giving students exam answers

[Sapphire120]

So I ran into two of my students in the library this afternoon before the course midterm tomorrow for the class I'm TAing. I casually chatted with them about how studying was going and they each showed me their detailed, thorough study guide/outlines they made (one was 17 pp., the other 20). When I asked, they also told me they had multiple exams this week. They're really hard working students, don't complain, write well, and participate in class. 

They asked me general questions, like "Do you think my outline is too detailed or not enough?" etc. I guess I just felt sorry for them, seeing how hard they're working and how much effort they're putting in and I probably disclosed more than I should have. For the midterm, I contributed 2 (out of 20-25) of the short answer questions based on a lecture I gave on a certain topic. With those in mind, I never said directly "make sure you know X" but I strongly hinted and gave them clues until they figured out the topic. They opened their lecture notes and repeated back to me what they had written down (which was the precise answers to the exam questions). So I never actually said the question verbatim, but I let them know they should be very familiar with the information they had just verbalized to me and that if they knew that, they would know the answer to the question. 

In the moment, I wasn't really thinking clearly (instead feeling sorry for their hectic exam load and impressed by how much effort they were putting in to this exam amd genuinely wanting to help). But thinking back, I'm now wondering if I crossed some sort of ethical line? Should I tell the professor of the course what I did? 

[pinoysoc]

16 minutes ago, Sapphire120 said:

So I ran into two of my students in the library this afternoon before the course midterm tomorrow for the class I'm TAing. I casually chatted with them about how studying was going and they each showed me their detailed, thorough study guide/outlines they made (one was 17 pp., the other 20). When I asked, they also told me they had multiple exams this week. They're really hard working students, don't complain, write well, and participate in class. 

They asked me general questions, like "Do you think my outline is too detailed or not enough?" etc. I guess I just felt sorry for them, seeing how hard they're working and how much effort they're putting in and I probably disclosed more than I should have. For the midterm, I contributed 2 (out of 20-25) of the short answer questions based on a lecture I gave on a certain topic. With those in mind, I never said directly "make sure you know X" but I strongly hinted and gave them clues until they figured out the topic. They opened their lecture notes and repeated back to me what they had written down (which was the precise answers to the exam questions). So I never actually said the question verbatim, but I let them know they should be very familiar with the information they had just verbalized to me and that if they knew that, they would know the answer to the question. 

In the moment, I wasn't really thinking clearly (instead feeling sorry for their hectic exam load and impressed by how much effort they were putting in to this exam amd genuinely wanting to help). But thinking back, I'm now wondering if I crossed some sort of ethical line? Should I tell the professor of the course what I did? 

In my honest opinion, I don't think so. I, for one, like seeing students succeed. However, just keep this in mind for the next time and try not to be open what they should expect. Try being broad about the exams covers.

[fuzzylogician]

I routinely tell my students "pay attention now, XXX will be on the exam". I only wish they'd listen. What I find a little off about this is that you didn't give all of your students the same shot at success. You let the two that you randomly ran into milk you for information. If you basically revealed exam questions to them, even if you didn't explicitly say "this is an exam question", that's going a step too far for me. Broadly saying "make sure you study X", though, is fine.

[Sapphire120]

19 minutes ago, fuzzylogician said:

I routinely tell my students "pay attention now, XXX will be on the exam". I only wish they'd listen. What I find a little off about this is that you didn't give all of your students the same shot at success. You let the two that you randomly ran into milk you for information.

Yeah that's exactly why I feel bad about it. Another one just emailed me asking if there are certain things to focus on more than others and (having now had time to think) I was more vague with him (look over notes from my lecture on topic X etc). But why should he get less of a chance than the two who happened to cross my path in the library? On the other hand, I don't think that sending out a mass email to all my students giving away those specific questions is a good idea either. 

What if I sent the professor an email saying I divulged more than I probably should have with 2 particular students yesterday regarding a couple of questions and ask him whether I should make a copy of the exam for the 2 of them that replaces those questions with different ones? Then email the students in question to let them know that those questions I discussed with them will have to be replaced because I feel like I may have jeopardized the integrity of their exam by divulging too much? 

[fuzzylogician]

15 minutes ago, Sapphire120 said:

What if I sent the professor an email saying I divulged more than I probably should have with 2 particular students yesterday regarding a couple of questions and ask him whether I should make a copy of the exam for the 2 of them that replaces those questions with different ones? Then email the students in question to let them know that those questions I discussed with them will have to be replaced because I feel like I may have jeopardized the integrity of their exam by divulging too much? 

If you're going to replace an exam question, you need to replace it for everyone, to keep things fair. You might email the prof to say you think you may have overshared with two students you ran into, and propose new questions to replace the ones you discussed with them. It should probably be up to the prof to decide what to do, unless there's some understanding that you're in charge of designing the exam. 

And repeat after me: "I can't give you more information than was given to your classmates, that wouldn't be fair. We discussed the material in class/you have a study guide/whatever. You are responsible for everything in there. If you have specific questions about anything, I'm happy to answer them." 

[Eigen]

I can literally repeat questions from earlier exams on the final without seeing students pick up on it. 

[TakeruK]

I agree with the above posts that the problem isn't what you said, but it's because you only said it to a few people. 

I think probably a good idea to discuss next steps with your professor if you think you need to talk to your professor first.

But I actually don't think there is any problem at all with mass emailing the class telling everyone pretty much exactly what you told those two students. My philosophy is very much "if there is some advantage gained unfairly, the right action is to nullify this advantage" and I think the best and most neutral way to nullify the advantage is to email the class or replace the question for everyone. So, talk to the prof about it.

[Sapphire120]

Ok crisis averted! I emailed the prof last night telling him what happened and he emailed back this morning saying not to worry, that he's accidentally divulged too much in the past too, and that he'd just change the questions for everyone. So then I emailed the two students and said that it turns out that the questions I thought would be on there actually won't be but just to look back over notes for my lecture. I didn't get into the "why" of the whole situation with them though maybe I should have.

But thankfully, the prof wasn't mad and my conscience feels cleaner now that the questions are changed! I told him that the future, I'm going to work on being more tight lipped so that I don't give some students a better advantage than others. Thanks for weighing in, everyone! 

[TakeruK]

I'm super glad it worked out. I would have been very stressed about it too. I did experience something similar and it was a very good learning experience for me and it sounds like it will be for you too. We improve best when we make mistakes!

This has led me to have policies such as "I won't answer any questions within X hours of the due date/exam date because I won't have time to pass the information on to everyone in the class" where X is 24 or 48 or something like that. And whenever someone asks me a good question that isn't specific to them only, I will email the question and answer to the whole class (I wouldn't include the asker's name though).

At my PhD school, all of our exams and midterms are take-home, self-proctored exams. So, our class policy is usually to make everyone aware of a single webpage that will be updated during the exam period until a certain date and all "clarifying questions" type Qs that we get via email will be posted online and emailed out when we answer them so that everyone has the same information. When I proctored on-campus exams at other schools, if I answered a question for one student, I gave the same answer to the whole class (however, most exams I proctored had a rule of absolutely no questions).

P.S. I think you made the right choice to not get into the "why" of the situation.