tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post5358105878775938424..comments2024-03-10T05:26:42.148-04:00Comments on My Biased Coin: Academic Dishonesty CasesMichael Mitzenmacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738274256402616703noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post-66116413231807890782012-08-31T08:04:48.100-04:002012-08-31T08:04:48.100-04:00A few years ago, there was a similar academic dish...A few years ago, there was a similar academic dishonesty situation at Harvard. (A few dozen students set up a Facebook group for collaborating during in-class exams, exams where collaboration had been explicitly and repeatedly forbidden by the instructors.) The instructors decided to ignore the issue, though they had collected evidence in the form of screenshots of the entire history of the Facebook group.<br /><br />The current situation is ideal. Harvard's hardline stance against academic dishonesty is just one side of the coin. On the flip side, individual faculty have the tacit choice whether or not to ignore the issue. If they decide to bury it, they bury it --- if they decide to "bring the hammer down", they do so with the total and active support of the institution. Obviously in the latter case, the transgressing students' punishment must be deterrent (hence very harsh), and also punitive enough to overwhelmingly set the non-transgressing students far ahead of their cheating "peers".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post-1247504101812343192012-08-30T17:42:03.817-04:002012-08-30T17:42:03.817-04:00My experience is that academic dishonesty is more ...My experience is that academic dishonesty is more prevalent at Harvard than my undergrad school. This might be more of a difference of years than universities (or just personal bias), but I think it might also be related to the emphasis put on formal signs of achievement at a highly selective school. It's also true that in a school where the average grade is a B+, minor differences in scores can easily and somewhat randomly shift a grade between a B+ and an A, creating additional pressure to grab at every point.<br /><br />I don't really buy either that relaxing consequences to cheating or that tightening up rules on cheating will help. Relaxing the consequences just increases the advantages cheaters have over those who don't. And most attempts at tightening the rules make students unnecessarily concerned about citing outside reading, or they stifle discussion between students or between students and teaching fellows.<br /><br />Maybe the answer is to deemphasize grading altogether, and just move to a pass/fail system with high standards for passing. With grade inflation, it's more or less what occurs in practice anyway: how much actual difference in understanding is there between your B+ and A students anyway? Especially taking into account that some of that difference is due to cheating, or course load, or personal problems, or whatever, I'd guess that those differences in letter grades are close to meaningless.<br /><br />Harvard used to have a system like this: in 1895, Harvard started grading classes with “"Failed",” "“Passed",” and "“Passed with Distinction."” Maybe it's time to bring it back.Robnoreply@blogger.com