Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!utastro!nather
From: nather@utastro.UUCP (Ed Nather)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: looking for cheating detectors
Message-ID: <2936@utastro.UUCP>
Date: 24 Jul 88 21:51:02 GMT
References: <4513@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <2927@utastro.UUCP> <31313@cca.CCA.COM>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 41

In article <31313@cca.CCA.COM>, g-rh@cca.CCA.COM (Richard Harter) writes:
> For a student to present a collaboration
> as original work is dishonest.

No argument.  My question was directed at why they were asked to do it in
the first place.  I should have phrased it more carefully.

> 	As another point, nobody has questioned the ethics of home assignments.

For what it's worth, I teach a course on electronic techniques in astronomy,
which has largely become a course in real-time programming.  All of the
tests and exercises are out-of-class assignments, with only one restriction:
students should not collaborate with any other student given the same
assignment.  They are free to consult anyone else, and are urged to do so.

I've been pleased with the results.  Students really seem to learn the
techniques best when they have to apply them to a real problem -- and
the exercises are tough, chosen for their possible use in astronomy
later on, not for ease in grading.  I never fail to learn something new
when I grade them, so I don't resent the time spent.

As part of an introductory lecture I discuss cheating, point out they
can fool me into giving them a high grade by scarfing some other student's
work, and dwell on the consequences: they'll have spent time in class
that was totally wasted, since they didn't learn its content.  I also
mention how much of a disservice they would do other students by letting
them copy their work, thus "cheating" them of knowledge they may well
need later.

I don't know if this stops "cheating" in its usual academic definition
or not, and I really don't much care.  If I had wanted to be a policeman
I would have joined a different organization.  But I am very happy to
see my students graduate and do good research in astronomy -- and hear
that many of them teach the same way I do -- the reality, not the
artificiality of memorizing to get a "grade."

-- 
Ed Nather
Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin
{backbones}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather
nather@astro.as.utexas.edu