Would you consider this cheating?

[shadowclaw]

So I TA for two labs, and in one section we have two students who are repeating the course. They sit next to each other, and one has all of her graded lab reports from last semester in her notebook. The labs are exactly the same. Since she already took the class once and lab reports aren't due until the beginning of class the following week, I don't really think it's really an issue for her to reference those lab reports on her own time. After all, the other students google answers and go to tutoring for help with reports.

However, she brought them to class and had them open while working on the lab. She was basically copying down everything she got correct last time and sharing the lab report with other people around her. Even though she doesn't have all the answers, I think it's at least giving the students around her an unfair advantage. Plus their group got their work done an hour before most of the other students.

I brought it to the attention of the professor because I wasn't really sure about it, and he didn't seem to care. He said that she should let go of the old material and not focus on her old answers, but didn't say she couldn't bring the reports to class anymore.

So it seems as though this is acceptable, but I still feel like it is cheating, and perhaps even plagiarism. After all, had I ever handed in the same paper for two classes, I would be plagiarizing myself.

[FoggyAnhinga]

I'd definitely say this is cheating - it is VERY unfair for the students around her, and most especially for the students in other lab sections. I'm very surprised that the professor decided to let this go! If it was in my undergrad school, this form of cheating will 1) get the student an automatic F in the course, and 2) even a suspension from the university for an ENTIRE semester! (all the cheating penalty warnings were probably why I was SO paranoid about not being accused of plagiarism whenever I was completing my lab reports, even though I never cheated haha). 

 

Speaking of which, a friend of a friend actually tried this form of cheating once during my fourth year of undergrad. She was repeating a course after failing it the previous year. While completing one of the weekly problem sets, she decided to refer to the old problem set solutions from the previous year to speed up her progress in her assignment. The result? The TA who graded her problem set didn't write a total score on the top, but instead wrote "It is obvious that you have copied from the previous year's solution set for these questions. Please go see professor X about this."

 

I guess the professor is leaving up to you to decide on whether to discipline this student or not. If I were you I'd give the student a grade of zero for that lab report, or if you are feeling really generous, possibly give her only a half credit and warn her not to do that again.

Edited January 23, 2015 by FoggyAnhinga

[Between Fields]

So it seems as though this is acceptable, but I still feel like it is cheating, and perhaps even plagiarism. After all, had I ever handed in the same paper for two classes, I would be plagiarizing myself.

 

Right, but as a grad student you're expected to build off of the work you do in one class and adapt and expand on it for other classes. That's not plagiarism. If she failed and is retaking, clearly she's not going to copy verbatim all of her old answers, so she's adapting and expanding off of her old work. Are you expecting her to throw out her old notes and not try to learn from what she got wrong last time? That seems like a waste of her time, and a waste of -your- time if she starts forgetting things she learned the previous semester.

 

I think it's reasonable to ask her not to share her notes with her colleagues, but if she's using them on her own it doesn't seem like it's cheating. Cheating would be if she had someone else's notes and was copying them. The best solution would to have different assignments each semester, so this couldn't happen, which is what happened in the situation the previous poster described.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Between Fields

[iphi]

I disagree, I do not think it is cheating. If she did not pass the course then obviously not all her answers are correct. If this helps her learn, so what? Her team will be at a disadvantage when they don't really learn the material and others (who had to work for it) do. Still I can understand asking her not to share her answers with her peers.

[GeoDUDE!]

She's not cheating because the professor said its ok, and its up to his discretion. What you consider cheating isn't important, as you do not define the rules of the class. I personally find this ok, as long as they are learning the things they need to. 

[shadowclaw]

Thanks for the replies! As I said in my original post, I don't think it is a problem for her to use her old notes and assignments on her own time. Students have an entire week to finish their reports, so she could easily just compare and correct her answers at home before turning the report in. What I do have a problem with is her sharing her lab report with others around her during class and telling them if the answers they are writing are correct.

Since it's not my decision what to do about it (as GeoDUDE said, it's the professor's discretion), I'm not going to tell her to stop. I really just wanted to know what others thought since this is grey area.

Although I find GeoDUDE's argument interesting. It's not cheating because the professor says it's not. I think that's the kind of logic many people accused of war crimes used to defend their actions. Not that cheating and war crimes are even on the same playing field, but it's interesting logic nonetheless.

[TakeruK]

This is an interesting problem! I think it is actually made of two distinct parts:

 

First, the less important part, is the question whether we (other grad cafe users) think this is an academically okay thing to do. In my opinion, I do not think the principle/idea of using your old class notes to help you do better on assignments is cheating. I think it is really the professor's responsibility to know that students will do this and if they care about it, they should change the assignments. However, if I was the TA for this class, I would be extremely annoyed that the student is doing this in the lab. But again, does it matter if this student does the copying in the lab or on their own time? And the student can easily share answers with other students on their own time too. 

 

Secondly, there is the question of what your responsibility as the TA is. Although we might have opinions on what is ethically right or what academic honesty means to us, ultimately, it is our job to act on what our employers (the University and the professor) deems is right, not act on our opinion. If the professor says this is not cheating and acceptable in their class, and if there are no superior policies/rules that contradict the professor's judgement (i.e. department or University wide policies) then there is no cheating problem. So in that case, I'd completely agree with GeoDUDE's post.

 

That said, academics are also professionals that have responsibility to ensure they are not supporting academically dishonest actions. That is, if the professor is actively encouraging cheating that doesn't always make it okay. But I don't think the right action in this case is to pursue this any further. As a TA, I would say that if our professor asks us to do something we find academically dishonest, our only real options are 1) do it anyways, 2) report it to their supervisor (or your University's whistleblower program), or 3) resign. However, I do not think grading this student's assignment would be so against my own "moral code" that I would have to take one of these actions.

 

Finally, if you are interested in how other schools handle this situation, at my current program, our course policies almost always explicitly say that you are not allowed to refer to any old assignments (your own or other students) at all in this class. If students have any such materials, they are expected to store it somewhere safe and not look at it again until the course is over. This is all "self-policed" because our school runs on an honor code (all of the exams are take home, but students must time themselves and if it is a closed-book exam, they also self-restrict themselves). Therefore, this action would certainly be considered cheating, but only because the course policy (i.e. the professor) says so, not because it is innately cheating. Also, as an interesting side note, if you were a TA at my school and suspected another graduate student of cheating, the correct action is to not report it to the professor, but instead, report it to an independent board that will investigate all cases of alleged graduate student cheating. This policy is based on the fact that a wrongful allegation of cheating can be very harmful to a graduate student, so this independent investigation is intended to encourage reporting suspected cases instead of people not reporting cheating based on the worry that the reporter might be wrong. 

[mandarin.orange]

What I do have a problem with is her sharing her lab report with others around her during class and telling them if the answers they are writing are correct.

 

This behavior, I would tell her in no uncertain terms to stop. I think that's totally under your jurisdiction as leader of the TA section, and the course professor can't control that (sounds like s/he wouldn't really care enough to micromanage her behavior to that extent). But I think it's also important for the students in class who may not be her neighbors or participating in this -- they may seem under the radar working quietly, but they're observing what you allow/don't allow, standards, and what they're getting out of their education. You can loose their further engagement / enthusiasm in the course if they perceive that your educational standards are lax.

 

Although I find GeoDUDE's argument interesting. It's not cheating because the professor says it's not. I think that's the kind of logic many people accused of war crimes used to defend their actions. Not that cheating and war crimes are even on the same playing field, but it's interesting logic nonetheless.

 

I agree with you. Unfortunately, I've also experienced supervising profs that may not care or just don't want to deal with these issues of un/originality...from our perspective, these are things that really have power to change the dynamic of our sections, and are formative experiences for us a fledging educators. I reported an egregious case of plagiarism to my supervising prof last year (student had copied a blog post verbatim and turned it in as her paper). He had a "scary one-on-one" with her (his words, I personally doubt he was that scary) then decided to let her rewrite it. WHAT WHAT. Essentially there was no consequence, and I had the extra work of regrading it for her during finals week with all the other crap I had to do/grade. Sadly we have to take their cue on this.

[GeoDUDE!]

I want to expand on my point a little. I assumed that the professor thought about what the student/s were doing and made the decision that although the students are using past notes, they are still learning what they need to and the "soul" of the class is still preserved. 

 

I do not think that the most important point of a class is evaluating students, but providing them context in which they find interesting things to think about. In my mind, cheating is an act that undermines this context. If I felt that the students were clearly not thinking about the things they were supposed to, ie not putting together ideas, not redoing experiments, then I would consider that cheating. On the other hand, a lot of lab work is busy work, and I personally see no problem with expediting that. 

 

I agree its a grey issue, but I also think a student's education is up to them: they are clearly degrading the quality of their education by choice. If education is a glass of water, you can provide the glass, and the water, but they must drink. They aren't children.

[shadowclaw]

I want to expand on my point a little. I assumed that the professor thought about what the student/s were doing and made the decision that although the students are using past notes, they are still learning what they need to and the "soul" of the class is still preserved. 

 

I do not think that the most important point of a class is evaluating students, but providing them context in which they find interesting things to think about. In my mind, cheating is an act that undermines this context. If I felt that the students were clearly not thinking about the things they were supposed to, ie not putting together ideas, not redoing experiments, then I would consider that cheating. On the other hand, a lot of lab work is busy work, and I personally see no problem with expediting that. 

 

I agree its a grey issue, but I also think a student's education is up to them: they are clearly degrading the quality of their education by choice. If education is a glass of water, you can provide the glass, and the water, but they must drink. They aren't children.

I definitely agree with you. Engaging the students and getting them to learn and think is what it's ultimately about. I do feel bad for this student's lab group. As you said, I am providing them with a glass of education, but by referencing this student's past exams, they aren't drinking very much and might have issues down the road.

[St Andrews Lynx]

I would consider this behaviour a bit iffy. 

 

But...

...I've now been a TA in several large lab classes. Most of them have the same content and questions year-in-year-out. It is incredibly easy for a student to get hold of past lab reports from a friend and copy down the correct answers. Although this one girl in your class is brazen enough to do the copying and sharing openly in front of the TA, I'd actually be surprised if the rest of your class wasn't already using the exact same tactic, just more discreetly. 

 

My own opinion is that as a TA there is only so much you can do. If a student decides that instead of properly learning the material they are just going to copy somebody else's answers...I'd consider that their problem. Their exam performance and closed-book quiz scores will reflect that decision. 

[turbidite]

Interesting. This EXACT same situation happened to me last semester. I thought it was a gray area (and not outright cheating), but I brought it to the professor anyway. He kind of waved it off and said to not worry about it. Well, long story short, the student ended up one point short of passing and the professor did not give him the benefit of the doubt and bump him up to a passing grade. He ended up failing the class for the 3rd year in a row.

 

Anecdotal story to be sure, but often times when students cut corners like this they end up getting burned later down the road.

Edited February 20, 2015 by turbidite