Thursday, March 06, 2008

Is online studying cheating?

I found this to be of interest, especially since we have online students:

College Student accused of Cheating Using Facebook

Why would an online study group be 'cheating' but a 'normal' study group be a...study group?

Seems to be similar to our students posting on the portal. Any thoughts?

6 comments:

Emily said...

I think it depends on how it's used. If a student leaves one message that says "what's the answer to question 14" and another gives the correct answer... that's collusion.

What a topic!

Sara said...

Hmmm...maybe that's where that one student was asking the librarian question if Rasmussen has a policy on it (collusion)??? Or would that fall under the broader term of academic cheating?

Dan said...

Having answered the "collusion" question several times each quarter, I recall someone mentioning it is part of a Success Strategies assignment.

Some instructors are luddites that abhor when students utilize new technology. But as Emily stated, unless we know exactly what the online study group was doing, its difficult to applaud or condemn.

The burden of proof however, is on the instructor here and not the student. Unless the instructor had proof the student was using the online study group for unethical practices, the student should not have been admonished.

Beth said...

I agree with all, I think this will be an important case for the future of student academic honesty issues. More and more students are looking for ways to collaborate virtually and they need this option as a natural extension to their on campus time.

Courtney said...

We are working on an assignment for an online class and the question is: "How does the college view and penalize collusion"? I can't seem to find the answer either. Obviously it's not good, but we still need the right answer. I'm sure that's what she was working on.

Courtney said...
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