.

[malbui]

Last year I had two students turn in identical dissertations (well, identical except for names and places), which was impressive for people who'd done six-month internships in different companies and were supposed to be researching different topics. The depth and inventiveness of the denials led me to suggest that if a little less time had been spent on that and a little more time had been spent on actually doing some original work, they'd have had no trouble obtaining a passing grade.

[TragicMonkey]

One appalling thing is the lack of quality in the papers people actually buy in order to cheat with. I remember visiting a website years ago that was mentioned in an article about that sort of thing, and reading some sample excerpts of literature papers. The ones I read were of horrible quality--poor writing in the first place, and they managed to completely misunderstand the books they were supposed to be about. I guess that's the danger of a market for illicit goods: no quality control!

[Startz]

In many types of classes, especially economics classes, the whole point of going to college is to make connections, not to necessarily learn anything.

(as you can see, I have an axe to grind)

if you're comfortable doing so, want to tell us what university you're attending? I'm curious, since I teach economics.

[Kotatsu]

We hold a course that is more or less built for students cheating on them. It's species recognition, and the exam is simply that we put up 25 invertebrates and 25 vertebrates in a room and the students walk around -- all at the same time -- looking at them and trying to figure out what species they are. I would guess that the average student on such an exam has about one million opportunities to check what his/her class mates have written, and in the case of the vertebrates, the name of the animal is actually written underneath, and covered only by a slip of paper. The whole control is having us assistants sit at the front of the room, keeping our eyes open and occasionally walk up and down the room.

Strangely, we never find any obvious attempts to cheat. In general, if I recognise the name of the student, meaning that he/she has been active during the course, they will generally pass the exam, whereas those who don't pass are generally the ones who haven't shown up much in the field excursions, and they generally fail miserably. The only person I caught cheating last time was a guy who lifted a stuffed field mouse and looked underneath, but he still managed to get the wrong name for that mouse, as well as for about 75% of the other animals, so cheating didn't seem to do him any good.


I've been tested by my students as well once to see if I actually read through all their lab reports or just looked at them briefly. They were supposed to describe ungulate and bird feet and make brief comments of what adaptations they showed to their lifestyle and habitat, and one student wrote that the reindeer was a "mythical magical bird, which is almost inseparable from a deer, which eats only porridge, and produces a sound that is exported and put into clarinets, giving them their distinctive sound"(1).

Naturally, I wouldn't stand for any such blatant disrespect of my superiority, and the student had to remake the assignment.


---
(1) I may misremember some of the details, as I unfortunately didn't make a copy of the report.

[Chaos]

if you're comfortable doing so, want to tell us what university you're attending? I'm curious, since I teach economics.

Screw "comfortable". I study economics, I´ve never cheated, I´ve never noticed anyone else cheat, and my studies most certainly were about learning stuff first and foremost.

It may not be obvious to clueless political hacks, but there is a substance to economics, one which goes beyond the typical political lunacy.

So, UWdude, show us the difference between your statements and the moronic drivel of somebody who doesn´t know a thing of what he´s talking about.

[Dr. Keith]

My wife is wrapping up her grad school courses and all of her assignments have to be submitted to Turn It In (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_it_in). Apparently it is used widely in her school district as well. Has this not caught on in other university settings?

I actually switched majors because of the rampant cheating in my first choice. Well, it was one of the reasons. In my second major and later graduate studies it would have been harder to cheat than to just study.

Finally, a professor friend of mine has some very sad tales of plagiarizers who have been kicked out of her program. One even responded: but, I cited the paper I copied it from.

[Dr. Keith]

I've been tested by my students as well once to see if I actually read through all their lab reports or just looked at them briefly. They were supposed to describe ungulate and bird feet and make brief comments of what adaptations they showed to their lifestyle and habitat, and one student wrote that the reindeer was a "mythical magical bird, which is almost inseparable from a deer, which eats only porridge, and produces a sound that is exported and put into clarinets, giving them their distinctive sound"(1).

Naturally, I wouldn't stand for any such blatant disrespect of my superiority, and the student had to remake the assignment.


---
(1) I may misremember some of the details, as I unfortunately didn't make a copy of the report.

If they had also answered the question I would have been impressed with the creative writing, even though it was the wrong venue.

I had a rather long end note involving some of the statistical errors I found in my research for a poli-sci paper I was writing. The Prof put a big smiley face with an "E for effort" or something similar. I still got an A, but it wasn't based on my tangential efforts.

[UWdude]

So, UWdude, show us the difference between your statements and the moronic drivel of somebody who doesn´t know a thing of what he´s talking about.

well, you can watch the link for starters.

[Elaedith]

My wife is wrapping up her grad school courses and all of her assignments have to be submitted to Turn It In (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_it_in). Apparently it is used widely in her school district as well. Has this not caught on in other university settings?

I actually switched majors because of the rampant cheating in my first choice. Well, it was one of the reasons. In my second major and later graduate studies it would have been harder to cheat than to just study.

Finally, a professor friend of mine has some very sad tales of plagiarizers who have been kicked out of her program. One even responded: but, I cited the paper I copied it from.

Most universities in the UK use Turnitin now.

[pgwenthold]

When you have calculations in a problem set, one of the sure-fire signs that students have copied is when they transcribe calculator errors. It's really funny to see two students set up the problem the exact same way, and they BOTH just happen to make the same mistake punching it into their calculator.

[Madalch]

When I was a wee lad, just starting graduate studies, we were required to act as teaching assistants to supervise undergraduate labs. The final lab for the organic course was that each student was given a sample of an unknown compound, and they had to identify it by its IR spectrum, chemical and physical properties, etc.

A friend of mine caught two students (who had different unknowns) handing in virtually identical lab reports (one student had thrown out the IR spectrum he was given, stolen his friend's, and gave his friend a photocopy of the original). So he failed them. The overlord lab supervisor forced my friend to regrade them and give them a decent mark (I think the reasoning was, "We already punished them for cheating the last time they were caught- we can't keep harassing the poor students"). I personally would have told the lab supervisor to self-urinate, but my friend did as he was told.

Next year, I had one of these students in my lab, and he tried the same stunt.

[Startz]

In many types of classes, especially economics classes, the whole point of going to college is to make connections, not to necessarily learn anything.

(as you can see, I have an axe to grind)

if you're comfortable doing so, want to tell us what university you're attending? I'm curious, since I teach economics.

To go a little further, I teach economics at a university that is often referred to as "UW." I doubt it's the place that UWDude is referring to, but that's why I'm curious.

[Jeff Corey]

I use tunitin.com, too. The first time I used it, I failed a students in Critical Thinking for copying all of her paper.
We also tell the students that the use of any electronic device during tests, without specific permission from the instructor, is cheating.
I've failed some students for violating that, too.

[WingerII]

I recall that there was quite a bit of cheating going on during the first year of my undergrad engineering program, even during midterms and final exams (perhaps facilitated by the fact that many of them were multiple-choice, even physics and chemistry).

None of the habitual cheaters I know of made it past third year. If you can't pass first year engineering without cheating, you simply won't be able to hack it in the upper years. I can see how this could be different for other disciplines.

To go a little further, I teach economics at a university that is often referred to as "UW." I doubt it's the place that UWDude is referring to, but that's why I'm curious.

My alma mater also goes by "UW". :) Based on your location, though, probably not the same one.

My wife is wrapping up her grad school courses and all of her assignments have to be submitted to Turn It In. Apparently it is used widely in her school district as well. Has this not caught on in other university settings?

Many universities here in Canada use Turnitin, as well. We would have to consent to its use at the beginning of a term (I don't remember whether it was on a department basis or course-by-course), but you couldn't pass if you didn't, so it wasn't much of a choice. Many of us has problems with this, which the Wikipedia article covers pretty well in the Controversy section.

A number of my friends are teaching assistants now, and they find Turnitin to be mostly a waste of time (flags common turns of phrase, etc.). Though I suspect plagiarism is less likely to occur in engineering lab reports than, say, essays on ancient Roman history.

[Chaos]

We also tell the students that the use of any electronic device during tests, without specific permission from the instructor, is cheating.
I've failed some students for violating that, too.

Same at my university. No electronic devices, unless the professor allows a calculator to be used (and even then there are some functions the calculator cannot have). If your cell phone rings during the exam, no matter for what reason, that´s an automatic failing grade for attempted cheating.

[Alan]

Water bottles can't have labels. And I think that mobile phones had to not only be off but also on the table.

[Jeff Corey]

...Many universities here in Canada use Turnitin, as well. We would have to consent to its use at the beginning of a term (I don't remember whether it was on a department basis or course-by-course), but you couldn't pass if you didn't, so it wasn't much of a choice. Many of us has problems with this, which the Wikipedia article covers pretty well in the Controversy section.

A number of my friends are teaching assistants now, and they find Turnitin to be mostly a waste of time (flags common turns of phrase, etc.). Though I suspect plagiarism is less likely to occur in engineering lab reports than, say, essays on ancient Roman history.

Why do you - I assume you mean students - have to consent? It's a legitimate tool for providing feedback to students. I ask them for a CD of the first draft of their paper, and then point out the dodgy parts. And no way does it flag common turns of phrases. It nails plagiarism. I've even run some of my submissions to make sure I wasn't falling prey to the "My Sweet Lord" effect.

[Madalch]

At some places that I've taught, students writing exams have been forbidden from wearing hats.

[Jeff Corey]

At some places that I've taught, students writing exams have been forbidden from wearing hats.

As well they should. Or if they are baseball hats, turn them backwards.

[Alan]

When one of my professors talked about turnitin, she said that she put something she did into it and it said it was 10% plagiarised, on account of common phrases. It was about learning and teaching, and highlighted "learning and teaching" every time (or something to that effect since it was three or so years ago). Somebody looking at why it says 10% would see that it's not plagiarised, so I wouldn't call it a problem.

[fuelair]

I was here a while back, and I said something to the effect that cheating happens all the time at universities, to which I got a bunch of "nuh-uhs" and "prove its". I couldn't, and still cannot find the poll in which 50% of university students admitted to having cheated at least once, but it is out there somewhere.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/business-15749628/students-busted-for-cheating-22954742

I want you all to take special note of the student at about 2:10 here.

Note his shocking take on cheating. This is not uncommon, especially in business schools. I have actually seen girls on their laptops looking at a website to buy papers before. I have heard a guy on his cell phone talking extensively about his hustle, eventually saying, "I am tired of selling papers, that's why I am trying to set up this non-profit". This was on his cellphone in a computer lab, while he was writing someone's paper.. for an economics class.

I love the commentators at the end, in typical American fashion, cringing their noses at not the cheating itself, "well maybe everybody cuts corners here and there" but, the matter of fact way the student said it, "but to say it in such a fashion".

But this doesn't end at the Universities. These cheaters go on in life, and they knife their way to the tops of corporations and pension funds. Cheaters win all the time, no matter what little fairy tales your momma told you when you were young. If cheating was not a good way to get ahead, then people would not do it.Here are several and sources:
http://www.caveon.com/resources/cheating_statistics.htm

Located on www.dogpile.com using the terms "college students cheating surveys".

They over support you.:)

[UWdude]

Here are several and sources:
http://www.caveon.com/resources/cheating_statistics.htm



wow, worse than I remember.

[Modified]

My eyes are myopic enough that without contacts, I can read text so small it would appear only as a black smudge to anyone with normal vision. So I could have gone into an exam with this micro-text written on something and one contact out. Near point is about 1.5 inches, so glasses would be too close. I'm not sure how it could be done without arousing suspicion; constantly putting something an inch and a half from your eye would be suspicious.

[Jeff Corey]

When one of my professors talked about turnitin, she said that she put something she did into it and it said it was 10% plagiarised, on account of common phrases. It was about learning and teaching, and highlighted "learning and teaching" every time (or something to that effect since it was three or so years ago). Somebody looking at why it says 10% would see that it's not plagiarised, so I wouldn't call it a problem.

It's even less of a problem if you block out "References/bibliography"" and "short phrases". These are functions that have been available for at least two years.

[Jeff Corey]

wow, worse than I remember.

This, "75% of college students admitted cheating, and 90% of college students didn't believe cheaters would be caught." is not realistic in my department, at least. In my classes, they know it's very likely that they will be caught.

[Travis]

Seconded. I remember being vaguely aware that there were places where people could go to buy prewritten essays, and I remember one professor saying that he'd recieved one once, and could recognize the writing style, but I never knew anyone who said they'd done that.

I'd be a fool to turn in a purchased paper in any case. I tend to have a distinctive writing style.

Same here. Besides I prided myself on my extensive use of sources from outside the classroom.

Cheating has always happened but I really wonder why, because it's always seemed to me that if you plagiarise or fake something that the person you're cheating is you. Even if it seems the easier route to somebody, what they've lost is an opportunity to learn as well as risking an even bigger loss if they get caught out and end up being failed.

Exactly. I never understood the philosophy of cheating. You're there to learn!

Same at my university. No electronic devices, unless the professor allows a calculator to be used (and even then there are some functions the calculator cannot have). If your cell phone rings during the exam, no matter for what reason, that´s an automatic failing grade for attempted cheating.

Even if they don't answer it? That's harsh. I'm the absent minded type to forget to turn mine off.

Water bottles can't have labels. And I think that mobile phones had to not only be off but also on the table.

Wow, that's quite a control. I don't really remember any such measures against cheating in my classes. The subject wasn't even brought up. My classes tended to only have a dozen or so students in them and I guess the instructors tended to not think any of us would even want to cheat.


By the way it would be an interesting subject for a student to explore the world of these new "canned" papers. I'd love to read a project on it.

[DarthFishy]

Our official policy also includes similar regulations on hats/caps and mobile phones. My exams/tests are all open book (being programming) so I generally turn a blind eye to these specific policies. I allow the students access to any sources they want in the exam, except outside help from actual people. If they are cheating they are doing it really badly based on the current pass rate!

[tkmikkelsen]

I don't know if you will qualify the following as cheating.
I work for a company that specializes in proofreading, copyedting and rewriting of text material. We do a lot of rewriting and copyediting for students from USA and Australia. So they send their text to us and then we edit it, so that it is more correct English and to make it more understandable.
Especially in rewriting it is not a good representative of what the original author can do.
We don't see a lot of science papers, but essay's for English classes or literature classes we get a lot of. Often the students will give us a very raw text and then tell us the criteria for the text and then we will rewrite and reformat the text to for fill these requirements.
This practices is also widely used for foreign students applying to American colleges.

[Malachi Constant]

My school uses turnitin.com, but they make us (the students) submit it and include a printout of the report along with our outline (it's a speech class, not a writing class).

I've only used it twice so far, but the first time my percentage was <1%, the second time it was about 9%, but it mostly flagged formatting things that we were required to put in. The report highlights the "plagiarized" sections, so it's pretty easy to tell if it's real plagiarism or just a mistake. The teacher also gets forwarded a copy of the report automatically.

That same class has the rule about phones going off, too. What is the rational behind it? Why is a ringing phone an instant zero? On our first test I thought I had turned if off, but when I left class and went to turn it on, I found that it was already on. I'm just going to leave my phone at home on test days from now on.

I heard a fellow student talking openly (in class) about cheating from my lab partner's test in another class. She was a freshman taking a required science class and was pretty useless during the lab, didn't seem at all interested in learning.

[Andrew Wiggin]

in one biology lab section I was in, the instructor mentioned that one student had entered the name of the student who sat across from him as the answer to problem number one, and then had gone down the line, answering problem number two with the answer to one, three from two, etc. He was kicked out of the class and had to retake it.

I didn't see anything like that myself though. There was no shortage of drama, but it was not related to cheating. One example that sticks out in my mind was seeing police come into a philosophy class I was in, and arrest one of the students, who I also shared an organic chem class with, as he'd been caught making methcathinone in the chem lab at night.

[Chaos]

Even if they don't answer it? That's harsh. I'm the absent minded type to forget to turn mine off.

You´re always reminded before exams to turn off your cell phone. There´s no excuse for "forgetting" when they tell you explicitly "Turn off your cell phones. Any cell phone ringing during exam will be considered an attempt to cheat, which means an automatic failing grade".

[TragicMonkey]

You´re always reminded before exams to turn off your cell phone. There´s no excuse for "forgetting" when they tell you explicitly "Turn off your cell phones. Any cell phone ringing during exam will be considered an attempt to cheat, which means an automatic failing grade".

I can see that a ringing phone would be rude, and disruptive to the other test-takers, and therefore justifiably punished. But how could a ringing phone be used to cheat?

[UWdude]

I can see that a ringing phone would be rude, and disruptive to the other test-takers, and therefore justifiably punished. But how could a ringing phone be used to cheat?

texting Q's and A's back and forth with a friend with access to google or 1337 coding skillz or superior calculus skills.

[TragicMonkey]

texting Q's and A's back and forth with a friend with access to google or 1337 coding skillz or superior calculus skills.

But you could do all of that without having your phone ring; in fact, having the phone actually ring would be severely detrimental to the process. Outgoing calls, texting, or internet browsing would be far superior ways of cheating, and none of those would advertise by having the ring of an incoming call.

I would say the ring of an incoming call surely proves that the device is not being used for clandestine activities like cheating, unless the cheater in question was unfathomably stupid. "Call me with all the answers!" they tell their friend? Even then, can't phones be set to vibrate, or noiselessly signal they are receiving input?

[Jeff Corey]

With all the different devices with different functions out now, it is prudent to just ban them all.
Our published policy is that academic dishonesty includes "...using any electronic device in an academic exercise or examination that is not explicitly authorized by the supervising faculty. This includes but is not limited to the Internet, cell phones, beepers, iPods, headphones, PDAs, and other wireless handheld devices."

[Travis]

Man things are so much more complicated now than when I was in school.

[Dr. Keith]

With all the different devices with different functions out now, it is prudent to just ban them all.
Our published policy is that academic dishonesty includes "...using any electronic device in an academic exercise or examination that is not explicitly authorized by the supervising faculty. This includes but is not limited to the Internet, cell phones, beepers, iPods, headphones, PDAs, and other wireless handheld devices."

Trying to confuse them with archaic terminology?

Their drug dealers don't even know what a beeper is . . . .

[Dr. Keith]

I would say the ring of an incoming call surely proves that the device is not being used for clandestine activities like cheating, unless the cheater in question was unfathomably stupid.

Should the unfathomably stupid, or even mildly incautious, be allowed to cheat? :D

[WingerII]

Why do you - I assume you mean students - have to consent? It's a legitimate tool for providing feedback to students. I ask them for a CD of the first draft of their paper, and then point out the dodgy parts.

Turnitin adds all submissions it receives to its database. This makes sense from a functional standpoint, but many students are understandably concerned about having their intellectual property used by a for-profit service. The wikipedia article on Turnitin (sorry, can't post links yet) summarizes the controversy.

According to my university's website, the current SOP for courses that use Turnitin is to include a disclaimer on the course outline, which is handed out in the first lecture. Additionally, the professor must give students a reasonable alternative.

And no way does it flag common turns of phrases. It nails plagiarism. I've even run some of my submissions to make sure I wasn't falling prey to the "My Sweet Lord" effect.

Fair enough. My knowledge is second-hand, and I should know better than to trust a bunch of disgruntled grad students. :)

[UWdude]

I would say the ring of an incoming call surely proves that the device is not being used for clandestine activities like cheating, unless the cheater in question was unfathomably stupid. "Call me with all the answers!" they tell their friend? Even then, can't phones be set to vibrate, or noiselessly signal they are receiving input?

People that let their awesome pop-ringtones go off in class tend to be the unfathomably stupid, yes.

Nothing like a lecture on Pol-Pots genocidal campaign being interrupted by "ma ma ma ma, ma poker face!" "oop, hee hees", snickers, *digging through bag*.

[Belgian thought]

Our official policy also includes similar regulations on hats/caps and mobile phones. My exams/tests are all open book (being programming) so I generally turn a blind eye to these specific policies. I allow the students access to any sources they want in the exam, except outside help from actual people. If they are cheating they are doing it really badly based on the current pass rate!

Check their water bottles too!

I was recently told by a French student about a website in France that was offering editable replica bottled water labels. You could add your crib notes in the small text, print out and stick onto the bottle to take into the exam.

[Chaos]

Man things are so much more complicated now than when I was in school.

Styluses and clay tablets?

[Pinely]

I had a Psychology professor that would make 4 (or 5) different versions of an exam for his 100 level courses. They weren't different questions, they were just arranged in a completely different way. Some people would start with essays, others would start with short answer, etc . . . In addition to this, he had arranged a seating chart that made it difficult for two people with the same exam to see each other. He forbade hats and cellphones and had his TAs roam around looking for cheaters. Very impressive, though it did take about 20 minutes to get everything ready for the actual exam.

And then I had the Art History professor that accidentally left some of the names on the art slides we were supposed to identify. When a TA attempted to point this out, the professor didn't seem to understand the problem, until the TA literally had him look at the screen and the test at the same time. He was a good sport about it though, he laughed for a solid minute.

I witnessed a lot of cheating my Freshmen and Sophomore year, but it ended almost entirely after that point. But, my major was History and after sophomore year most of my courses were based around research papers or discussion sessions. I don't know if this was simply to hone our research skills or to also curb plagiarism, but my professors made us pick research topics that weren't well covered. Some of these topics were so far out I think you'd spend more time trying to find a paper to plagiarize than actually doing the research.

As said, though, at the 100-200 level I saw a lot of cheating by my fellow students. Copying from other people exams was the most prominent, I think. The way lecture halls are set up, its easy for people to see the exams of folks in front of them. Also, when there are a lot of students in a class, it's hard to notice people that are using notes while taking the exam. Plus, the wide range of topics in most 100-200 courses lend themselves to multiple choice exams, which are much easier to cheat with than essays or short answer. I doubt 50% of students cheat, but I wouldn't be surprised if 1 in 4 students cheated at some point during their college education.

[Chaos]

In my university, exams take place in the auditoriums. Every second row is left empty, and in the occupied rows, there are always two empty seats between students. That makes it very hard to see what someone else is writing, much less do so inconspicuously. Even so, many professors go with two different exam versions - not just rearranged questions, but for example the same question with different numbers.

[Travis]

Styluses and clay tablets?

And an abacus.

[majamin]

When taking measure theory in my undergrad, it was always a given that students would work in groups to tackle the problem sets together (this was one of the most difficult courses I've taken).

Assignments "cheating vs. collaboration"

Throughout my undergrad, the emphasis on collaboration implicitly increased, because my profs would explicitly encourage group work. However, identical solutions were always discouraged, and we were always told to submit separate papers. Having worked in groups where we had come to a consensus on a solution, this was often very difficult to do (having one solution was usually hard enough). And, there was always a member who was a rider with respect to some of the problems (yes, I've been the occasional rider on difficult problems), so there would often be hard feelings toward the person who did not "pull their weight". By the time anything really counts, cheating on assignments is benign, compared to cheating on:

Testing

Overall, cheaters get weeded out by individual examination, since typical syllabi stipulate weighting of more than 50% to assessment. It would be highly unlikely that career cheaters would stay around long enough to attain a degree because of this.

I did get a chance to read most of this thread ... if anything was repeated here, feel free to ignore it.

[DevilsAdvocate]

I don’t suspect there was much cheating at my university. Of course this was before cell phones and the Internet (at least the WWW and a public Internet) and such. And it was a small university so the professors knew their students well and had a good idea what grades students would get even before they took tests. It was known that the fraternities kept copies of the tests and traded papers with other universities. There were some outlets for buying papers, especially from the nearby, large state university.

Multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank test were only used for the most basic 100 level courses and some science courses (where essays are as practical and more of the grade is based on projects and lab work). All other tests were essay where you write the answers in the little blue books.

Professors randomized tests using one means or another. Some would have different versions with the questions in a different order. Some would use, say, three completely different tests. Some rotated test by semester so that the tests from one semester were not the same as the last. Some used a combination where each test would have some core questions that appeared on every test, some questions that were on more than one version but not all, and some questions that were only on one version of the test.

I only recall hearing about one incident of cheating. I think it was something like a professor used the same 50-question test as a previous semester except for changing 5 of the questions, and there were like 3 guys who were all from the same fraternity who got all the questions right except for the 5 that were changed from the previous semester. I think they couldn’t prove cheating and allowed them to retake a new, different test. I think they passed but not with very good grades.

Papers were usually on an assigned topic (or a list of topics) that were very specific and directly related to the course. I doubt anyone could just buy a paper on such a specific topic. Longer papers could have more general topics, but you had to meet with the professor to discuss it during the process (choice of topic, sources and research, outline, draft, etc.). In a couple case an oral presentation was also required. For honors courses you had to orally defend your work.

I think I only heard of one case of plagiarism, which was by a guy who was flunking out anyway.

At least on e course in the arts was required of all students. The ceramics professor told me about a student who took his 100 level course the final semester of this senior year. The course consisted of different projects demonstrating different techniques taught in the course. The grade was based solely on a final presentation of projects completed during the semester. The student didn’t show up for a single day of class. The student went to Walmart or some such store and bought some random mass-produced ceramic items and turned those in as his final project. He flunked. Unfortunately his (rather rich and influential) father raised hell with the dean and president and the professor was forced to change the grade to a D-.

[UWdude]

I still have classes where professors do not gather all the blue books and redistribute them.
I also once put all my things under my desk, only to notice at the end of the test, half of my study notes were completely visible had I bothered to look down.

Unfortunately his (rather rich and influential) father raised hell with the dean and president and the professor was forced to change the grade to a D-.

Yup, like the football player who turned in a paper written by someone of a different race. Some people get a pass for being connected to power.

[DevilsAdvocate]

There is an interesting article just published in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled The Shadow Scholar (http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/). It is written by a person who has worked as a professional ghost writer for custom student papers.

[little grey rabbit]

There is an interesting article just published in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled The Shadow Scholar (http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/). It is written by a person who has worked as a professional ghost writer for custom student papers.

It looks like an engaging fiction to me.

But then what would you expect from a newspaper that targets the university sector?

[UWdude]

It looks like an engaging fiction to me.

But then what would you expect from a newspaper that targets the university sector?

Not me. I have seriously wondered how many Asian students could get such good grades, when talking to them shows they simply do not have a good enough grasp on the English language to be writing essays, or to be understanding the more difficult to understand words in college textbooks.

Oh, and I also heard a guy talking about this very hustle. He was also explaining to a friend why he could only loan him $1000, not $3000.

[little grey rabbit]

All the universities I went to usually had no more than 50% for internal assessment, the rest on a final exam.

I do think quite a few lecturers can't be bothered failing foreign students because they will then have them again next year.

[Madalch]

All the universities I went to usually had no more than 50% for internal assessment, the rest on a final exam.

Almost every university course I've ever taken or taught has had the final exam worth 40%.

[LordoftheLeftHand]

I've been taking a few classes at the local community college. I have a professor who has a "cell phone collection". You touch a cell phone in his class (and not just during exams) and he gives you the choice of permanently surrendering it to his collection, or receiving a W in the class.

[little grey rabbit]

That's one of the things that the Rest of the World finds quite puzzling about the US.

Any clown gets to call himself a professor in the States, everywhere else its a title you usually achieve at the mid to late stages of a career.

Probably explains why he is so anal to his students.

[Jeff Corey]

That's one of the things that the Rest of the World finds quite puzzling about the US.

Any clown gets to call himself a professor in the States, everywhere else its a title you usually achieve at the mid to late stages of a career.

Probably explains why he is so anal to his students.

I guess you are no professor, Monsieur Lapin, since you mistakenly said "its" for "it's". And people who call others "anal" should watch their Freudian ass.

[DevilsAdvocate]

It looks like an engaging fiction to me.

But then what would you expect from a newspaper that targets the university sector?Why do you think it looks like fiction?

[marplots]

There is an interesting article just published in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled The Shadow Scholar (http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/). It is written by a person who has worked as a professional ghost writer for custom student papers.

I freelance and I've seen these jobs. The numbers in his article don't really work out though -- his volume and how much he's clearing in a year.

That said, I've never been interested in doing papers; the money isn't there for a writer. Students generally cannot pay even close to industry rates.

I have done edits for grants, proposals and journal submissions -- mostly fixing wacky English or pointing out confused/logically unsupported stuff. APA formatting seems to be a mystery to many otherwise educated people.

I've often wondered though -- why do we expect someone who is skilled in one field to also be able to write coherent, if not interesting, prose? I like to think I've earned my stripes when it comes to writing, it seems unreasonable to need an English degree to get a Psychology degree.

[KoihimeNakamura]

That would cause me to complain since the cell phone's private property. Although in college I usually kept it off and in my coat for similar reasons.

Sent from my Droid

ETA: d'oh, hit reply not quote. Responding to LLH

[LordoftheLeftHand]

That would cause me to complain since the cell phone's private property. Although in college I usually kept it off and in my coat for similar reasons.

Sent from my Droid

ETA: d'oh, hit reply not quote. Responding to LLH
Yeah, that is why he gives you the choice of a W. Of course I don't how well his policy would stand up if someone seriously challenged it, but for what it is worth, his collection of cell phones is impressive....

[Spindrift]

In college I cheated, but not for me, for others. I wrote short papers (3-5 pages) for $25 and edited and re-wrote for $10. Not a lot but I would say maybe 10 or 12 times in 3 years that I did it. Always for someone I knew, usually females. Hey I was trying to get laid, not that it worked. I never had to do the same paper twice. This was before computers were widespread, so I actually typed the papers on a typewriter.

[DarthFishy]

And then I had the Art History professor that accidentally left some of the names on the art slides we were supposed to identify. When a TA attempted to point this out, the professor didn't seem to understand the problem, until the TA literally had him look at the screen and the test at the same time. He was a good sport about it though, he laughed for a solid minute.


This reminds me of a mistake I made in a test once. It was a programming exam which had an HTML (i.e. webpage) section. I intended to upload an uncompleted copy of one of the webpages unto the local network so they could download it and complete it. In other words just adding the logic to the static page. Instead I uploaded the completed memorandum for that question!

So for that test all the students got a free 15% or so :)

[TragicMonkey]

And then I had the Art History professor that accidentally left some of the names on the art slides we were supposed to identify.

I would be a cruel art history teacher indeed, because I'd put the wrong names on the slides and see who fell for it.

[sadhatter]

I quite frequently get papers that have obviously been written by the same person (even though they've got the names of two different students on them). They get zeroes, and letters are written to the dean.

Any chance of coming and teaching here?

In my course it is getting out of control, to the point where someone was caught cheating today ( rather large quiz, he was looking at other's papers and writing down answers he missed.) and the teacher did nothing more than say " What is this?" ( to be fair, there is a possibility he is getting 0 on the quiz, but it states clearly in our course outline cheating=getting kicked out.)

While a good portion of teachers may be like you, i find that cheating is on the surface frowned upon extremely , but in practise accepted to a point.

Which bugs the crap out of me. If i don't know the material, i am willing to get a 60 or a 70 on something. Why should the rules be different for others?

On a related note, any advice on how to help this? Petitions have been passed around ( it is a specific group of students, who happen to be from a different country.) but the response was for the head of the course to call the person presenting it a trouble maker.

[TragicMonkey]

On a related note, any advice on how to help this? Petitions have been passed around ( it is a specific group of students, who happen to be from a different country.) but the response was for the head of the course to call the person presenting it a trouble maker.

Look up the head of the course's doctoral dissertation and research it to see if anything was plagiarized from other people. People who are lax about cheating are usually cheaters themselves, and a plagiarized dissertation leads to revocation of the degree and complete destruction of the person's academic career.

Or you could just gather the evidence and blackmail them, but academics don't generally have a lot of money so it's probably not worth it.

[sadhatter]

Look up the head of the course's doctoral dissertation and research it to see if anything was plagiarized from other people. People who are lax about cheating are usually cheaters themselves, and a plagiarized dissertation leads to revocation of the degree and complete destruction of the person's academic career.

Or you could just gather the evidence and blackmail them, but academics don't generally have a lot of money so it's probably not worth it.

You know, the irony is this prof ( not the one who laughed it off, but the head of the course.) is quite the disciplinarian, and goes on at length about the lack of discipline that the regulating body of pharmacy deals out. I honestly think that she would not have done things like this herself.

I honestly think there is ...something going on. But not being a teacher ( or, to be honest familiar with the processes involved in higher level education.) i have no idea what the up side would be for them to ignore cheating.

[TragicMonkey]

I honestly think there is ...something going on. But not being a teacher ( or, to be honest familiar with the processes involved in higher level education.) i have no idea what the up side would be for them to ignore cheating.

Because schools are businesses now, and the students are customers. The school doesn't make money on students it kicks out.

[Cainkane1]

I never cheated. I never even tried. I don't know how it is these days but when I was in college you were out of the University if you got caught.

[UWdude]

I never cheated. I never even tried. I don't know how it is these days but when I was in college you were out of the University if you got caught.

I highly doubt it. That was the perception of a good, hard working student. In fact, that is the perception of most good, hard working students today. They think getting caught cheating leads to expulsion. Nope. Never really did. (I mean, it depends a little bit on your connections, I am sure)

[alfa1]

Cheating-not nice...

[Madalch]

I honestly think there is ...something going on. But not being a teacher ( or, to be honest familiar with the processes involved in higher level education.) i have no idea what the up side would be for them to ignore cheating.

If you punish a student for cheating, the student (no matter how guilty s/he knows they are) is likely to file a complaint. This will be handled by the university administration, and there will be a hearing similar to a trial. This is time-consuming for the instructor, and there is a significant chance that the administrators will sympathize with the student no matter how obvious the instructor thinks the plagiarism is. (If I see a student looking over another student's shoulder during the exam, that will convince me that he's cheating, but the Dean's not going to take my word for it.) An instructor who is juggling two or three courses, plus possibly research, isn't going to want to devote time to such hearings if the outcome isn't assured.

When I was a lab instructor and caught students plagiarizing lab reports, the usual punishment was that they would get a zero on that lab, and not be allowed to write the lab exam (which meant a significant hit on their lab grade, but also freed them from a stressful exam that all the other students devoted a great deal of time studying for). Any more serious punishment would have required an administrative hearing, and the prof didn't have time for that sort of thing. But he did sit down with the students, outline the evidence against them, and outline the possible punishments for them (such as expulsion) in order to put the fear of Gawd into them. The students would then be grateful to receive only a zero, and not contest it.

The student I mentioned who handed in his photocopy of the other guy's lab report- he initially was worried that getting a zero on this lab report might lower his overall grade to the point where his average might not get him into med school. I made sure he knew that academic suspensions and expulsion made his GPA the least of his worries.

[alfa1]

You have to understand each student....

[Alan]

Would you like to elaborate, alfa1? :)

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Yes, I have cheated and plagiarized on several occasions without getting caught. I have also helped others cheat on several occasions. In one instance, it was for money. The person was working full time, was not interested in the material, was only taking the class for a liberal arts requirement and could not have done the work- or at least not very well. She offered me money since I was one of the best in the class. I wrote the papers for her but later tried to refuse to take the cash. She convinced me to take it in the end, though. I'm not proud of it but there it is.

I also know of at least one person- my best friend- who semi regularly buys papers from an online service. She's never been caught and is actually very blase about it. She fully expects to get away with it Scot-free. And she has, for years. She says that her sister also does it but at another place.

Our professors thunder about academic dishonesty at the start of every class. The syllabus always has two or three pages on it alone. The college makes it very, very clear that it is not tolerated and that the consequences are very bad. And yet almost every single one of my professors, past and present, claims that they typically get several cases of plagiarism every semester. A lot of them say "There's at least one every single class- and they always get caught." It's just unavoidable. Always happens. Kids just do it.

ETA: I also know of a case of a woman (a former friend of mine) paying her roommate (a good acquaintance of mine) 200 dollars or so to take an exam in Polish for her- and threw a yoga mat and some free yoga classes into the deal, too. :biggrin: It was one of those tests that exempt you from the college's language requirement. The cheater knew Polish fairly well because she was half-Polish- but was utterly clueless about the grammar and things like that- but the roommate was a recent immigrant from Poland. Of course, she passed with flying colors- and had the fairly good luck to not get caught, despite the fact that she looked nothing like her roommate (she showed the cheater's ID as her own and was waved in by an inattentive test administrator) and was wearing a cheap blonde wig on her head (if memory serves).

You would think most people would stop there. You'd think. You'd think that would be enough for most people. You'd think. You'd think they would count their lucky stars it worked out once and never try a stunt like that again. You'd be wrong. This woman then had the gall to call me and ask me if I knew anyone at my college who "Is really good and really smart at history or literature or psychology and has blonde hair and is tall like me so that they could take the test for me. Could you keep a lookout for someone like that for me?". :eye-poppi :covereyes

Yes, she wanted to exempt herself from more classes. Getting away once wasn't enough for her.

I rather coldly responded "I could ask around but I can't really think of anyone like that. I might ask them- but I'm not promising anything. Maybe."

Translation: "WHEN HELL FREEZES OVER!"

Does anyone want to guess what this woman was studying to be?

A child educator.

[Jeff Corey]

If you punish a student for cheating, the student (no matter how guilty s/he knows they are) is likely to file a complaint. This will be handled by the university administration, and there will be a hearing similar to a trial. This is time-consuming for the instructor, and there is a significant chance that the administrators will sympathize with the student no matter how obvious the instructor thinks the plagiarism is. (If I see a student looking over another student's shoulder during the exam, that will convince me that he's cheating, but the Dean's not going to take my word for it.) An instructor who is juggling two or three courses, plus possibly research, isn't going to want to devote time to such hearings if the outcome isn't assured...

That is not my experience. In all the years I've been teaching at an university, I've given Fs on tests where cheating occurred (the most recent was this semester, when a student was using a blackberry during her first,and last, exam) and on papers that were plagiarized. Sometimes this resulted in a F in the course, and I never have had to go through any lengthy hearing process.
One time, a person I caught cheating on a final claimed that her fiance was a lawyer for the mob and would have the boys take care of me, and then was stupid enough to make the same statement to the Dean of Students, an ombudsperson (sic) at the time. I didn't lose any sleep over the threat.

[aggle-rithm]

Cheaters win all the time, no matter what little fairy tales your momma told you when you were young. If cheating was not a good way to get ahead, then people would not do it.

In my profession (software development), you can spot the cheaters pretty quickly. They provide awesome resumes with descriptions of stunning academic achievements. They've got great references. They know all the buzzwords. However, if you question them deeply enough about their understanding of basic principles, you can tell they are posers.

Even those who don't interview them carefully will find out soon after they hire them that they're all smoke and mirrors. Their only hope is to get a job with one of those companies where it's easier to stick them in a back room somewhere than to fill out the paperwork required to fire them.

You can fool people, but you can't fool computer systems. You have to actually know what you're doing to make them do useful work.

[aggle-rithm]

Because schools are businesses now, and the students are customers. The school doesn't make money on students it kicks out.

If there are thousands of other would-be students on a waiting list, you may as well kick them out. You've already got their money for that semester, and another student is ready to take his place next semester.

[aggle-rithm]

I had a professor who allowed us to bring several pages of cheat notes to each test. The only rule was that it had to be written out by hand, not printed or photocopied.

Towards the end of the semester, she told us the dirty little secret: The act of writing down the cheat notes cemented the material on our memories, and we didn't really need to refer to the notes during the test.

I admired that approach. The goal wasn't so much to have us pass a test as it was to actually learn the material.

[UWdude]

In my profession (software development), you can spot the cheaters pretty quickly. They provide awesome resumes with descriptions of stunning academic achievements. They've got great references. They know all the buzzwords. However, if you question them deeply enough about their understanding of basic principles, you can tell they are posers.

Even those who don't interview them carefully will find out soon after they hire them that they're all smoke and mirrors. Their only hope is to get a job with one of those companies where it's easier to stick them in a back room somewhere than to fill out the paperwork required to fire them.

You can fool people, but you can't fool computer systems. You have to actually know what you're doing to make them do useful work.

there are fields you cannot cheat in, I agree (although you can still play a mean game of nasty office politics). But most non-technical fields, like law, history and economics, you can cheat your way all the way to the presidency.

[Madalch]

That is not my experience. In all the years I've been teaching at an university, I've given Fs on tests where cheating occurred (the most recent was this semester, when a student was using a blackberry during her first,and last, exam) and on papers that were plagiarized. Sometimes this resulted in a F in the course, and I never have had to go through any lengthy hearing process.

I'm sure it varies from one university to the next, but that was the reason my prof gave me for not attempting to penalize students more for copying their lab reports.

[TraneWreck]

I played baseball at a school that consistently has top-ten sports programs---basketball and football teams being the big money makers. They would not consistently have top-ten basketball and football teams if cheating were not constant.

I mostly took classes without any other athletes in them, but to fulfill a graduation requirement I enrolled in a general-ed level science course. It was filled with athletes. The test was multiple choice scan-tron.

The class was in a large lecture hall with theater-style rows of seats. When we would take tests, people would copy may answers from the seats next to me. The people next to them would copy of of those. Then the row behind, and on and on. In all, probably 25 people based their answers on my test.

I just said, "I'm just going to take my test, you do whatever the hell you want. Don't tell me about it, and don't talk to me. If someone gets busted and we all have to take the test again, I'll be fine."

It's a difficult thing to ask a freshman to stand up against an athletic department with millions of dollars invested in you and all the guys cheating off of you.

[WildCat]

Intersting article by a professional paper writer here: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/

From my experience, three demographic groups seek out my services: the English-as-second-language student; the hopelessly deficient student; and the lazy rich kid.

For the last, colleges are a perfect launching ground—they are built to reward the rich and to forgive them their laziness. Let's be honest: The successful among us are not always the best and the brightest, and certainly not the most ethical. My favorite customers are those with an unlimited supply of money and no shortage of instructions on how they would like to see their work executed. While the deficient student will generally not know how to ask for what he wants until he doesn't get it, the lazy rich student will know exactly what he wants. He is poised for a life of paying others and telling them what to do. Indeed, he is acquiring all the skills he needs to stay on top.
I recommend reading the whole article, it's a doozy.

[AnnoyingPony]

I'm not in a university yet, but I have seen plagiarism happen at the junior high school level.

I was peer-editing a boy's essay against gun control. Aside from the fact that he didn't seem to know what gun control was, he had one paragraph that was simply a list of bulletpoints on gun safety copied from a gun safety website.

[sadhatter]

If you punish a student for cheating, the student (no matter how guilty s/he knows they are) is likely to file a complaint. This will be handled by the university administration, and there will be a hearing similar to a trial. This is time-consuming for the instructor, and there is a significant chance that the administrators will sympathize with the student no matter how obvious the instructor thinks the plagiarism is. (If I see a student looking over another student's shoulder during the exam, that will convince me that he's cheating, but the Dean's not going to take my word for it.) An instructor who is juggling two or three courses, plus possibly research, isn't going to want to devote time to such hearings if the outcome isn't assured.

When I was a lab instructor and caught students plagiarizing lab reports, the usual punishment was that they would get a zero on that lab, and not be allowed to write the lab exam (which meant a significant hit on their lab grade, but also freed them from a stressful exam that all the other students devoted a great deal of time studying for). Any more serious punishment would have required an administrative hearing, and the prof didn't have time for that sort of thing. But he did sit down with the students, outline the evidence against them, and outline the possible punishments for them (such as expulsion) in order to put the fear of Gawd into them. The students would then be grateful to receive only a zero, and not contest it.

The student I mentioned who handed in his photocopy of the other guy's lab report- he initially was worried that getting a zero on this lab report might lower his overall grade to the point where his average might not get him into med school. I made sure he knew that academic suspensions and expulsion made his GPA the least of his worries.

judging by the reactions we have gotten i would say this is fairly likely to be the case. I would think the financial issue had a bit more to do with it, but it is clearly stated anyone being expelled for any reason will not be refunded any money. ( to be fair it also goes on at length about cheating , and the punishments, and we can see where that is going. )

Especially considering it is a good chunk of the students ( i hate to say this, but it is true. It is about half or so of our group of students from india. I don't know what, if any significance this would have, but it is a fact somewhat important to the story. The irony is, as people, i don't mind any of them, they are good guys, but they have no qualms about cheating. And in a fairly competitive field, that doesn't sit right with me.) i think the time constraints , and effort could be the deciding factor. Honestly if it was one person , i wouldn't care that much. But it being so many people, so obviously, well that is what is getting to me.

And it is not just the impact it might have 7-8 years down the road. I spend the vast majority of my time busting my *** , I have had to limit my social life to a day or two , maybe per week. ( a lot of weeks, even this is just an hour or two watching t.v. with my friends.) But they are getting relatively similar grades, and getting to chill out on a fairly regular basis. ( What really kills me is when one of the people doing it asks me if i want to go to the bar.) As someone who puts a lot of value in chilling out this bugs the crap out of me.

Any idea what i could do? It is getting to the point where if i knew where to go i wouldn't mind going over the prof's head.

[Madalch]

Especially considering it is a good chunk of the students ( i hate to say this, but it is true. It is about half or so of our group of students from india.

I'm not going to say that it's true that people from the area of the subcontinent cheat more than other students, but I can confirm that, in my experience, they certainly have that reputation.

[quixotecoyote]

I've taught public speaking courses (and will hopefully do so again soon) which are a little difficult to cheat at, since your "voice" is a lot more apparent in that it's actually your voice.

I would spot check the preparation outlines in google for direct copying, and while that wouldn't catch the paper writer WildCat linked, it was aimed at keeping honest people honest.

I only ever caught one girl, who did a copy/paste from a law enforcement website for a section of her speech. Since it wasn't the entirety of the speech, I had a talk with her and called it a failure of citation, knocked that part of her grade off, and kept an eye on her work in the future.

I didn't find any other incidents, so maybe she learned something.

[BowlOfRed]

One appalling thing is the lack of quality in the papers people actually buy in order to cheat with. I remember visiting a website years ago that was mentioned in an article about that sort of thing, and reading some sample excerpts of literature papers. The ones I read were of horrible quality--poor writing in the first place, and they managed to completely misunderstand the books they were supposed to be about. I guess that's the danger of a market for illicit goods: no quality control!

HA! I know a person that in the ancient days of the web placed an "interesting" piece of literature up to see what people would say about it. It's amazing how many people are rather upset that not everything on the web is true (or how many people might use a random site in an exam without checking sources).

I sometimes liked to see who had linked to it or copied it. The original server is no longer up, but I found a copy of it referenced on a site that sold exam papers. I can only presume that they were adding things that were automatically farmed via keywords or they're not familiar with history. I can't find the sale link any more, so either they took it down or the company itself is gone. But here is the original document. Yes, you could have paid money to a company for this paper on Mark Twain.

http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/archives/WRIT102/marktwain.htm

[Elaedith]

I also know of at least one person- my best friend- who semi regularly buys papers from an online service. She's never been caught and is actually very blase about it. She fully expects to get away with it Scot-free. And she has, for years. She says that her sister also does it but at another place.



A student I taught recently was suspected of plagiarism in her first year but not enough evidence was available. We finally managed to track down the site at the end of her second year, and paid the subscription to access it. Subsequently all her work from the entire two years was retrieved and checked and almost every piece was found to have been purchased from the site. She had all her marks retrospectively withdrawn and was expelled from the university with nothing (expect two years of fees and a black mark on her record).

Another student at my university a few years back had his entire degree retrospectively withdrawn as he was about to graduate after discovering past plagiarism. He tried unsuccessfully to sue the university for not discovering it earlier!

[AnnoyingPony]

HA! I know a person that in the ancient days of the web placed an "interesting" piece of literature up to see what people would say about it. It's amazing how many people are rather upset that not everything on the web is true (or how many people might use a random site in an exam without checking sources).

I sometimes liked to see who had linked to it or copied it. The original server is no longer up, but I found a copy of it referenced on a site that sold exam papers. I can only presume that they were adding things that were automatically farmed via keywords or they're not familiar with history. I can't find the sale link any more, so either they took it down or the company itself is gone. But here is the original document. Yes, you could have paid money to a company for this paper on Mark Twain.

http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/archives/WRIT102/marktwain.htm

So Mark Twain was a Jew raised by Native Americans who wrote secret messages to chefs through his books?

That has to be a joke.

That reminds me... once a kid used an Onion article for his current event essay.

[TubbaBlubba]

For example, Mark Twain once said "The reports of my death have been greatly exagerated." If we take the first letter of each word in this quote, TROMDHBGE, then translate by one letter so that A->B, B->C, etc. We get USPNEICHF. Rearranging, his message was "U Spin, Chef". Similar tricks can be applied to many of Twain's passages.
2char

[BowlOfRed]

So Mark Twain was a Jew raised by Native Americans who wrote secret messages to chefs through his books?

That has to be a joke.


Yes the original page (unadorned, never submitted to a search site as was more necessary back then, unlinked to by the creator from any other site), was a joke of sorts.

But it still got picked up and was available on a "for fee" term paper site. So some of these places aren't even paying for the source material. It might just be automated collection. Maybe looking for any pages called "A history of..."?

[sadhatter]

I'm not going to say that it's true that people from the area of the subcontinent cheat more than other students, but I can confirm that, in my experience, they certainly have that reputation.

See i had never heard that stereotype before this year. And the irony is , that where i am there are all kinds of Ct's , for lack of a better term about the indian students.

I mean, on a personal level, they are all pretty good guys, so it sucks even worse to , on one hand not have any problem with a person. But on the other have a seething rage that they are pulling off around my marks with substantially less effort.

But half, to me any way, is a huge percentage. Especially for something like this. I don't think it has anything to do with race specifically, but maybe the type of people who would choose to take this course? ( i am going to school next year for full pharmacist, doing this to get a few credits that will transfer. And so is one other person, and i find that comparatively , we both take the course more seriously.)