cheating in the classroom -- please weigh in
I've done a lot of crappy and morally suspect things in my life, and I know I have an inconsistent set of guiding principles, but in general I try to do "the right thing." No really, I do! Those of you reading this who know me in real life -- especially those who have known me for a long time -- you can just keep your snickering to yourself.
I'm not a big fan of cheating in the classroom. In one of my classes at SJSU, I'm in a group with someone who has actively participated in cheating -- taking a class for another student. The class in question is the capstone course for graduating seniors in the Business department. I am currently taking the online version of it, and one of the students in my group (it's ALL group work, argh) has said on numerous occasions things like "when I helped my friend with this course last semester, blah blah blah." Now, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that this fellow literally just helped his friend, by helping the friend study or what not. But then he said this, today:
If u guys haven't notice we are going to have our midterm two weeks from today. I was wondering if u guys wanted to study for the midterm together, like meet up some place. I took this online class last semester for my friend and basically I went through the whole midterm and final ordeal already. I know how his tests are like: it's hard and very detail. Let me know if u guys wanted to do this, asap would be great.
Let's focus on the statement "I took this online class last semester for my friend..." In my world, this student would be thrown out of school and the other student retroactively failed. But the other student has already graduated -- probably why he figures he can just say shit like this
in the WebCT-based discussion group, which the prof reads and get away with it. It seems to violate sections 1.1.6/1.1.7 of the school's
academic integrity policy (in addition to being just plain uncool and wrong).
What
I want to do is bring his comments to the professor's attention. What do you think?
Imagine pages of essay-question responses, very much like the quoted message above, times six. That's what I have to edit each week, before I turn in our "group" response. It takes about six to eight hours for me to edit and fact-check and essentially rewrite the entire group's work. That's my task every Sunday. It's like penance for something. UPDATE: Convinced that I wasn't alone in thinking the student is an idiot and a cheat, I sent an email to the prof. Whew. Off my mind.
