And I don't think I dealt with either of them very well.
I think mainly because I was not 100% sure what the college's policy was, and I have this fear in the back of my head of some student suing me for damaging their reputation. May sound silly, but there was a graduate student a couple of years senior to me in graduate school who got sued by a student and their parents, for defamation of character and for some reason this story stays in my mind.
Defamation of character = allegation that the defendant told untruths about the plaintiff, thereby causing the plaintiff to suffer harm.
http://www.attorneys-usa.com/intentional/defamation.html
The first event- I initially pondered whether this was actual cheating or not, but after talking to many of my coworkers determined that it was a form of cheating. There was an individual homework assignment in the laboratory class, and the class was told they were allowed to talk about it with their fellow students. I don't think I explicitly said that the write-up had to be done by each person individually, but they all knew they were each to hand in a write-up.
Fast forward to the due date. I am checking off who has handed me in an assignment and notice that two of the students handed in papers that on first glance look identical (with the exception of the name changed). After class, I look at these two papers in more detail and realize they are exactly the same. Every word. Every spacing. Every spelling mistake. What is the probability that would occur? Probably slim to none. (No statistics here as that is one of the things I am the worst at! Along with dilutions.. don't ask....)
So what should I have done? Do you consider this cheating? It is turning in the same work under the name of two different people. Presenting that work as your own.... while the other person is presenting the same thing as theirs.
The second event- The class was taking a quiz and I was at the front just scanning the room. I noticed one student initially appearing to stare off into space. When my eyes returned to them, they were staring more in the direction of their neighbor. Whenever the neighbor wrote something, the potential cheater also wrote something down on their paper. A couple of seconds after the neighbor rose to hand in the quiz, the potential cheater rose to. A quick glance at both of their quizzes showed the exact same answers on both quizzes (a number of which were incorrect and completely off topic).
I debated talking to the potential cheater right then or waiting. Did I have definite proof that he cheated? Probably not. Could he say he was just thinking while staring off into space? Probably.
So I'm going to wait to post what I did in both cases until I hear back from some of you. So stay tuned.
I would try to find out the exact policy at your school, because they must have one. Once you know the policy, the difficulty lays in figuring out if someone really did cheat. We have a somewhat defined policy here; if we suspect cheating we bring them in and let them defend themselves, and then they get a zero for a grade on that particular assignment and get reported for a violation of the academic integrity code. That has dramatic and immediate consequences; they get put on probation and that goes on their transcript; so I wouldn't necessarily run to the Dean right away if it was a minor isolated case.
ReplyDeleteFor the homework assignment; I would have talked to both of them after class and told them that perhaps they misunderstood but it was not a group assignment; they both would get a zero but if they re-did it they would get graded on the re-do- minus a penalty for being late. I would also say that if this sort of thing happened again, I'd report them to the Dean.
For the quiz; based on the behavior you clearly witnessed and the similarity in the answers, I would have a conversation with them and point out the problem; and I would mention to the (alleged) cheater I noticed his/her wandering eye. However, often it is apparent when someone is cheating off of you, and this is unacceptable too, so I would point that out to the other person. Then depending on what they said, I'd probably give the one person a zero and the other a warning; and again say that if this behavior continued I'd report them.
Checking the policy is an important thing to do, mostly to make sure that should things get out of control the powers that be will back you up. You absolutely do not want to be in a position where the head of dptmt or dean do not back you up.
ReplyDeleteFor the report I would call them in together and explain why this is unacceptable- yes that's what it is in my book. If this is part of their mark, it's a zero or a redo.
For the quiz, I think it might be difficult to react later than during or right after the event... and this is also why it's important to know what the policy is. But such cases are always difficult because there is nothing you can really point as "proof" (whereas identical reports would be).
Good luck with this. It's very very unpleasant to have to deal with these things. My legs were trembling like for my first ever seminar when I confronted my first pair of cheaters.
When I was a TA, I ran into the homework issue before. I spoke with the students in question, explained that I found it hard to believe that two hand-ins would be IDENTICAL and that it shouldn't happen again. It never did.
ReplyDeleteFor the quiz ... never faced such a situation, but it's obviously cheating and needs to be handled a bit more strenuously than the homework IMO.