Monday, January 12, 2015
Amid Numerous Scandals, College Educators Examine Cheating
Big Think: As reported by Bloomberg's Michael McDonald (no, not that one), Dartmouth College recently found itself embroiled in a cheating scandal involving 64 students in -- you couldn't make this up -- a sports ethics class. The course, which was designed to appeal to student athletes, had 300 enrolled students when the cheating occurred. That means 21% of the class was caught cheating. Who knows if the actual number was higher.
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3 comments:
This is a common problem I face all the time as a college student. Cheating is wrong in my option because taking credit for someone else work is stealing and plagiarism, also cheating results in not knowing the material for one's self. I struggle with the temptation to cheat because my priorities sometimes leave a certain class or assignment as the least important so I do not save time for the assignment. Because of the pressure to "succeed" or get a good grade, cheating is a more appealing risk than risking not getting credit and failing a class. As a musical theater major, cheating in one of my non-core classes is appealing because I just need to pass the class I don't necessarily always care about doing my best in the class because the majority of my attention is on my core classes. However, the risk you run cheating is not worth the consequence of being caught. I think young students who are overwhelmed by the pressure to get good grades blinds them to realizing the consequence for being caught cheating is far worse than just letting some things fall through the cracks or putting in that little bit of extra effort.
I don't fully understand the argument in this article. This may be because I've never been around people like that so I haven't seen the side of the argument that the article presents. The whole idea that students don't know that cheating is wrong, and do it because it's just seen as getting ahead just seems so impossible. I do understand the common urge to cheat in classes that don't matter as much, but to be raised with the idea that cheating won't lead to punishment does not seem to represent the other side of the argument properly. I do believe that students who are in programs that focus so intently on one subject, would be more likely to cheat in the not as necessary classes. And that should be the other side of the argument that is focused on in the article instead of the one they wrote about.
Cheating is wrong, yet we all seem to do it at one point or another, whether it's your fourth grade spelling test or your calculus final. For one thing, I'm upset with the notion that we as students cheat because we're all 'special snowflakes'. Absolutely not. In high school, I found myself caught in whether or not or I should cheat because this test was the difference between my semester grade and colleges wanted to see As, not Bs! Today, more people are caught up in grades and the numbers that (apparently) define you. It became less about the learning and more about the grades that came out at the end of the semester. In college, and especially in this program, I feel less of a need to cheat. Is it because I'm paying 60k for education instead of my parents' tax dollars? Maybe. But in college, I feel like it's more focused on getting something out of the class and actually learning. However, this is just a view from a student from a BFA program.
In the case of the student athletes, it's a much different story. For one thing, the fact that all those students were cheating in a ethics class doesn't matter. Ha ha, it's ironic. Whatever. Anyway, my impression is that student athletes have to maintain a certain GPA in order to continue playing. It makes perfect sense why they would cheat; their priorities are elsewhere. Doesn't make it right. The fact of the matter is that we don't cheat because we want to, we cheat because we feel that we have to. Would I rather have enough time to study for a final? Yes.
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