Facebook study groups = cheating?

[tld221]

in my intro psych class, each exam there were 4 different versions of the exam given and copied on 4 different colored paper. though the questions were the same, the order of the questions varied and you could easily think there were 16 versions of the exam floating.

on top of that, each exam was numbered so if one went missing, whichever TA was responsible for handing out that numbered exam was held accountable (which i dont understand - 8 TAs for an intro class of 300... how would you know?)

and on top of THAT, you had to give the exam back, so you couldnt use it to study for the final.

such was the case at our third exam, some asshole stole an exam at a recitation after the test review. the professor said the person(s) had a week to return the exam anonymously in his inbox (since if you were caught you pretty much failed the class). of course no one did. our punishment? TAKING THE EXAM OVER.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by tld221

in my intro psych class, each exam there were 4 different versions of the exam given and copied on 4 different colored paper. though the questions were the same, the order of the questions varied and you could easily think there were 16 versions of the exam floating.

on top of that, each exam was numbered so if one went missing, whichever TA was responsible for handing out that numbered exam was held accountable (which i dont understand - 8 TAs for an intro class of 300... how would you know?)

and on top of THAT, you had to give the exam back, so you couldnt use it to study for the final.

such was the case at our third exam, some asshole stole an exam at a recitation after the test review. the professor said the person(s) had a week to return the exam anonymously in his inbox (since if you were caught you pretty much failed the class). of course no one did. our punishment? TAKING THE EXAM OVER.

It's kind of sad that they punished the whole group, but it's better than not taking action at all, which seems to be the way it goes a lot lately.

[fantASTic]

Eh..they need to reformat the class. In a really hard class I have this semester, we have homework due every week from the book [the prof picks a couple problems, grades them. we don't know which ones ahead of time so we do them all.] I like it because i get a lot of practice that I might not do on my own; I also like it because hey, free points. We have a solutions manual [that the prof put in the library] that we can use to check our answers, but I'd guess about 80% of the class, including myself, gets together with a friend and works through it all ahead of time before checking it.

If we DID just copy the homework...we would pay on the exams. They are HARD. And there is no way to pass the course while failing the exams. So I really don't see the problem with working together on stuff in general.

Of course, my prof allows it, which is a bit different.

[tld221]

Originally Posted by fantASTic

Eh..they need to reformat the class. In a really hard class I have this semester, we have homework due every week from the book [the prof picks a couple problems, grades them. we don't know which ones ahead of time so we do them all.] I like it because i get a lot of practice that I might not do on my own; I also like it because hey, free points. We have a solutions manual [that the prof put in the library] that we can use to check our answers, but I'd guess about 80% of the class, including myself, gets together with a friend and works through it all ahead of time before checking it.

If we DID just copy the homework...we would pay on the exams. They are HARD. And there is no way to pass the course while failing the exams. So I really don't see the problem with working together on stuff in general.

Of course, my prof allows it, which is a bit different.

my calculus classes were like this - you could totally tell who cheated and copied cause they were always like WTF at exam time. then again, taking calculus, you are always like WTF at exam time.

[Taualumna]

...but they're going to fail him on the assignment....

Facebook advocate Chris Avenir says he'll be "a little more attentive to school policies" on matters like cheating from now on, even though the Ryerson student has no regrets about running an online homework group that nearly got him expelled.

Toronto Star