<p>At Dartmouth, in the class, "Sports, Ethics and Religion."</p>
<p>You could not make this up.</p>
<p>Nope, but I was shocked, absolutely shocked at the kids my kids told me cheated in high school. Why on earth would they not keep it up when they go to college.</p>
<p>athletes, eh?</p>
<p>Athletes, again. Quelle surprise.</p>
<p>Questionable ethics from one athlete who denies that the cheaters did anything wrong. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And except that the grade was partially based on attendance. </p>
<p>I’m more interested in the cheating that took place on the midterm.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Lying about attendance in one’s classes in that manner can be considered a violation of my college’s honor code if it was done at my LAC which would mean a trip to the judicial board and serious sanctions depending on severity upto and including academic suspension/expulsion with requisite negative notation on transcript. </p>
<p>I’m probably one of the most outspoken people on cheating, but the 250 person class with 50-person debate teams sounds absolutely awful. I dunno, I would have expected better of Dartmouth, a school that emphasizes small class sizes and more personal interaction</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.vnews.com/news/14333338-95/dartmouth-probes-cheating-allegations”>http://www.vnews.com/news/14333338-95/dartmouth-probes-cheating-allegations</a></p>
<p>This is not exactly what I would call “cheating.” (Attendance grades are, IMHO, bogus. This is not HS.) It is telling, though, that the professor involved perceives that athletes have a hard time keeping up in regular classes.</p>
<p>Based on local kids I know who were recruited athletes at D–one of whom, a runner, was a Presidential Scholar finalist–this probably depends largely on the sport. You can be almost certain that the major offenders are helmet sports.</p>
<p>^^and are Greek.</p>
<p>I find it interesting that the professor still hasn’t mentioned the incident in class, but still wants to reinforce the seriousness of the incident. I do think there needs to be another look at the honors system overall if it doesn’t carry any weight (more so considering the midterm situation than the attendance one). It connects back to the discussion a few weeks back of schools with honor codes. </p>
<p>To echo shawn, 50 people?! Is the professor out of their mind? I just had a group debate with 6 people and THAT was a pain to try to and coordinate schedules. </p>
<p>While I agree this is against the rules, I don’t see it as a “scandal”. We actually recently had a similar issue in a pass/fail course in my master’s program. People were turning in attendance sheets when they weren’t there. The class got an email, the students were dealt with, and we moved on. </p>
<p>Honestly though, this type of set up is just begging to be abused. Not saying it’s right, but if we treat college students like high schools (“attendance points”) then why are we shocked when they act like immature teenagers?</p>
<p>
Agree at this. DS told us at one time that, for his STEM classes, there are not only no attendance grades, but also no “problem set” assignment grades either.
All the grades came from the test scores of two midterms (say, 25% of the final grade for each midterm) and a final exam (50% of the final grade.)</p>
<p>How odd. When I’ve seen clicker quizzes given, the clickers are given out at the beginning of class. Perhaps these are poorer schools than Dartmouth!</p>
<p>I don’t like attendance grades either, but it is still wrong to inflate your grade dishonestly. If the students didn’t want to attend class, then they should have accepted the penalty for not being there. They cheated for a grade. The students who took the absent student’s clickers to class and answered the attendance question for them, also cheated. Academic integrity doesn’t depend on one’s agreement with the class grading policy. </p>
<p>Perhaps cheaters are more concentrated in really crummy classes with teachers who don’t seem to care.</p>
<p>^^ Perhaps. But it is sad that a top school that has a choice of top students, has so many that care so little about their education. Cheating and taking easy classes isn’t making very good use of the opportunity they have been given.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Indeed. If its in the syllabus, its fair game.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Or if getting out of bed is too difficult in the morning, drop the class. There are plenty of others courses where attendance is not required.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you were an admissions reader for a super selective school, how can you really tell if the applicant is genuinely interested in education, rather than only wanting to attend your school for the eventual validation of his/her worthiness to be recruited by a consulting or investment banking company?</p>
<p>In much of life, attendance is mandatory. Try getting a coworker to fake time sheets for you. That some professors have not required attendance does not excuse this. It’s not only lying, and persuading others to lie on your behalf about attendance, it’s also lying about participation in class activities. The scale is startling; if 43 were absent, that means up to 43 buddies colluded in the cheating.</p>
<p>The Dartmouth printed a new article, covering the “athlete angle” of the story. <a href=“http://thedartmouth.com/2014/11/17/news/student-athletes-talk-pressure-following-clicker-inciden[/url]”>http://thedartmouth.com/2014/11/17/news/student-athletes-talk-pressure-following-clicker-inciden</a></p>
<p>The same arguments found after the Harvard cheating scandal show up in the coverage of and comments on this incident in The Dartmouth. It’s (allegedly) an easy course, which became harder. The cheating must be the professor’s fault, somehow. </p>
<p>Whereas, without a child at either institution, the instructions these professors gave their classes were quite clear, and easy to follow. “It’s your fault I got caught” is not convincing. Given that the students at these institutions are more likely than others to end up in charge of important institutions (<em>cough</em> Wall Street*), I am concerned about the willingness to indulge in such a signal lack of respect for their professors and fellow students.</p>
<p>In my opinion, there should be a serious conversation about whether a college’s academic load might be too demanding, or whether the time demand of varsity athletic competitions are too large. I am not a fan of technology-enabled instruction. If a relatively small class of students uses such devices to cheat, what’s happening in much larger tech-enabled classes?</p>
<p>bluebayou, since the majority of the non-freshman students at D are Greek, it is indeed likely that the majority of those involved in this are members of fraternities and sororities. </p>
<p>What, exactly, is your point? Just more generalized greek-bashing? </p>
<p>The class was specifically aimed at athletes whom the professor perceived as having a hard time with regular classes at D. He recently came from Columbia, btw. Maybe he got the idea there. B-) </p>