09-03-2003, 02:52 AM
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Magi
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 2,047
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PPCs and exams.
For those of you who are currently a student, I am curious whether your school/university allows students to bring a PPC into exam room or not. I currently do a pro-bono job teaching journalism/photography in a local university down here, and to my surprise, a student pulls out a PPC (with GPRS card installed) in my exam room, plug a headset into his ear (acting as if he is listening to music) and start browsing PDFs. He apparently scanned the journalism textbook that we currently covered on the exam, put it on a webserver, and browse it online during the exam. Mind you, owning a webserver is still very rare in this country.
(and he thought that I dont understand what a PPC equipped with GPRS card can do). :devilboy: When I caught him, he tried to convince me that the PPC is merely an MP3 player .... So, I pulled out my axim with GPRS card, and show it to him. His face was so blue, he was shocked and ashamed .. and I almost laughed when I saw that face.
I currently have to decide what to do with him. As a technophile to another, I felt that I have the obligation to lighten up a bit on him, since he has shown a creativity factor that is far beyond his peers'. Afterall, creativity is the single most important factor in journalism/photography world. ... Any thoughts ?
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09-03-2003, 03:21 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,830
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Yeah, and, when you come back to reality, think of how you would have felt if you were a student and one of your peers had not done a bit of work in the class. While you worked your ass off, and while he cheated, he got a better mark than you did.
-Justin.
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09-03-2003, 03:27 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 447
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Ethics. Your student showed none, will you?
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09-03-2003, 03:35 AM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,231
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Creativity is great, but cheating is still cheating. Isn't there some saying about honesty in journalism? If he gets away with cheating now, what's he going to do in the future?
I think that letting him get away with it is a bad precedent to set, and I'm sure he knows that what he did was wrong, as evidenced by his trying to weasel out of it with the "MP3 Player" argument. I think you should make him take the test again, within a very short time period, sans any electronics, and with no one else in the room but yourself. :mrgreen:
And you should look as mean as possible. :wink:
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09-03-2003, 03:44 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,830
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And make the test harder and different from the original!
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09-03-2003, 03:52 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 21
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ummmm...
a 0 on the exam at the very least, can go up to failing the entire course.
cheating is cheating is cheating. to be fair to the honest students this should be the minimum punishment. It will be a lesson well learned for him.
he's the type who gives technology a bad name :evil:
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09-03-2003, 04:52 AM
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Magi
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 2,137
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I agree, make him take the test again(a new test of course!) minus technology. Maybe tell him the best grade you will give him for the retest is a C(25 points off the top of his score); if he doesn't show up for the retest then he gets a 0.
And inform the rest of your class that PDAs will not be allowed on the desk during tests, so no one can say they didn't know any better!
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09-03-2003, 04:55 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 73
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Cheating is cheating. There is no excuse.
Instructors I have (had) don't allow any computer aids like Pocket PCs EVEN when it is an open book exam/test. You can use text books or notes. It's impossible to keep track of what exactly you're doing on the PPC. Heck, using instant messenging is easy enough for students to exchange answers.
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09-03-2003, 04:55 AM
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,066
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by PetiteFlower
I agree, make him take the test again(a new test of course!) minus technology. Maybe tell him the best grade you will give him for the retest is a C(25 points off the top of his score); if he doesn't show up for the retest then he gets a 0.
And inform the rest of your class that PDAs will not be allowed on the desk during tests, so no one can say they didn't know any better!
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I like this suggestion. I'd consider taking more than 25% off though, depending on how much longer he's had to study now compared to the rest of the class. |
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09-03-2003, 05:22 AM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 14,938
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I generally agree that the cheater shouldn't get much slack. I'm teaching a class right now, and my exams are open-book, so your precise scenario doesn't apply to me; but if I were to catch a student communicating with another student, for example, during an exam, both students would get an immediate referral to the dean and an immediate zero. If it's a higher-tech solution, it means they actively took the time to devise a cheating mechanism, which means it was premeditated. In my opinion, that's worse than someone who "accidentally" glances at the paper next to them -- in those cases, I usually give them exactly one chance to remedy their behavior.
What I want to know is why did he bother with a GPRS card? Why not copy it onto a CF card in the first place?
--janak
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