<p>Please understand I am not the only one involved here, only the one posting. My husband has spoken with the dean, the professor, an attorney, the school principal, school administration members, and even board of education members. Trust me, he is not operating out of fear; me, definitely. The attorney said he has no evidence and everyone else just thinks the whole situation is unfair. The principal did research and found a similar case where the child was found guilty, hired an attorney, and it was dropped. However, this took time. We can decide to fight it every step of the way and take the chance of still being found guilty. We can appeal, of course, but it’s on his record in the meantime…while he’s trying to get in college. I am definitely going to make an appeal and try to get the WF dropped to a W. The professor even recommended this. As I said earlier, if he were younger or were already in college, the situation would be totally different. We are working against time.</p>
<p>What an awful situation. I don’t know what I would do. It seems as if you are between a rock and a hard place given that the prof will not budge despite assurances from the people on site that no opportunity for cheating occurred. </p>
<p>If he decides to take the WF (or preferably W) I would ask the principal and the proctor to give you letters in writing explaining the situation and verifying that they do not believe your son cheated. That way if anything comes back to bite him in the future he has something in writing to back up his version of events.</p>
<p>Good luck. I really hope you can get it all sorted out.</p>
<p>I didn’t read every suggestion word for word but it sounds like you know the other student (the senior who took the WF). Figure out a way to ask him or a parent. Sounds like he’s admitted to cheating so he might be able to help your son’s case by saying that your son didn’t know.</p>
<p>I would fight this hard. If the facts as you have them are true, you shouldn’t be bullied. Plus, a successful defense would make one heck of an essay about standing up for yourself.</p>
<p>smom123, I understand that the “WF” looks like the easy way out. It probably is easiest for now. But in the long run, it’s really disadvantageous. It is just wrong to accept an injustice, and this affects the academic environment adversely. Is there some reason that the professor wants to limit the success of high-school students in his online course? </p>
<p>The only way that I could see the “WF” as a possibility is: the other young man in the course WAS cheating somehow, using your son’s work, AND your son knew about it. If the other young man was not cheating, or if he was, BUT your son did not know, there is no reason for your son to accept the “WF” and then try to have it “improved” to a mere “W.”</p>
<p>Most universities have multi-professor hearing panels, rather than just a single professor in addition to the one bringing the complaint; and there are usually appeals beyond the hearing panels. Furthermore, there is no reason why this couldn’t be resolved before September.</p>
<p>Another thought: If the other young man was not copying your son’s answers in some way, you might need a lawyer, but you definitely need a statistician!</p>
<p>The key here is the professor’s “irrefutably strong evidence”. Nothing the OP has posted constitutes irrefutably strong evidence without more, although it doesn’t preclude there being irrefutably strong evidence, either.</p>
<p>To me, the key is how many others out of the ~450 kids taking these tests had the same or close to the same error pattern on the quizzes in question. If the error pattern is common enough, then the fact that these two kids both had a similar pattern proves nothing at all. If the error pattern is highly uncommon, then the two of them having the same pattern for three tests (but not for others, including the most recent one which they took separately) looks like much more powerful proof.</p>
<p>The professor has that data. He should have produced it. He should be able to answer the question “How many other students in the class had the same error pattern, within one question?” off the top of his head. If he hasn’t checked that, not only should his accusation be thrown out, but he should be sanctioned for having made it irresponsibly. If he has checked it, and it supports his accusation, then take the WF in a heartbeat.</p>
<p>I feel so sorry for the OP and her family. This is scary stuff! </p>
<p>I also wonder if there is a reason that this professor is doing this, unless he truly believes that the OP’s son was cheating (hard for me to believe since the proctor is on the side of the students). Even if there is a reason (ie: this professor might not want to work with high school students, he does not want to teach online classes, etc.), it does NOT help the OP in any way. </p>
<p>OP, FWIW, I think it is also bullying your son into the WF. This whole situation stinks, it is nerve wracking, expensive to defend, and a big distraction for this young man during finals. Instead of the OP’s son exploring colleges this summer and dreaming about his future, he is living in fear with this dark cloud hanging over his head. It is just awful.</p>
<p>JHS is right about the professor’s responsibility. I agree with most of his points, but I’d say that even if the two students made the same uncommon choices, that’s far from a proof that they cheated. The two students share a great deal of their academic background. The relevant courses that they took prior to this one were probably similar or identical. It would not be surprising if they shared a few misconceptions, based on their prior experiences. To take this out of the realm of PSY, I had an eighth-grade teacher who thought that the mass of a proton was higher than the mass of a neutron. It isn’t. This would be a pretty rare error to make. But I would guess that a few years later, a high proportion of my classmates would have made that error, independently.</p>
<p>Our honor code in college was… “I have neither given or received any help on this assignment, nor am I aware of any infraction upon the honor code.”. This had to be handwritten and signed on every test and ppr being submitted. In this, the spirit was knowledge… what did he know and when did he know it? If your son did not know he was being ‘cheated off of’ then he bears no responsibility. This idea that he is guilty even if he had no knowledge is counter to any honor code I have ever seen.</p>
<p>Every university has some bad professors and I think that every student will run into a few in four years. That said, it can be hard to stand on principle when the stakes are high.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, my son demoed a lab project for the professor after class. The professor said that it did what it was supposed to do. A moment later, two students asked him if they could look at his code - in front of the professor. He didn’t say anything but was pretty surprised that other students would ask this in front of the professor.</p>
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<p>JHS, in an earlier post Smon said the professor did that. On one tests, the answers turned in by both students were identical, including the wrong answers. Two of the wrong answers were unusual and not selected by other students in the class.</p>
<p>On a total of three exams (90 questions), the students apparantly only turned in one problem that was different. I think it’d be highly, highly unlikely for 2 students to turn in the same answers on 89 out of 90 problems. That information is combined with the fact that a student bombed a test when the other student was gone.</p>
<p>I think that information makes it pretty clear that cheating occured. What we, the professor, Sdad, and Smom doesn’t know is who was involved in the cheating. Was this a text message collaboration between the students? Was this one student copying another? Was this some type of foot signals? Exchange of answers in the bathroom? We don’t know. The professor doesn’t know. Sdad and Smom don’t know. The only two people that know are the two students involved.</p>
<p>What do I think? If S was cheated on without his knowledge, then the person who did the cheating needs to tell the professor exactly what happened so innocent people don’t get in trouble.</p>
<p>Copying from another paper is pretty hard to do if you are separated and even risky if there are different exams around. Anything else short of telescopic glasses (yes, you could have a small camera in a thin tube that could zoom in elsewhere and transmit it to a small screen) would require collaboration.</p>
<p>The statistical evidence summed up by bigtrees would have me pretty suspicious, even if I were a parent.</p>
<p>The other student took the WF (is this Withdraw Fail as opposed to Withdraw?) so presumably he was the beneficiary? If so, he would have no motivation to come clean.</p>
<p>bigtrees, as I read the facts the two students had the same answers on 87/90 problems, not 89. And of course if you expand that to other tests, they seem to have fewer answers in common. </p>
<p>If two students were acing the course and getting every quiz perfect, they would have 90/90 answers the same, and that wouldn’t be strong evidence of cheating at all. The evidence of cheating here is their getting the same wrong answers. And there, the overlap is 20 wrong answers in common out of 23 questions where one of them was wrong. I don’t dismiss that at all as evidence of cheating, but it’s not compelling all by itself.</p>
<p>You are right that the professor did say something about this to the OP. What the OP posted is ambiguous, but it looks like he said that on one of the tests one of the answers both missed was one that very few other students missed. One? On one test? Granted, that’s another step along the path, but out of twenty shared mistakes only one was an unusual one? Wouldn’t you like to see the data systematically?</p>
<p>One possibility no one is considering is that the OP’s son turned in his tests early because he knew the material, and the cheater copied answers from the test sitting on the proctors desk, or that the other student gained access to the tests later.</p>
<p>There is circumstantial evidence that cheating occurred. There is circumstantial evidence that the other student didn’t study the material and copied from the OP’s son’s test. However, it seems difficult to copy with a proctor in the room and only a few people. I imagine that the students would be far away. </p>
<p>I don’t see any evidence that the OP’s son was complacent in the cheating. I don’ think there is enough evidence to find the OP’s son guilty.</p>
<p>CRD,</p>
<p>The tests were computer based and the computer records showed the two students started and stopped the tests at exactly the same time.</p>
<p>Oops, missed that sorry. This one is tough. Do the students sit next to each other during tests? How close are the seats? Can you pull up phone logs during the testing times to see if there were any texts sent from the OP’s son’s phone? </p>
<p>I suspect the OP’s son took the WF, but I’m still curious how this happened.</p>
<p>“It is just wrong to accept an injustice, and this affects the academic environment adversely.”</p>
<p>Not the OP’s problem. In any event, as bigtrees observes, this is not a case where there was no good evidence suggesting that something happened. Something untoward probably DID happen. The only question is whether the OP’s son was an active participant. And unless someone confesses, we’ll never know…</p>
<p>So, assuming that we’re going to give OP’s son the benefit of the doubt, the only questions are a) how to minimize the damage and b) what the OP is willing to pay to minimize the damage (I note that an attorney is already involved. cha ching). Part of the problem is that we don’t know how this particular school district reacts to being pushed. </p>
<p>My inclination is that if S can get the W, he should grab it with both hands and chalk this one up to experience.</p>
<p>On the computer tests that I’ve seen, they usually do one problem at a time. This would usually be done in some kind of a lab environment. Sometimes you just have desktops around the edges of a room and sometimes you have tables with desktops on them in a classroom. In the latter case, you may be able to see the keystrokes of another student from some distance.</p>
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<p>I would agree with the knowledge known so far.</p>
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I third this, thinking of my son who I would believe to be innocent. And I would tell my son that I believed him to be innocent but to choose his battles. </p>
<p>A WF on the other hand isn’t so pleasant, and I probably would bring in the lawyer et al. I think the OP is saying that they are working on a W, but the college has never mentioned a W as a possiblity.</p>
<p>In either case, I would make it my mission in life to discourage people from taking the online class, or from the teacher in real life. (Probably not a wise mission, but when I truly feel wronged I know how to hold a grudge.)</p>
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<p>A much more productive mission would be to convince the school to implement additional security measures to prevent obvious opportunities to cheat, like having multiple versions of questions or having the computer generate answers in random order.</p>