Hello Tipsters,
Well, it's happened... Call me naive, but I'm shocked. I'm a first year
faculty member teaching an advanced (i.e., juniors, seniors and graduate
students) Psychology of Sexualities course. As a first assignment, I gave
a simple syllabus critique assignment. The assignment is designed to
ensure that students have carefully read and understood the syllabus. It
also gives them an opportunity to provide feedback about the course, due
dates etc. In addition to stating their level of agreement with statements
(e.g., the syllabus clearly states course objectives), I ask them to
provide a course learning goal and to proofread the syllabus (as practice
for the proofreading that I hope they will do when they hand in their
papers). The assignment is very easy and should take the average student
10 minutes to do. In return, they get to earn 5 points.
Yesterday, I sat down to grade the assignments and found to my surprise
that two students (they are roommates) had typed up and handed in the EXACT
responses to the questions. They didn't even bother to change the font,
page margins or one word! I might add that my syllabus has a section about
academic honesty that says that "... submitting work that belongs to
someone else as your own is plagiarism." I plan to give both students a 0
for the work (in addition to the blatant copying, they both failed to
answer a question, and one did not address the learning goals statement)
but would also like to send a very strong message about how serious (not to
mention disrespectful. How stupid do they think I am?)this offense is.
What's the best route?:
1. Write on their papers that this is academic dishonesty and serious, and
that they should consider this a one-time only warning?
2. Ask them to come and see me together and then talk to them about
academic dishonesty?
3. Other?
Thanks, I look forward to your suggestions.
Cheers,
Lisa Bowleg, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
University of Rhode Island
10 Chafee Road, Suite 8
Kingston, RI 02881-0808
Tel: (401)874-4597
Fax: (401)874-2157
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
