Interesting debate offered: Did these students cheat?

Central Florida prof thinks so. He gave a test and noticed higher than normal scores. Turns out that some students bought an instructor's manual for the class, and studied the bank of 300 questions offered in it. Prof used some of the questions straight from the guide to compose his test.

Video of his "shame on you" lecture:
http://www.y100.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104668&article=7870202

After noticing the high scores, he informs his class that they have cheated and all have to take a new test.

IMHO, I think he's wrong.

I think he was the lazy bastard who, instead of making his own test, lifted his questions straight from a book that is openly available to anyone. Then is "disappointed" that his laziness came back to bite him in the ass. It's akin to looking over old tests in prepping for a new one — the students have no way of knowing what questions he will choose to put on the new test. In the "old test" case, if the prof is lazy enough to use the same test year after year, then it's on him. Should be if he takes the easy way out and lifts his test from the book, too.

What say you, SportsJournalists.com?

 

If students walked into the class on test day and, when the exam began, had nothing in front of them but their pencils/pens and said exam, then they did not cheat.

 

I say shame on him for being so lazy to not write his own test.

 

And I hope each student went to the proper authority and defended their actions. And if the professor branded me a cheater, I would ask for an apology.

 

Nothing wrong with using some questions from existing tests. Plenty of teachers do that. But to accuse students of cheating because they took advantage of it? Bullshit.

 

So, how is this different than studying from any other textbook prior to taking a test?

 

They violated copyright law; they didn't cheat.

 

So, they went out and bought a book that asked questions and then gave the answers to those questions. And he's mad at them because his genius test asked those very same questions?
Shame on them, indeed.

 

The fact that they ended up at Central Florida instead of Tallahassee proves they don't know how to cheat.

 

I'd be insanely pissed if I were one of the students that didn't cheat on the exam. Why should the completely innocent be forced to take an exam again? I'm not even sure if the people who'd seen questions from the test bank should be considered cheaters.

I also think that the prof is full of shit as far as being able to definitively tell who cheated on the exam. If the test was multiple choice (if there were 200 questions, I don't see how it was anything other than T/F, multiple choice, fill in the blank type stuff), is there any way to possibly catch a cheater that has the answers ahead of time?

 

How did they violate copyright law by buying a book?

 

Just guessing here. Maybe the license is only for use by professors and the students purchased it from a source distributing it to other parties? Or maybe they got an unlicensed copy?