Interesting debate offered: Did these students cheat?

[Killick]

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 ******* 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?

 

[CentralIllinoisan]

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.

 

[Matt1735]

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

 

[CentralIllinoisan]

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.

 

[outofplace]

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? Bull****.

 

[Brad Guire]

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

 

[Point of Order]

They violated copyright law; they didn't cheat.

 

[MightyMouse]

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.

 

[MightyMouse]

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

 

[ucacm]

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 **** 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?

 

[spnited]

They violated copyright law; they didn't cheat.

How did they violate copyright law by buying a book?

 

[ucacm]

They violated copyright law; they didn't cheat.

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?

 

[Turtle Wexler]

How is this different from the "test files" that greek houses have been known to keep? In those cases, does it fall on lazy professors?

 

[EStreetJoe]

Is it any different from an English lit professor that puts all or his exams and assignments in the same (unsecured) directory on the campus network and the day before an all-essay exam a curious student checks to see if it's been uploaded early (which it was) and the class has a group study session to review what points to cover in each essay?

 

[Matt1735]

Is it any different from an English lit professor that puts all or his exams and assignments in the same (unsecured) directory on the campus network and the day before an all-essay exam a curious student checks to see if it's been uploaded early (which it was) and the class has a group study session to review what points to cover in each essay?

I realize you used the blue font, but that's totally different. I hope that's your intended meaning.

 

[WolvEagle]

They did not cheat. They did nothing wrong. Like has been said above, shame on the prof for his laziness. It's his own damned fault.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

They didn't cheat. They just broke the rules.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

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

Winner winner...

 

[Mizzougrad96]

In high school, college and grad school, you find out about professors who are too lazy to change their tests. My fraternity had a test file where you could look at tests that other people had taken in the same class you were taking. Most of the time it was just a really good way to study, but every once in awhile a test would be identical. This was before anyone was using the Internet for such things.

With the Internet these days and the possibility that every test a professor has ever given is out there, professors should be required to significantly change every test they give.

 

[kingcreole]

In high school, college and grad school, you find out about professors who are too lazy to change their tests.

Absolutely. My economics prof literally used the same tests semester after semester. He just changed the order of questions. Needless to say, it didn't take long for previous semesters' test to be found.