<p>Harvard has been criticized in the press for taking too long to hear the cases and make decisions regarding the widespread cheating sacandal. Accoding to this article, one of the outcomes to the scandal are more explicit policies on cheating and collaboration.</p>
<p>Somewhat ironic that the effort seems to be focused on clarity, but some classes’ new policies re collaberation seem more clear than others. Students need to display their individual mastery of material, yet learn to collaberate on group projects. Profs need to draw clear lines.</p>
<p>This is a difficult issue. I can understand the problems with just copying someone’s homework but there are some things I do not understand. Why would looking for help online be cheating? I can understand that simply copying an answer from any source (online or not) is cheating, but if a student finds a website that is helpful in understanding certain concepts why is that cheating? I just don’t understand. My son would not have passed AP Physics without the use of Khan Academy videos on YouTube.</p>
<p>When did working through homework problems with classmates become cheating? So if Fred and Mark each work through their calculus homework and help each other understand their errors that is cheating? Since when?</p>
<p>What about having peers edit your papers? My professors always told us to have at least two peers edit our papers before we handed them in. That is now cheating?</p>
<p>hah- a good portion of my (adult) day doing online research could be classified as cheating!</p>