3 ms·

Completely anecdotal and not in the US: My experience as a TA are quite different, though this in in Europe. Especially with the algorithmic courses there was

by consp 5y ago

Completely anecdotal and not in the US: My experience as a TA are quite different, though this in in Europe. Especially with the algorithmic courses there was quite a lot of copying since there were multiple TA's and they thought we didn't compare notes. Several of them got reported (you get a mark, two marks is suspension, three is out) and I know of at least one case who got caught again at a different course and was suspended. For a programming course for first year engineering students we didn't care they copied each others code but just asked students to explain specific parts of the programs they handed in. Those who copied failed mostly instantly and got one retry, and most at least tried to understand what it was about after that. Though copy/pasting and not even changing the student's ID numbers was an instant fail.

denton-scratch 5y ago
Another anecdote (Britain): I was a part-time visiting lecturer in computing, paid by the lesson. Cheating was rife; I often got duplicate submission of coding exercises. Scoring was mainly by coursework, not exams. I asked my colleagues what to do about it. They said: 1. You can ignore it. 2. You can report it; you will be accused of racism (the majority of the class were people with brown skin). You will be required to sit on an exam board for several days during the holiday season, unpaid. 3. You can explain to them that collaboration is encouraged, but submitting work you didn't do as if it were your own is cheating, and not permitted. I took option 3.
- mytailorisrich 5y ago
  That's a very sad state of affairs. I think that's partly due universities having indeed taken the easy and lazy path of making the least waves possible while collecting tuition fees. (2) is also a product of the current climate in society but that's a wider anbd bigger issue.
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  > 2. You can report it; you will be accused of racism (the majority of the class were people with brown skin). You will be required to sit on an exam board for several days during the holiday season, unpaid. That's just sad. > 3. You can explain to them that collaboration is encouraged, but submitting work you didn't do as if it were your own is cheating, and not permitted. That gives you a great excuse to fail duplicate copies, since they clearly didn't follow the rules. Just split the grade across all duplicates (so something you received three times gets 1/3 of the points). Add a note saying that they can get more points if the other duplicate authors agree to transfer them points. Watch the chaos.
  - denton-scratch 5y ago
    If I'd failed or marked-down the duplicates, there would very likely have been an appeal based on accusations of racism, leading to me having to attend an exam board on my own time. That's what I was told by my (much more experienced) colleagues. Basically, I was advised that it's fine to explain the rules, but to actually attempt to enforce them would cause chaos - for me.

by consp 5y ago

denton-scratch 5y ago

Another anecdote (Britain): I was a part-time visiting lecturer in computing, paid by the lesson. Cheating was rife; I often got duplicate submission of coding exercises. Scoring was mainly by coursework, not exams. I asked my colleagues what to do about it. They said: 1. You can ignore it. 2. You can report it; you will be accused of racism (the majority of the class were people with brown skin). You will be required to sit on an exam board for several days during the holiday season, unpaid. 3. You can explain to them that collaboration is encouraged, but submitting work you didn't do as if it were your own is cheating, and not permitted. I took option 3.

mytailorisrich 5y ago
That's a very sad state of affairs. I think that's partly due universities having indeed taken the easy and lazy path of making the least waves possible while collecting tuition fees. (2) is also a product of the current climate in society but that's a wider anbd bigger issue.
908B64B197 5y ago
> 2. You can report it; you will be accused of racism (the majority of the class were people with brown skin). You will be required to sit on an exam board for several days during the holiday season, unpaid. That's just sad. > 3. You can explain to them that collaboration is encouraged, but submitting work you didn't do as if it were your own is cheating, and not permitted. That gives you a great excuse to fail duplicate copies, since they clearly didn't follow the rules. Just split the grade across all duplicates (so something you received three times gets 1/3 of the points). Add a note saying that they can get more points if the other duplicate authors agree to transfer them points. Watch the chaos.
- denton-scratch 5y ago
  If I'd failed or marked-down the duplicates, there would very likely have been an appeal based on accusations of racism, leading to me having to attend an exam board on my own time. That's what I was told by my (much more experienced) colleagues. Basically, I was advised that it's fine to explain the rules, but to actually attempt to enforce them would cause chaos - for me.