Academic Dishonesty - Day 3: Cheating can plague upper-level courses as well
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 11/18/2009
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Of all cases of academic dishonesty last year, 23 percent were at the 300 level or higher, including seven that occurred in a graduate-level course.
According to the Office of the Dean of Students, the number of reported cases of academic dishonesty has decreased about 4 percent in upper-level classes from 2007-2008 to 2008-2009.
Trae Mitten, associate dean of students, said this change could be attributed to many things.
“It could literally be something as simple as one professor making a dedicated effort to confront academic dishonesty in his or her sections,” Mitten said.
In the 2008-2009 academic year, there were 21 cases the Office of the Dean of Students didn’t have full documentation for. These cases included the date of the event, the school the students were in, the action taken and the date the outcome was decided. There was no course or course number provided.
The Office of the Dean of Students said sometimes they aren’t given all of the information of where the report is coming from.
In the 2007-2008 school year, 23 of the 37 cases of academic dishonesty that occurred in upper-level classes were in one course, MET 320, “Applied Thermodynamics.”
Michael Harris, associate dean of engineering and professor of chemical engineering, said in some engineering courses, homework problems count less because of the opportunity to find solutions on the Internet.
“Some faculty and instructors develop new problems every year to which there are no solutions available until after the homework is turned in,” he said. “Faculty can write in their syllabus that students are not to use the solution from existing sources and that they are to develop their own solution strategy for solving the problem since the quizzes and examinations will test whether a student understands the fundamental concepts to solve problems that they have never seen before.
“Doing the homework is where a lot of the real learning occurs if the students spends the time to understand the real course materials well enough to solve the homework problems.”
Harris said he thinks that cheating is not just harmful for upper-level engineering students, but for students at all levels because of the involvement an engineer has with his or her project.
“Academic dishonesty at any level in the education of an engineer is dangerous since the engineer must develop, design and manage projects, processes and facilities that must operate in a safe manner. The early courses are essential to understanding materials in the more advanced courses,” Harris said.
Students in other colleges may not have as much “homework” in upper-level classes, but the opportunity to be academically dishonest still looms.
David Blakesley, a professor of English and director of the Professional Writing program, said there is an emphasis on collaboration and process in upper-level courses in the English department, which reduces the amount of plagiarism cases substantially.
“We also teach students how to use information effectively and ethically. So, if you intervene in the process through drafting, peer review and reflection on the acts of writing and research, students learn good practices and thus don’t have the opportunity to plagiarize, even if they might be so inclined otherwise.
“Plagiarism is a teaching and learning problem, not a moral problem.”
Fast Facts
2007-2008
MET 320, “Applied Thermodynamics”: 23 cases
ME 270, “Base Mechanics”: 3 cases
Physics 272, “Electric and Magnetic Interactions”: 3 cases
Graduate-Level Courses: 2 cases
2008-2009
ME 270, “Base Mechanics”: 4 cases
ME 200, “Thermodynamics”: 8 cases
CHE 320, “Statistical Modeling and Quality Enhancement”: 12 cases
English 238, “Introduction to Fiction”: 3 cases
Graduate-Level Courses: 7 cases