I gave my students a take home exam over spring break. (This is normal where I teach) One of the questions was particulary difficult. It came down to a factor of three in the solution. That factor inexplicably appeared with no justification on many of their exams. I intend to have the students I suspect of cheating come to my office to solve the problem on the board. What would you do?
I appreciate the feedback. Even the negative feedback. You guys really think I’m some kind of asshole 🤣. I typed this from my phone in bed, so now that I’m at a keyboard, let me explain fully.
When I said I gave the exam over spring break, I didn’t mean it began at the beginning of spring break and ended at the end of it. That time was available for them to work on it. When I give exams, I give them a little over a week. From Tuesday to Thursday the following week. In this case, it began the Tuesday before spring break and ended the Thursday after. The reason I did this is because, like many of you, I remember papers being due immediately before or right at the end of breaks. By saying I gave it over spring break, I meant I gave them plenty of time.
I am very clear what is and is not permitted for an exam in my syllabus. They get an equation sheet, the allotted time, and they can work with a partner. Nothing else. Except for AI in which case they must screenshot everything. This is mostly for my curiosity. It still doesn’t work for physics.
When I say normal at my institution, I mean to give a take home exam. I wasn’t deviating from the norm by doing this, and it is the way I typically do it. As we have all experienced, you may have a day when you have 3 exams. Maybe that happens to only a few students. It disproportionately effects them. Giving this time, they can work it into their schedules.
So what did I see that constitutes cheating? It’s very clear to me that the students used solutions from Chegg and/or other sites. If you’ve done this sort of thing with code, you know that folks will change the names of the variables, but not the structure or logic. It reads exactly the same. That was the case here. A few students were so (hilariously) guilty of cheating, they actually rewrote the solution to a similar, but different problem. Those problems had a different number of parts!
This is not my first time doing this. I’ve done this at several other universities. In those cases, I didn’t have the issue of cheating, so I don’t have a very explicit cheating policy in my syllabus. I’m taking the advice that some have given and giving them credit for what they’ve done. I will however be telling them on Tuesday (a conversation I am NOT looking forward to having) that I know many of them cheated, that I have evidence of it, and that I will refer them to the honor council should it happen again.
The part that sucks the most is I trust students. Having done this before, I’ve found that if you trust students, respect them, they in turn respect your expectations. Given how blatant this cheating is, it feels like a betrayal. Thanks again to everyone who replied, it has given me plenty to think on.
There has to be evidence of their process for me to accept it as evidence of understanding/ability. I have made it clear to them that this is necessary. Their job is to convince me that they know what they’re doing. (But… I’m teaching HS Mathematics). So … I’d mark it wrong/incomplete. I’m also working on student understanding of consequences of their actions, so wouldn’t give them another opportunity on that exam. They would need to improve things on the next exam.
How do you deal with students who say “my gut says it works this way. This is an easy problem, the answer is obvious. I don’t know how to explain it to you any more simply”?
I mean, it takes 162 pages to formally prove that 1+1=2, but we got by just fine before we wrote down that proof. We just knew the answer, we couldn’t explain how. If a student is gifted, a high school level problem could be as simple to them as 1+1 is to most people. They might know and not be able to explain how. Now, in a university environment I’d expect them to learn the proof, but that’s not the point of high school maths, is it? The point of high school maths is to know how to solve the problem, not to know why the solution works.
I found the equivalent of high school maths in my country to be similarly intuitive and trivial. The kids who think that the maths they’re being taught is obvious will just memorise what the examiners want to see and regurgitate it even if they feel like it’s teaching shapes to a baby. If you are “gifted” and truly do understand it then it shouldn’t be hard to just overexplain (which is what most exam boards are looking for)
Yeah, I figured that out in high school too. I think it just irks me that different students are being graded on a different standard, subjectively speaking. The neurotypicals are being judged on their ability to learn, while the gifted kids are being judged on their ability to explain. Maybe the gifted kids wanna learn too. They’re all told their whole lives the point of school is to learn, and then they’re met with disappointing reality. We expect gifted kids to grow up so fast, and having to explain the material back to the teacher to prove they know it doesn’t help. I wish they got to spend a little longer just being kids.
If you don’e want students to work together and learn from each other don’t give home assignments. It’s not like they won’e be able to work together irl
Nothing.
Having any homework for the holidays is already enough. Of course most of them would just want to have that gone ASAP.Of course they cheated on a take home exam. If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.
Proctor your exams if you don’t want them to be able to utilize any of the resources at their disposal. Making them do it again in front of you sounds like bullshit imo, but I am certainly not an academic.
If you ain’t
cheatingstudying & mastering the material, you ain’t trying.
I’d ask them to come in and redo the problem on paper at the same time, if many have the answer without any calculations, the moment you got the first one in your office, the others would be aware of what’s going on.
Leave it. Life’s hard enough, just let em have the W before the real world bursts their bubbles more.
Wait, you gave them work over their spring break? What the fuck?? Let them have a damn break!
I think getting them to show their work is appropriate and for any that can’t replicate their work explain to them the downfalls of cheating. The other comments here justifying likely haven’t ever been in an academic setting. Relying on cheating is setting yourself up for failure if you intend to continue studying at a tertiary level.
I don’t think a punishment is necessary for cheaters just a lecture. Let them know people can and have had their degrees rescinded years after the fact when their cheating was detected with newer methods.
I am one of “the other comments”, I have a masters in physics, a PhD in bioengineering, postdoctoral work with respiratory diseases, have taught undergraduate and graduate level courses, and currently work in R&D for a huge biotech company. Rest assured I know the academic setting, what the students allegedly did is not only fine, it is smart and good practice IRL
I’ll take your word for it. At the institution I’m currently at and my former one this is academic misconduct as it isn’t your own work. I’m real suss on anyone claiming to have a phd while suggesting methods that essentially introduce a potential time bomb for your degree. May as well actually learn how to learn if you’re going to uni but hey that’s just my (apparently red hot) take.
As if cheating on a few questions is necessarily going to make them a bad academic, mister top-student
It likely will because they’re cheating and not learning. Whatever they’re shortcutting by cheating, if it’s assumed knowledge down the line, they won’t have it because they cheated instead of learning. The morality of it aside, if you rely on cheating in academia you’re just screwing yourself over, in more ways than one.
What does cheating mean in this context? What did they have access to that you wish they hadn’t? And if that’s the case, then why did you make this a take home exam?
This. It’s a case of poor assessment design on the part of @wuphysics87.
In creating assessment you need to know what you are asking them to do, how you want them to do it, what you are measuring and how. The format you choose needs to accurately reflect those things.
Did they cheat? You were lazy & let them take an exam at home. Sounds like you should’ve expected them to use any resources available. Just because something is normal, doesn’t mean it’s right.
I’m sure your students love you…
I don’t think that the best way to convince someone their way is wrong involves personally insulting them and sarcastically implying that they’re hated by their students
Wait. How do you think they got this “factor of three” and what rule did they break in doing so?
A take-home exam implies open book, open internet, open ask-another-student, etc. It’s not really for gauging how well the students have the concepts down. It’s for giving the students incentive to go review the material again to hopefully make it stick better. Wherever they got the answers is fair game for a take-home exam.
If they didn’t show their work and you’ve made expectations for showing their work clear, then mark off points for not showing their work. But this isn’t a “cheating” thing.
If you sent this test home with them with the instructions that it’s not open book and you think they used the book or internet or whatever, then… well, that was kinda… a bad idea. Don’t do that again. And if you really think it’s necessary (but only if you really think it’s necessary), you could create a new test and give it in person in place of the take-home exam or just remove that test from consideration of the grade for the whole class. It might make you unpopular to pull a stunt like that (and, honestly, if it all went down the way it sounds like… you kinda deserve it if you punish them for your misstep) but definitely don’t punish the class for your mistake any more than that.
This is the big question: was it made clear what resources were allowed
Throw the question out, but offer extra credit to anyone who can show their work.
A bigger picture may be; why is sending kids home for break with homework. It is my opinion, that people learn better when they actually have a break during their break. in my opinion, this is a tactic to prepare kids to think its normal to work all the time. That breaks are never actually breaks.
See edit please
Not the same thing, but when I was proctoring an exam I saw someone very un-sneakily using their phone, so I quietly sat down next to them for the rest of the exam as a quiet threat (then of course let the prof know when they turned in their exam too).
Do nothing, first of all any homework is open book, no buts
Second of all it comes down to not being a dick
You do realise that even if they do cheat, since its a take home you likely won’t face any negative consequence, its just a win win in general
