So a recent event cause me to think about the topic of dishonesty in a college setting; a crime that, I think, is one of the worst things a person can do, yes I know my priorities are messed up. So since I plan on becoming a college professor at some point I thought that I would try and determine what I would do in the same situation that my teacher was in. I came up with a plan where the student has two choices, since I am the kind to give people a second chance to redeem themselves. Keep in mind that a student that is caught cheating may only choose choice B once, to avoid abuse of the system.
Choice A: The student fails the test, administration is notified, the student will be removed from my class with a non-replaceable F, and the administration can decide whether or not to kick them out of the college essentially ruining their academic career.
Choice B: The student that cheats has to come up to the front of the classroom, rip up their test, announce to the class that they cheated, and everyone must take a re-take. In this option the student that cheated can get no higher than a 70%.
The general consensus so far is that my plan is too draconian, and that I am punishing people who haven't done anything wrong; my reasoning behind this lies in a hypothetical situation. Say you go into a scientific field and publish a paper, if just one of your data points is faked then the entire paper is therefore discredited and the paper is essentially not even worth the paper it was printed on. I believe that this will not only discourage people from cheating, but also encourage others to prevent their classmates from cheating since everyone has the potential to lose. Personally I think that this may not be hard enough, I have spent my entire college career, working my ass off to get good grades, and then I watch some dumbass skate by and cheat his way to a 4.0 GPA. Yes, some people do get caught and get their comeuppance but I am assured that this does not happen to everyone. My proof lies with the testimonies of my father, who works at a government contracting office that helps design weapons for the military. It seems every week my dad complains that some recent grad just got a job at his office, starting salary between 50-75k a year, and does not know shit. Anyways I know this went on way too long than it needed to be but I get worked up on this topic. So what are your opinions on this? Good idea? Bad idea? "Alec you sexy sexy man your brilliance astounds me"? or "As soon as you try and implement this you'll be fired".
Also the class I was talking about wasn't English or Basketweaving 101 it was university level Physics. And I don't do poorly in class either, it's just the cheaters seem to do better than me.
I guess an explanation is required on why I would punish the entire class for the transgressions of one student. As someone pointed out, some classes are in giant lecture halls. I have taken a class in one of these before and it was a class of about three-hundred people; in one of these classes I am sure you could realize the ease at which a paper with answers written on it could be passed along the back rows. Keeping this in mind, while I may have only caught one student cheating I am unsure as to how many cheated. Cheating can be a collabarative effort, and if I catch one person cheating there is no way to determine who else cheated, and the caught student's word is not reliable.
As for the whole "graduating without knowing" thing goes, I find it fairly unlikely. The grads that my dad complains about where from Virginia Tech, a school that has an engineering program which is pretty much the best in the state, to my knowledge. I find it highly unlickely that someone can graduate without learning basic principles and applications since that is what I was learning in my first physics class.
Choice A: The student fails the test, administration is notified, the student will be removed from my class with a non-replaceable F, and the administration can decide whether or not to kick them out of the college essentially ruining their academic career.
Choice B: The student that cheats has to come up to the front of the classroom, rip up their test, announce to the class that they cheated, and everyone must take a re-take. In this option the student that cheated can get no higher than a 70%.
The general consensus so far is that my plan is too draconian, and that I am punishing people who haven't done anything wrong; my reasoning behind this lies in a hypothetical situation. Say you go into a scientific field and publish a paper, if just one of your data points is faked then the entire paper is therefore discredited and the paper is essentially not even worth the paper it was printed on. I believe that this will not only discourage people from cheating, but also encourage others to prevent their classmates from cheating since everyone has the potential to lose. Personally I think that this may not be hard enough, I have spent my entire college career, working my ass off to get good grades, and then I watch some dumbass skate by and cheat his way to a 4.0 GPA. Yes, some people do get caught and get their comeuppance but I am assured that this does not happen to everyone. My proof lies with the testimonies of my father, who works at a government contracting office that helps design weapons for the military. It seems every week my dad complains that some recent grad just got a job at his office, starting salary between 50-75k a year, and does not know shit. Anyways I know this went on way too long than it needed to be but I get worked up on this topic. So what are your opinions on this? Good idea? Bad idea? "Alec you sexy sexy man your brilliance astounds me"? or "As soon as you try and implement this you'll be fired".
Also the class I was talking about wasn't English or Basketweaving 101 it was university level Physics. And I don't do poorly in class either, it's just the cheaters seem to do better than me.
I guess an explanation is required on why I would punish the entire class for the transgressions of one student. As someone pointed out, some classes are in giant lecture halls. I have taken a class in one of these before and it was a class of about three-hundred people; in one of these classes I am sure you could realize the ease at which a paper with answers written on it could be passed along the back rows. Keeping this in mind, while I may have only caught one student cheating I am unsure as to how many cheated. Cheating can be a collabarative effort, and if I catch one person cheating there is no way to determine who else cheated, and the caught student's word is not reliable.
As for the whole "graduating without knowing" thing goes, I find it fairly unlikely. The grads that my dad complains about where from Virginia Tech, a school that has an engineering program which is pretty much the best in the state, to my knowledge. I find it highly unlickely that someone can graduate without learning basic principles and applications since that is what I was learning in my first physics class.
