200 students admit cheating after professor's online rant

[theeedude]

Nice bluff.

 

[manimal]

oh jeez you are one of our neocon highschoolers. Fuck I thought I was talking to an adult.

I imagine everyone on the internets is a 20 year old fat kid living in his moms basement...makes it more fun...in this case its true!!

 

[alphatarget1]

I remember back in college, this prof was complaining about a bimodal distribution of grades. A hump around B-C and then a hump around D-F. lol.

 

[gsaldivar]

so they backtraced it??

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

so they backtraced it??

And what of the consequences?

 

[Freshgeardude]

I imagine everyone on the internets is a 20 year old fat kid living in his moms basement...makes it more fun...in this case its true!!

Lol fat 20 year old living in his moms basement.


I never hid my age here. Plenty on p&n know I'm actually a 17 yr old and if you have ventured into h&f back in june, you would have seen I'm not fat. But what do fat people like yourself have any interest in being fit.


My age doesn't make my truth and less true, in fact it probably makes it more true since I actually research before I speak and probably have more real life experience in the middle east than 95% of who post on those issues.

 

[insect9]

1. Wow, look at that bimodal distribution. How the hell can you have the answers and not get a perfect score on an online exam? Are you stupid??

2. They're just figuring out now, November 2010, that the test banks "have been compromised"?? Are you kidding me?? They've been online for years - ON THE PUBLISHER'S WEBSITES!

3. What kind of education are you getting when the professors are too lazy to ask questions that are all multiple choice? I can't recall a single undergrad class where professors didn't write their own exams. Test bank?? Thankfully, my 10's of 1000's of dollars in tuition paid for people willing to write their own questions & not teach directly out of a textbook.

Agreed. I've never taken a test from a test bank. Especially for a capstone class. WTF?

 

[Circlenaut]

Now that this has gone viral I'm wondering how much harassment this Prof's getting.

 

[Codewiz]

This is just a lazy teacher.

Some of my best teachers provided the tests they gave from the previous 5 YEARS. They came up with new questions every semester of every year. The tests just helped you get better prepared. I came away from those courses knowing the most compared to others.

 

[frostedflakes]

Agreed. I've never taken a test from a test bank. Especially for a capstone class. WTF?

I guess I didn't even realize textbook publishers had test banks for certain books. Pretty sure test questions have been written by the professors in all the classes I've taken. Of course they probably have a bank of questions that they tend to reuse, but it's not from the textbook.

But in the end it doesn't matter, trying to rationalize it by calling the professor lazy or whatever is just silly. Students weren't supposed to have access to the test bank, they knew they weren't, they used it anyway. Pretty blatant honor code violation, they're lucky the professor is allowing them to retake the exam and not just giving them an XF in the course.

 

[shira]

If a student gets ahold of hundreds of questions (with answers, I assume) and studies them sufficiently such that they can get a high score on a test consisting of a small subset of those questions, then to me that means the student has learned the material covered by the exam, which presumably is the same as the material covered by the course.

Sounds like a clever way to get students to study and learn.

Edit: Oh, that's right, this is a multi-day, open-book exam. How the f**k did the cheaters not all get 100%?

Edit 2: Wait a darned second. If the question bank contained the answers, then it's impossible that the cheaters didn't get 100% (unless they were intentionally getting only 93% or whatever). If the question bank did NOT contain the answers, then there was no advantage in having the question bank ahead of time, since ALL student taking this open-book, multi-day exam are given the specific questions when they take the exam.

Edit 3: Unless, that is, there's a multi-day window to take the exam, but the actual exam must be completed within some time limit of the student's start time.

 

[Delita]

I'm surprised that the professor used a textbook test bank for exams. Especially in a capstone class. My undergraduate business capstones consisted mainly of long case study presentations and long answer exam packets.

 

[JSt0rm]

My age doesn't make my truth and less true, in fact it probably makes it more true since I actually research before I speak and probably have more real life experience in the middle east than 95% of who post on those issues.

^^ prime reason we send the young to war. This kid is a prime candidate for d-day invasion 6:00am beach duty.

 

[Freshgeardude]

^^ prime reason we send the young to war. This kid is a prime candidate for d-day invasion 6:00am beach duty.

Lol have you been to israel?

have you had a friend killed in a suicide bomber? have you been studying the history for at least 10 years?

unless all of the above apply for you, you are the kid we should send to the front line

 

[hal2kilo]

They actually require a HS diploma?

Can't be color blind, so I'm out.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

The fact that 1/3 of the class cheated in a capstone course is somewhat disturbing. And I'm also surprised that the prof used a test bank. None of the courses I've taken at my university used a test bank - the professor always made the test him/herself.

 

[lothar]

If a student gets ahold of hundreds of questions (with answers, I assume) and studies them sufficiently such that they can get a high score on a test consisting of a small subset of those questions, then to me that means the student has learned the material covered by the exam, which presumably is the same as the material covered by the course.

Sounds like a clever way to get students to study and learn.

Edit: Oh, that's right, this is a multi-day, open-book exam. How the f**k did the cheaters not all get 100%?

Edit 2: Wait a darned second. If the question bank contained the answers, then it's impossible that the cheaters didn't get 100% (unless they were intentionally getting only 93% or whatever). If the question bank did NOT contain the answers, then there was no advantage in having the question bank ahead of time, since ALL student taking this open-book, multi-day exam are given the specific questions when they take the exam.

Edit 3: Unless, that is, there's a multi-day window to take the exam, but the actual exam must be completed within some time limit of the student's start time.

1.) Where did you get the idea that it was an open book exam? Didn't see it mentioned in the video or article but maybe I missed something.

2.) Maybe the test bank had 200+ questions, but the professor only selected 10-20 questions on the exam? It's pretty stupid to waste time cramming and memorizing test bank answers if the professor is only going to select 10 questions out of the entire test bank of 200+ questions? Here's a better way. Find out what topic (or chapter in the book) is giving you problems and read that?

Even if they were supplied a test bank without answers, it would be wise for them to go through the test bank and say "Hmm...it seems most of the questions are based on this topic or chapter so and so, I guess I better read that section." or "Hmm...there's only one test bank question on this 100 page chapter, so I guess I better not waste my time reading it."
You can't tell me there's no advantage in knowing what topic is more likely to come up on an exam because the test bank didn't supply any correct answers. That's like comparing a "multiple-choice" exam to a "fill-in-the-blank" or "essay" exam. You can't claim to me that there's no advantage in multiple choice because they don't highlight the correct answer for you.

3.) Your 3rd edit is certainly a plausible scenario.
My board exam was almost similar. Time limited, the questions kept going and going regardless of how fast you answer them, and the person sitting next to you (or someone taking the same exam in trailer park Kansas) will never have the same exact exam questions as you. As you answer questions, they get progressively harder and harder and made worth more points. As you missed questions, they get progressively easier and easier and made worth much less points.

 

[lothar]

Also, WTF kind of class is this in which no one sits on the 1st or 2nd rows?

 

[werepossum]

Lol have you been to israel?

have you had a friend killed in a suicide bomber? have you been studying the history for at least 10 years?

unless all of the above apply for you, you are the kid we should send to the front line

No, we can't send him to the front line. In the front line it's very important that you can figure out which way to face AND have the courage to face it. Progressives are just enamored of the idea that those who serve have somehow lost at life, so ignore him. Kudos to you for doing your own research instead of picking a side and mindlessly following along in the hymnal.

I don't see the big deal with cheating anyway. It's just the redistribution of grades, just furthering the liberal agenda in education. Hell, in a couple decades it will probably be mandatory. Not cheating, Wang? What are you, some sort of racist Neanderthal? You'd better not let me catch you actually reading the text book again, young man!