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Cheating at Universities is more common than you think

TragicMonkey said:
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?
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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*.
 
DarthFishy said:
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!
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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-.
 
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-.
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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.
 
The Shadow Scholar

There is an interesting article just published in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled The Shadow Scholar. It is written by a person who has worked as a professional ghost writer for custom student papers.
 
little grey rabbit said:
It looks like an engaging fiction to me.

But then what would you expect from a newspaper that targets the university sector?
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
little grey rabbit said:
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.
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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 said:
There is an interesting article just published in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled The Shadow Scholar. It is written by a person who has worked as a professional ghost writer for custom student papers.
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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.
 
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