I hope university instructors are having a massive wake up call re: academic integrity in the wake of 40% of an intro math class getting caught cheating on an online assessment at @UBC. A rant #AcademicTwitter

First of all, the notion that 40% of students in a lg intro class has no integrity and would cheat their way through college, is fundamentally flawed. 40% of a class is not using sophisticated cheating methods. There’s clearly a flaw in exam delivery that they’re capitalizing on.

So either questions from previous years/exams are being used, the block of time during which the exam is available is several times longer than the actual write time, or questions are googleable.

This is harder with other intro subjects. But the idea that math exam questions would be reused year after year is INSANE. Does math’s subject matter not give a prof inherent access to an infinite number of different questions? No excuse for them to be recycled.

This year is extraordinary and some students might be writing exams from diverse timezones, not always have a quiet area to write in, etc. But two timezone options for *100% DIFFERENT*, time-limited assessments is reasonable. Yes, it’s 2x the work, but this is a special year.

Also, we all know in our hearts that memorizing details ≠ material mastery and these types of googleable questions should be always be excluded from online assessments. Thinking questions should be prioritized even if it means switching to long-answer questions and assignments.

I have to break it to you:

IF A CLASS LOSES EDUCATIONAL BENEFIT BY BEING SCALED UP IN SIZE, IT SHOULDN’T BE SCALED UP.

IF A CLASS’ ASSESSMENT TYPE LOSES VALUE WHEN TRANSITIONED ONLINE, CHANGE IT.

At what point does the normally-honest student stop cooperating with academic integrity rules? Is it when they know that the test answers are already online? Is it when 20% of their classmates are using them and getting perfect? 30%? 40%?

40% of a class is a lot. #UBCMath

This thread provides the reasoning for my likely-unpopular opinion that the students caught cheating in Intro Math at UBC should not be punished. #AcademicChatter

Just make them rewrite a new exam.