<p>Has anyone ever witnessed someone cheating who got caught? If so, how did the professor respond?</p>
<p>I'm just curious! Also, this is my first time here to the site! Take care!</p>
<p>this thread is probably better off in either the high school or college life sections.</p>
<p>This is the college life section. :confused:</p>
<p>it was probably posted in a different section, then a mod moved it here without noting the move in any way</p>
<p>I haven't witnessed my psych prof or any other prof for that matter catch someone cheating. In my psych class, my prof and other facilitators walk up and down the rows. Also, my prof said that he caught someone last semester and it was a big mess for both him and the student...so he advised us not to do it.</p>
<p>It really depends upon the school and the honor code written at the school.</p>
<p>At some schools (UNC is an example), you are required to sign an honor code for every exam you take. If you are caught cheating, you are reprimanded severly (I think some schools will kick you out or place you on probation).</p>
<p>However, here at Wisconsin, it is much tougher to get something done about cheating. For the class I TA, there have been numerous cheating allegations (one on the exam, multiple on labs). For labs, it is easy to prove. If I receive two labs that are identical to each other, they go to the professor to look over them and make a determination on what has to be done. The last offender of mine will get a zero on the lab and a note is being sent to the dean's office to be placed on his file (just in case he is a repeat offender the administration can take further action).</p>
<p>It is very difficult for a professor to prove cheating many times, even if a student brings it to their attention. This sometimes forces a professor to not even bother with pursuing cheating claims, as they become a 'he said' 'she said' battle and it is sometimes an excercise in vain.</p>
<p>I'm not saying cheating is good, on the contrary, it is a horrible offense. I'm saying that rules vary between colleges and that it can be difficult to substantiate cheating claims (especially on multiple choice exams, written exams are obviously in a league of their own).</p>
<p>When I taught college and caught students cheating, I flunked them for the course. My department, journalism, stood behind me because they didn't want cheaters becoming professional journalists and then becoming public disgraces for doing unethical things like making up stories or quotes.</p>
<p>At my school, the math and chem tests require so many tedious steps and proof based analysis that cheating is almost impossible (in my particular classes). And on essay based examinations, he's been using 5 Grad Students to check the papers for plagiarism violations/copying.</p>
<p>However, my econ teacher said that before he implemented his new rules, when he found someone cheating, regardless of their excuse, he turned them into the disciplinary board and they were either placed on probation or suspended.</p>
<p>Whoa guys! thanks for responding. As for the others who have responded earlier; because it was my first time posting, i had no idea where this post belongs to. Next time I'll be more mindful where I post my messages.</p>
<p>HI Northstarmom</p>
<p>Are you still teaching?</p>
<p>Brinah,
Welcome to CC!</p>
<p>No, I'm not still teaching college. I am married, however, to a college professor who flunks students whom he catches cheating. One student fought this by bringing in a lawyer. The student still flunked.</p>
<p>hee hee what good did that do? lol waste of the lawyer's time and then some!</p>
<p>i'm still in HS, taking one college course though... my professor mentioned in another class she noticed identical tests etc., and of course she didn't wanna go through the trouble, so she had to make up multiple test forms. more work for her, too</p>
<p>When I taught multiples of the same class in college, I did make up different tests for each class. Doing this was a pain, but I didn't want to rely on students' not telling their buddies about their tests. If I were lazy and didn't make different test versions, that would have rewarded the cheaters.</p>
<p>So I'm assuming you have a Ph.D then??</p>
<p>Did you also change the tests every semester?</p>
<p>Yes, I have a doctorate. Yes, I changed tests every semester. I also gave students practice tests using tests from previous years.</p>
<p>If students missed a test because of an excused absence, I made up a new test. Extra work for me, but that's what I got paid for. :)</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, how did you factor in curves if a student got a substantially different exam?</p>
<p>I never graded on a curve. If everyone got 90+, everyone would get As, including those who had gotten 90s. If everyone got 60s, of course, everyone would flunk.</p>
<p>I don't believe in curves.
I think that grading on a curve encourages students to backstab the students who are working hard. </p>
<p>Outside of college, if there are a bunch of slackers in a workplace, they'll get fired or the company will go under. If there are a bunch of stellar performers, the company will do well and either the outstanding workers will get promotions, raises or they'll find better jobs elsewhere.</p>
<p>Every class I've taken has been different.</p>
<p>Child Psych and Ed Psych (same prof): Tests are out of 60 points but have around 65 questions. Therefore, a "curve" is sort of built in.</p>
<p>Chemistry: The three highest overall grades in the class are averaged and the average becomes 100%.</p>
<p>Ed Foundations: No curve, although participation is a big factor.</p>
<p>American History: This guy is sort of nuts with his curves. Every test is different and if one test is curved and everyone still does poorly, he weights it less in the overall. On the last one there were people who got legit A grades and some who really got 88-89 and still got an A, not an A- (reserved for people who normally would have gotten mid-range B's). I think he did that because our first test was so bad and all but a few people got a C+ or lower.</p>
<p>Biology: We would get bonus points now and then for filling out worksheets based on in-class videos. I think we all got 40 or so in the end. This was the equivalent of a curve, I guess.</p>
<p>College Writing I: No curve, and a lot of bias in fact--girls would always get higher grades than guys even though many of the guys wrote better papers. Perhaps the girls got a curve and the guys didn't?</p>
<p>College Writing II: Our lowest grade was eliminated. For most people this was the first assignment.</p>
<p>Calculus: The highest grade on each test became 100%. This didn't apply to quizzes.</p>
<p>College Algebra: No curve of any sort.</p>
<p>American Government: No curve of any sort even though the average grade in the class was 67%.</p>
<p>Sociology: No curve of any sort.</p>
<p>Intro to Psych: The highest grade would become 100%. A bell curve was used from there to distribute the other scores. Only a letter grade was given for each test and was calculated using the same 4.0 scale used for GPA.</p>
<p>Public Speaking: No curve, although the professor was very generous so one wasn't needed.</p>
<p>Gym: No curve, although everyone got an A unless they cut class.</p>
<p>Computer Apps: No curve, although the tests did include opportunities to earn bonus points.</p>
<p>Intro to Liberal Arts: No curve, although he seemed tougher on people whose ideas he didn't like. I'm a Republican and he held that against me. So my grades were always low on the opinion based essays even though they were well written.</p>
<p>Those were my college classes...a few notable ones from high school:</p>
<p>Prob/Stat (taken for college credit): We got participation points tacked on and would sometimes get a few more than we deserved if we needed to bump up to the next letter grade by a point or two.</p>
<p>Physics: Same as Prob/Stat.</p>
<p>Chem 1: Not only were class participation points added at random, often enough to raise a grade 4%, but we also all got 100% on the final no matter how poorly we did on it. I figured this one out by finding the "X" for my grade on the final since my final course grade didn't seem to add up right. Others got this as well.</p>
<p>Algebra I: A test would usually curve by a few points based on how every period of the class did. I think the teacher looked at specific commonly missed problems and changed the point value on them.</p>
<p>6th Grade Social Studies: The teacher knew her tests were hard. So she assigned a bunch of extra credit out of the book during the last nine weeks. If you did it all you got 54 bonus points! Factor that into your final grade! I wish college profs did this!!!</p>