… definitely you’ll want “my own eye hath seen it” evidence … you know what to look for now.
A warning would be nice, I wouldn’t accuse the student if you didn’t actually see the student. Just be wary next time. If you catch him the next time, then there should be consequences. :eek:
General chemistry is all math equations. Organic chemistry involves drawing various reactions.
When you say you cannot be sure he was cheating—you are teaching a (1) summer (2) chemistry course (3) for non-majors in a (4) community college. I guarantee you that somebody in your class is cheating, possibility several somebodies. I agree with the advice above on talking about it with your department head. Be prepared for them to not care much.
Do tell the class that you are talking with the department about how to deal with the students you caught cheating, and that you’ll follow up with the students in a couple of weeks. Try not to look at, or avoid looking at, specific students when you do this. (I always ostentatiously stare at the ceiling, so that they know I know.)
Edit—I always call the suspect student into my office or pull them aside after class and talk to them. Sometimes asking what they’d do in the hypothetical situation, sometimes asking them straight out. It’s never a pleasant process, but it’s part of teaching.
(Warning: I have zero experience , and may be talking out my ass here.)
It seems to me that the most important thing you- as a newly hired instructor -should do is cover your own ass.
What kind of contract do you have, and how easily can you be fired?
Making waves is never a good idea at a new place of employment.
If it rolls off him, it could roll back on top of you–and crush you.
If he denies your accusation, and appeals to someone higher up, it will not be a “ball of laughs”.
In today’s politically correct world, small issues don’t always remain small.
What gender/race/ethnic groups are involved here?
You have more to lose than he does. Be careful.
After sleeping on it - and since I do not have proof positive (well, I didn’t see him do it, but the test results are highly suspicious), I am going to simply put into place better anti-cheating strategies and move on. I’ve made two separate tests for this coming week and I’ll move him away from his pal come test time. I’ll also move my seat and just plain old watch.
This is a learning experience, more for me than them, I think. It’s funny, but I never thought of cheating when I was in school and would never have had the nerve to do so anyway. People can be disappointing.
Until I got to the Land of Multiple Choice Tests, aka the USA, all my chemistry tests had been written. Problems, essays (theory, analysis of a graph). An example of an essay: give several IR spectra and ask the student to ID which one belongs to chloroform explaining why. You can’t just go eenie meenie miny moe, you have to actually be able to explain what the bands mean.
I’ve taught graduates going for a professional qualification, school pupils at a private school and also students at a technical college covering a total of 40 successful years.
I’ve had pupils cheat in exams, lie to their families, try to pit one teacher against another and so on.
Please, please follow the above advice.
Many years ago, while working one full-time and one part-time job I was offered the opportunity to teach a class at a nearby community college. I had a student who did not want to be there, was putting out minimal effort, and blatantly cheated on an exam.
The person above me explained the economics of the situation. The school recieved $$ as long as the student attended. I gave notice and finished the term.
Fail both students. Give them each 48% and see what happens. If either student wishes to question some of the things that you have marked as wrong be willing to listen to their reasoning and reconsider the mark.
DON’T do this, unless it comports with school policy. One or both of them can complain you accused them of cheating, and you have no evidence besides the looks on their faces?!
Uh, what if the good student didn’t know the bad student was peeking?
Yeah, bottom line, see what the school policy is. Even if you’ve decided to let this one go, find out what you need to do for next time.
The person had a B, D, F and then an A and the exact same errors as the person next him? My eye hath seen it. What to do about it is the policy part.
Don’t don’t don’t do anything without finding out the school policy on cheating.
I’ll just add a few points. First, before you hand the tests back, make sure you make photocopies of both for your own records. That way, if there are any disputes later, you can show evidence.
Second, if you do confront the students about it, you’d be surprised how often they’ll confess to it. Most often, the confession takes the form of “I wasn’t cheating; I was just _____”, where what goes in the blank is a description of how they were cheating.
Third, don’t be deterred by the fear of extra paperwork or other work on your part. The official disciplinary process is slow, and by far the most common outcome of it is that the student withdraws from the class before the process is complete, thus saving everyone involved the trouble.
Since I’m not a teacher, but “sage” advice was requested, I’ll go with this one.
If I was a teacher, I’d be less interested in putting it to the one student than making sure that all students are doing properly. Your time is better spent teaching than policing, and if it’s (mostly) impossible to cheat, then policing isn’t necessary.
^^^THIS!!!^^^
My wife has taught several business law courses at a community college for 20 yrs of so. Believe me, you will get plenty jaded. Even moreso after a couple of expectations that the administration will back you up.
So long as the better students are learning the info and getting the grades they deserve, don’t sweat that some of the bottom quarter may not get the Ds-Fs they deserve. You can add essay questions and assignments to try to help them fail, but then decide whether the incredible wages you are receiving warrant the extra effort on your part.
If your school is anything like the one I work at, there is an official, hard-line sounding policy about zero tolerance of cheating. But absolutely no guidance of how to deter, catch, or prove cheating. And when you try to get any support from higher up, you find nobody is really interested in rocking the boat.
I have had good luck with making two exams, identical except for the numbers given in the problems. I mix the blank exams ABABAB in a stack and hand them out so that every student is surrounded by students with the *other *exam. If somebody puts an answer to the wrong exam, that problem gets a zero, even though most (honestly) incorrect problems get partial credit. Nobody has had the balls to come to me and ask for their partial credit. If they ever did, I would explain that they have cheated and by rights I could have them kicked out of school; would they prefer that, or just zero points for the problem?
If I’m short on time and can’t get around to making two versions of the exam, I’ve had good luck with just making two different colors of exams: half on white paper, half on whatever other color I can scrounge up. They all assume they are different!
My favorite recent anecdote was when my wife received two take-home short-answer tests, submitted electronically the afternoon of the day AFTER they were due. Both were identical, down to the final answer that said, “Too many beers consumed to answer this question.” :smack:
Working together, they didn’t get a single answer correct, even tho she had gone over the EXACT questions the final class. She charitably gave them both zeros, instead of docking them the points for lateness. Yeah, you’ll get jaded quick! 