If prisoners can secretly build computers, hide them in the ceiling, and connect them to the internet to do just about anything they want, should we be surprised that our students (who have far more resources) are cheating? What should be done about it?
I'd advocate for a sliding scale of punishment. First offense: a zero on the assignment or exam. That'd probably lead to the student withdrawing from the course and falling a bit behind. Second offense: an F in the course. Third offense: a one semester suspension. Fourth offense: expulsion. Heck, if you're stupid enough to get caught 4 times, you shouldn't have a college degree in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThat's more or less the progression the honor council at my school follows, with some variations in particular courses (e.g. in the course I teach, cheating -- plagiarism -- usually occurs in the big final paper, which is worth enough of the final grade that failing it means retaking the class, so the first two options are collapsed into one). And there are also classes on academic integrity and avoiding plagiarism that can be (and often are) required.
DeleteI don't know the statistics, but my sense is that some students learn from such experiences, and some. . . .don't.
And while I'm always willing to teach citation and avoiding plagiarism, and to take reasonable steps to discourage cheating (e.g. running things through a plagiarism detector), there's a limit to how much time I'm willing to spend trying to keep students from cheating themselves out of their own educations. Some of them will probably insist to their bosses that they were never taught this stuff in college, just as they insist to their college professors that they were never taught this stuff in high school (or community college). And if some of them carry the habit over into other areas of their lives, they'll probably be telling a similar story to a judge one day.
you know. Decimation had a long, successful history
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