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Correlation != causation, but I doubt it wasn't related. You might not have marked him down for his anti-cheating stance (directly), but chasing cheats might ha
by wisty 15y ago
Correlation != causation, but I doubt it wasn't related. You might not have marked him down for his anti-cheating stance (directly), but chasing cheats might have affected his attitude (playing "prison guard" may not have put him in a nice mood), which caused you to mark him down.
Here's a theory - Panos burnt himself out trying to chase the cheats, and deal with the bad-will and tantrums. This left a lot less time and energy to deal with students who had genuine problems. Playing the bad cop is not a good way to build relations, and makes everyone a bit paranoid.
So he turned himself into a bit of a jerk, by chasing cheats, which resulted in the worse assessment by the students.
As for his complacence, would you rather be taught by a hard-assed jerk who cracked down on the cheats, or a nice guy who turned a blind eye? There's no right answer, is there.
It might be good if the lecturer of a subject was not responsible for the summative assessment. Let some other lecturer do the marking, and set the exam. The lecturer could set (and mark) formative assessment, but that wouldn't go to your final grade. Why don't universities do this? They generally treat the lecturer as "King of the class", provided the students don't complain, so it would be seen as an "insult" to bring an outsider in. Like, have you ever seen another lecturer auditing another one's class, so they can offer suggestions about how to improve it?
- chopsueyar 15y agowould you rather be taught by a hard-assed jerk who cracked down on the cheats, or a nice guy who turned a blind eye? The guy who turns a blind eye will probably be an effective teacher to those willing and wanting to learn. Removing a cheater from the class does not help them learn more effectively, nor does it help the non-cheaters learn more effectively. Why waste on policing, what can be spent on teaching. It is not like the cheaters, when confronted, realized they were losing all sorts of knowledge they could otherwise obtain. Ethically, I have a bigger problem with a student submitting his creative works to be used in a private corporations database AND charge the student and school for the "service". It is not only the cheating students that are undermining the credibility of the University and its degrees. If you want to teach morality, once somebody gets to college age, it may be a bit late for reformation.
- rayiner 15y agoBecause grades matter a lot and cheaters devalue everyones legitimately-earned grades.
- wisty 15y agoAlso, professors will adjust the difficulty of the course to get the right grade curve. If everyone is OK with a 3,000 word essay, bump it up to 5,000 words. Eventually, you will more or less have to cheat if you want to pass.