In three of my classes this semester, I didn't give final exams. The last test of the semester, given last week, was a chapter test. We cut so much material from our curriculum this year, and had so many fewer hours to teach, that I thought it better to teach as much and as well as I could and not try to spend a couple days reviewing for a comprehensive final exam.
In my statistics classes I identified a few students whom the evidence suggested had cheated. In my pre-calculus class I identified a couple.
I have no doubt that more cheated than I caught, but we teachers do what we can. We know most of the apps and web sites the students use to cheat, and we try to adjust our tests so that those web sites aren't helpful. Since all our students are at home, though, and since they aren't supervised during tests, there's nothing except integrity to stop them from merely sharing answers via their phones.
The ones that got away with it, well, they got away with it. When I catch them, though, I email them and their parents saying something like this:
Various anomalies and inconsistencies on your test cause me to suspect that unauthorized collaboration has occurred. Note that this isn't an accusation of cheating, merely a suspicion based on what I consider to be very strong evidence. I encourage your child to contact me by the end of the day today to explain these anomalies so we can resolve this issue as soon as possible.
These types of communications can be sensitive and must be handled absolutely professionally.
I alter the tests, and I warn the students about penalties. Now imagine a third layer--an Honor Code with a potential sanction of getting kicked out of school?
More than 70 cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point were accused of cheating on a math exam, the worst academic scandal since the 1970s at the Army's premier training ground for officers.
Fifty-eight cadets admitted cheating on the exam, which was administered remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them have been enrolled in a rehabilitation program and will be on probation for the remainder of their time at the academy. Others resigned, and some face hearings that could result in their expulsion.
The scandal strikes at the heart of the academy's reputation for rectitude, espoused by its own moral code, which is literally etched in stone:
“A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”
They give cadets second chances these days. Back in my day, the Superintendent very seldom exercised his "discretion" and if found guilty of Honor Code violations, cadets were almost always expelled.
Army Col. Mark Weathers, West Point's chief of staff, said in an interview Monday that he was "disappointed" in the cadets for cheating, but he did not consider the incident a serious breach of the code. It would not have occurred if the cadets had taken the exam on campus, he said.
I hope Col. Weathers was misquoted. It is a serious breach of the code.
Instructors initially determined that 72 plebes, or first-year cadets, and one yearling, or second-year cadet, had cheated on a calculus final exam in May. Those cadets all made the same error on a portion of the exam.
Recently concluded investigations and preliminary hearings for the cadets resulted in two cases being dismissed for lack of evidence and four dropped because the cadets resigned. Of the remaining 67 cases, 55 cadets were found in violation of the honor code and enrolled in a program for rehabilitation Dec. 9. Three more cadets admitted cheating but were not eligible to enroll in what is called the Willful Admission Program...
"Cadets are being held accountable for breaking the code," he said. "While disappointing, the Honor System is working, and these 67 remaining cases will be held accountable for their actions."
Very disappointing.
Update: Navy, too:
Hundreds of students at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis have received a grade of "incomplete" as the academy reviews "potential inconsistencies" in physics exams that were submitted earlier this month.
The academy would not elaborate on the "inconsistencies," but the review is notable in light of reports about a major cheating scandal at the US Military Academy at West Point.
"Due to potential inconsistencies noted in the administration of the in-person proctored, computer-based final exam for Physics I (SP 211), all midshipmen who were enrolled in this course during the fall semester have received a marking of 'I - incomplete.' The Naval Academy is working to resolve the uncertainties surrounding the final examination as quickly as possible," U.S. Naval Academy Provost Andrew Phillips said in a statement.
When they get away with cheating in high school, they're going to try it in college, too. That's why I endeavor so hard not to let them get away with it it high school.
Update #2, 1/31/2021: Air Force, too:
The Air Force Academy is undertaking a wide-ranging "honor review" after a massive scandal in which some 249 cadets ended up under investigation for some form of cheating.
The alleged honor code violations appear to be a direct result of changes to class structure last spring due to pandemic restrictions.
"Part of the review will focus on the spring semester of 2020, when the Academy made the unprecedented decision in March to send the lower three classes home, approximately 3,000 cadets, in order to best protect their health and safety," academy officials said in a news release Friday. "The decision forced a swift, 8-day transition of the Academy's academic curriculum to at-home remote classes, a first for the traditionally in-person institution. Unfortunately, amidst these extraordinary circumstances and challenges, 249 cadets were suspected of violating the Academy's Honor Code."
To borrow a lyric from the Dire Straits tune, sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes, the bug.
ReplyDeleteAt some university campuses, professors have responded by devaluing exams and increasing the volume and value of homework in their math courses. But cheating has become very widespread.
I know of at least one student who suddenly started producing exam answers that looked like they were right off Wolfram Alpha. Previously this student had produced little more than confused gibberish on exam submissions. Part of this is fruit of a poorly-conceived, poorly-implemented common core curriculum, I'm sure.
I'm going to be switching things up a bit. Homework assignments will get longer and increase in value. I will start going back to deploying T/F questions on some exams that require a supporting rationale for all responses.
Rumor has it that at least some Cal State campuses are talking online Fall 2021 term.
Could be worse. I'm not working in the restaurant business, the retail world, or commercial real estate.
I don't have to imagine that layer. Both my high school and my university had similar honor codes. Ours weren't literally etched in stone, but we had to write and sign a pledge on every assignment and test: "On my [sacred] Honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this assignment/test." All students receive and acknowledge Honor Code orientation so there's no way anyone can claim ignorance. Violators are taken before an Honor Council of their peers.
ReplyDeleteI think the high school was more lenient in its punishment, but the university's penalty structure went beyond mere failure of an assignment or course to multi-semester suspension and expulsion.
The university trusted us enough so that we had time-limited, unsupervised take-home finals as well as unproctored in-person finals. I just checked, and that's still the case.
It seems that cheating is way up this year. Many institutions have been in the news in the past weeks, but the cases at the Academies are perhaps the most disappointing.
I teach homeschooled high schoolers, in person and online. This year has been terrible for cheating problems. Most of the parents have been fantastic, but a couple have denied any cheating even while looking at what seems like obvious evidence to everybody else. I tend to think that getting caught in high school is the best thing that could happen to students - the stakes are much lower than they will be later, when they might decide to cheat in college or fudge records at work.
ReplyDeleteI used to teach at a CC and my spouse and I both taught or TA's at research universities and cheating was a problem then. Too many faculty don't want to deal with the hassle of honor courts - I remember once having to fight to get a prof to mark a QUESTION wrong after I watched a student make a second bathroom trip during a 2 hr exam while unable to answer it (they returned and started writing copiously). Spouse once had a student's ROTC commander come and plead on their behalf. I taught classes on the pre-med/pre-nursing track and spouse is an engineer - did people really want unqualified people in those jobs? I finally got the attention of one class when I said 'If you walked into an ER and knew that the nurses/doctors had put in the level of preparation and study that you are, would you be comfortable with them treating your family?'.
The week after every test, I give an assignment where one question asks them to evaluate how the last test went. It's helped with student complaints because most will say that the test is exactly what they'd predict based on what is taught and what the homework is. Recently one student said that everything was unreasonable and that's why people cheat. I've sent a couple of generic 'I'm catching people cheating' emails to the whole class and responses seem to be divided between the students who are appalled that it is happening and a minority who don't see it as a big deal. Fortunately, many students take classes from an English teacher who is hard core about plagiarism, so I tell them that even if they decide that it's OK to look up answers while taking their closed-book test, failure to cite them while quoting is also a violation.
I taught four sections of AP Art History. It's an intense course covering art from prehistory to current and includes identification, analysis of context and content. Originally I had used slightly altered material from the text publisher. That stopped when I began getting identical incorrect answers-since I altered the questions, the answers memorized no longer worked. Then I had to start doing multiple version of the tests including identification as well as essay prompts-which was far more trouble for me than the students. It's frustrating to work so hard to produce engaging materials and then have students treat every test like a multiple choice gimme quiz. I agree that I worked with some teachers who simply did not care if students cheated. I also worked with some old school types like me who were honestly appalled at how the general knowledge base of students is diminishing by the year b/c rather than reading material and doing the work, students are simply scanning through the work of others thinking they can glide through.
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