Miguel wrote:
> My own reading of Annette's case makes me conclude that intent is _less_
> relevant. By giving students access to Paul Smith's URL, "Establishing
> Authorship", on her web page (I assume that she gave this
> material as a reading assignment), she has provided specific guidelines
> covering issues of quoting and plagiarism. Her student may not have
> intentionally plagiarized but she has acted very irresponsibly by not
> following instructions.
This, however, is a key point.
My understanding is that Annette, while giving the students access to the
site, did _not_ make it required reading. If this is the case, then while a
good student may well have accessed the site anyway, _no_ student was under
any requirement to do so whatever.
If we expect our students to access certain information, we have an
obligation to make access to that material mandatory, not optional. If
Annette _did_ make it required, then certainly the student involved has no
legitimate excuse for not familiarizing herself with the content (although I
would _still_ feel that an accusation of cheating was too strong in this
case). But if Annette did _not_ make it required, she has no legitimate
reason to expect her student to _have_ accessed it. Many of us provide
optional reading lists for our students (in addition to the mandatory
ones)--and I think all of us would agree that it would be unreasonable for
us to base student grades on knowledge of the content of that optional
reading (versus the mandatory readings). Yet, if the web page was not
mandatory reading, that is exactly what Annette would be doing in flunking
the student because she failed to access the web site.
Annette, you could clarify this by letting us know whether or not access to
the site was a requirement of your course or not. From a personal
perspective, I feel it has a very great bearing on the reasonable
expectations that can be placed on the student.
Rick
--
Rick Adams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Social Sciences
Jackson Community College
2111 Emmons Rd.
Jackson, MI 49201
