Almost-violation of academic integrity?

[ConcernedTA]

Hi there. I'm on TA this semester, and I'm concerned that the instructor and head TA may have rigged the course I'm TAing to encourage cheating.

I'm sure that, for this audience, I don't need to review the pressures driving grade inflation. The course that I am TAing is Orgo II for Pre-Meds -- probably the single course which is under the most pressure to inflate grades. The students need good grades to get into med school; the school wants more of its students to get into med school to increase their prestige and future donations; the instructor doesn't want bad reviews from Pre-Meds who got a B in orgo to affect their chances at tenure; etc. The course, in general, seems to be a dumbed-down version of Organic II, but that's not my main concern.

My main concern is that he head TA seems to strategically distribute answer keys in such a way that the TAs will (perhaps unintentionally) share the answers with the students. The answer keys to the exams are distributed to the exam proctors immediately before the exams. That is, the keys to the exams are in the proctors' back pockets while the students are taking the exams. The answer keys to the homework assignments are distributed electronically to the TAs a week before the assignments are due. While we're told not to distribute the answers to the students, we are told to review the answers beforehand, and then to "lead" the students to the answers. I'm not sure that there is much of a practical difference between giving students the answers and "leading them" to the answers. The fact that they're distributed electronically to 20 TAs also makes them simple to forward, intentionally or unintentionally, to the students.

This situation is maybe not *quite* academic dishonesty, but it feels like it's right on the cusp. It does seem to set up a situation in which TAs will accidentally and unintentionally share the answers with the students. It's about as close as you can get to academic dishonesty without crossing the line. And the entire burden for not crossing the line is on the subordinate TAs; the head TA and professor appear to have done everything in their power to encourage cheating.

So, is this kind of situation common? Am I overreacting, or does it seem sketchy? I mean, I'm an organic grad student, so I should be able to figure out the answers even without the answer keys. I've just never previously TA'd a course where the answers to the exams were distributed to the proctors during the exams. But maybe it's common at other schools.

Edited November 12, 2015 by ConcernedTA

[TakeruK]

It's been awhile since I have been part of the very large classes (either as a student or a TA). 

I don't think it's weird that the TAs have answers to the problem sets before the problem set is due. In the classes I TA now, I definitely have the answers ahead of time (sometimes they are provided to me and sometimes it's because I created the problem set myself). I think it is perfectly ethical for TAs to be instructed to "lead" students to the right answer. I think whether or not the instructor chooses to run the class this way is the prerogative of the instructor, because it's a matter of teaching philosophy, not academic honesty.

I actually choose to TA/teach in this way. For our courses, the instructor and I do not consider problem sets to be testing situations---that is, the point of the problem set is not to test whether each student understood the material. Instead, we believe the problem set is the way students will absorb and understand the material. So, in my tutorial/recitation sections, I basically discuss a strategy and outline the steps to the solution for all of the homework problems. In other classes (where the problem set is meant to test understanding), the TAs would be outlining steps to similar problems, but in my classes, I outline the steps to the actual problems. When students are stuck, I give them hints so that they are lead to the right answer. We expect that all of our students will score close to 100% on the homework if they complete the homework. We do this because we're following pedagogical research that students must construct their own knowledge and one way to do so is to "do" the material, not just sit in a classroom and listen to a lecture. And when I outline the steps, we follow scaffolding strategies where we might provide more details in the beginning and then remove them a bit at time as the term progresses.

As I said, it's a matter of teaching philosophy on how the head instructor/head TA wants to treat problem sets. The role ethics / academic honesty would play in this situation is not whether or not TAs are leading students to the answer, but whether or not all 20 TAs are trained the same way so that all the students in the class get the same treatment. It would not be fair if 15 out of the 20 TAs were doing one thing while the remaining 5 did their own things. Here, the onus and responsibility is on the department / head instructor to ensure consistency between their TAs (this could require TAs attend a "sync-up" meeting each week or whatever).

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I do think it's a little weird that the proctors get answer keys for the exams before they need them to grade the exams though. In the exams I'm used to (especially the big classes), proctors are not supposed to answer any questions about the exam contents at all. So, they don't need the exam keys. Pretty much the only things you can talk to a proctor for are things like extra scrap paper, confirming if a page is missing, questions about logistics (how much time is left?) etc. Sometimes the head instructor says no one can ever ask any clarification questions at all, and others say such questions can only be answered by the instructor (not the TA) so that everyone gets the same response. Again, I think the main ethical/honesty problem is whether or not all students have the same access to the same resources during the exam. If each one of the 20 TAs have the keys and are answering questions about exam content, it's very hard to keep it consistent (but possible with adequate training).

And also, of course, exams can be structured in different ways due to different teaching philosophies. Exams at this school may follow different formats than the school(s) you've been to in the past because they might be seeking different outcomes/goals. However, from your description here, it doesn't sound like this is the case. The homework issue may or may not be explained by a difference in goals/philosophies though.

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Finally, I think the best thing for you to do, if you are still concerned and want to take action, is to talk to the course instructor and head TA. Maybe pick just one concrete issue to talk about / frame the conversation. The distribution of answer keys and worry that each of the proctors will say different things to students during the exam sounds like a good one. Bring it up as a concern without accusing anyone of trying to encourage cheating and ask them what the reasons are for providing proctors with solutions. Maybe there is a good one? Anyways, maybe you can work this out through discussion. If you still feel that there is something unethical happening, then I think you should discuss it with the next appropriate authority. But please do look out for yourself too---people don't generally like being accused of academic dishonesty so be careful that you are not hurting yourself!

[Eigen]

I'm not on TA, but I do proctor and grade OChem exams every semester for a bit of extra money, and to help out my PI. 

We generally don't have an answer key before the exam, but that's generally because it hasn't been made yet. As you point out, any orgo TA should already know the answers to the test. The key just helps make sure everyone is on the same page. 

Differentially to TakeruK, we are indeed supposed to know the test and answer content questions when we proctor. I usually proof the test early in the afternoon before the exam, and answer questions about it during the test. Some other proctors get to see it when it's handed out to the students, and then spend a few minutes working through it. 

I find it very odd that you are phrasing all of this as on the edge of academic integrity, though. The line for academic integrity is quite clearly at the point when a TA would give the wrong information to a student, not in what information is given to a TA. We've actually had a case of a TA being kicked out of grad school for distributing answers to a test before the exam, and I've heard of similar cases at other schools. 

[St Andrews Lynx]

I think there is a distinction between "leading" to an answer and "just giving" the answer. I'd define leading as "well, does this look similar to a recent problem you've done in class?" or "what equation do you think you need for this?". In this case, the homework sounds almost like a check-box exercise if students have the opportunity to get their answers reviewed by a TA before submitting them anyway. Is the homework worth much of the course grade?

The exam thing I don't think is much of an issue. I doubt the Head TA/course organiser is thinking to themselves "Hey, I'll give all the proctors the answer key right before the exam, maybe some of them will tell some of the students the correct answers, thus enabling everyone to pass and giving me a great set of evaluations." Bluntly put, there are better ways for a course organiser to game the system that include everything from winking as they work through practice problems ("You might want to remember this for the exam.") to taking questions straight from old exams/the practice problem set, etc.

As others have said, talk to the course organisers. 

[kaykaykay]

I was very surprised how much in the US students are helped with their work. They get their "homeworks" free and sometimes they even get a set of likely questions to prepare for their exams. It is what it is.  It is quite normal.

Proctors usually get the answer keys before the exam to be able to answer questions (interpret them etc) during exam if needed.  I highly doubt that a professor's intention is to allow students to cheat randomly (that would get him into trouble for sure) . So if you have concerns about the proctors being careless let them know , or the professor know.

Edited November 15, 2015 by kaykaykay