Cheating !!!!

I knew what you guys thinking when you saw the title..

no I am talking about a different form of cheating.

Some days back , first year university student faced charges of cheating for running an online dicussion group on face book , where students swap their tips regarding home work assignment which comprised 10% of their final marks.

University official considered it cheating . While studnet were aruguing that it was not different than a study group  in any of the library or any of the tution circle where university official never police.

What do you think , did this online face book study group should be lebelled as cheating or not ?

 

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/03/18/facebook-aveni r.html?ref=rss

 

The university is taking an extreme stance here. Homework is just assignment for students to practice away from school to keep building skills and sink in subject matter. Who has not sought help for homework? Did we not have parents sit with us while we did homework ensuring that we completed it all and helping us when we did not understand something. Colleges encourage study groups so students can get together after school and pool resources to help each other understand the subject better. An online discussion group is no different from a study group, students discuss homework, classwork and help each other do better in class. I have actually taken classes where professors set up discussion board on the college sites for all their students to interact and exchange information and insight on assignments.

Even when professors ask students to do assignments individually students seek advice from each other. I will often ask my sister or friends for suggestions, what to write a report on, how to tackle an essay, to explain a problem I do not understand.

I do not know how others define cheating. To me discussion/advising is not cheating. However, if one person is doing the homework and others copy - that is cheating. If people take another's work rehash it change it with a couple of differences and ideas - that is cheating.If I cannot solve a problem and someone says - read this chapter - explains the problem/principles involved so I can solve on my own - that is not cheating. However, if someone gives me step by step instructions on how to solve a problem - that is cheating

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I give my students a lot of assignments as group work, conditions of which state that I will mark one paper from the group and that will be the grade for the group. Since I started doing this in class, I have seen noticeable improvement in my weaker students who are being mentored by their stronger peers, and more careful work from my stronger students who take upon themselves the responsibility of critically analysing their own work along with that of their group members. Group work can be very positive if used in the right way. In fact, some students perform better in groups. Coming to the article - the professor was able to catch the student, so the poor student is being punished. Where is the guarantee that the rest of the students have done their work individually??? As a teacher, I never allocate grades for homework for this very reason. Homework is merely reinforcing what's been done in class.   

generally universities have strict codes on such things...so if the students violated a code like that then the university had a right to take action...

Hmmm...If they have a code whereby they are able to know for sure if the student's homework is entirely his own, then surely they can take action. How can they be certain that other students did not seek help??

Well, if it is "cheating" as Ryerson claims, then why not expel all the 146 students who were members of the group?

The first year student was charged with academic misconduct only because he was made "Administrator" of the group. Even then, he never created the group in the first place, and neither did he post solutions there.

Yes, it is wrong to collaborate with your peers when you are supposed to work on an individual assignment.

However, considering the fact that none of the students even posted entire solutions on the FB group, the Prof's recommendation for expelling the Admin was way too harsh. He was being made a guinea pig.

Anyway, according to recent news, he is not going to be expelled and will only get an F on that particular assignment, which I think is fair enough. Though, they still ought to give Fs to all the other 146 students.    

I agree with you RTH, nicely said!

I also agree with SJB: Other students probably also collaborated with this assignment, but weren't caught.

The prof probably said do the assignment individually as a way of saying don't just copy of a friends paper, study groups are known to help people learn. Leave measuring performance for the actual test, assignments are for learning.