Re: database systems and organizational intelligence
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 14:04:47 -0400
Message-ID: <2hpd9uFffp7iU1_at_uni-berlin.de>
Here's a little fun for you. To find out if anyone is reading your handouts, bury a line real deep inside one that says something like, "The first student to email me with the code word "extra" will get 10 extra points on the next exam."
Never had a taker. Always asked test questions from the handouts.
"Dawn M. Wolthuis" <dwolt_at_tincat-group.com> wrote in message
news:c97s4c$p41$1_at_news.netins.net...
> "Alan" <alan_at_erols.com> wrote in message
> news:2hp2n6Fflk47U1_at_uni-berlin.de...
> > >
> > > Lament -- I'm teaching Java in the Fall and the last time I taught a
> > college
> > > language course was over 20 years ago --COBOL, Fortran, and BASIC.
> Where
> > we
> > > were once able to teach a language and in short order a student could
> take
> > > in data, validate it, use it, modify it, store it, and retrieve it
(i.e.
> > > data processing), we might now need to teach Java, SQL, XML (including
> > many
> > > xml-based "languages" such as ant), jsp, html (along with taglibs etc)
> to
> > > write one little example of taking in data, storing it and retrieving
it
> > > again the way a production system might work. (and then to get the
> > software
> > > run-time environment set up...!!)
> > >
> >
> > Just a "watch out". I stopped teaching last year as I became very
> > disillusioned with the quality of the students. In every class I taught
> > (undergrad seniors and graduate level), I discovered instances of
cheating
> > and/or plagiarism. I don't know what I would have found if I was
actively
> > looking for it. This was at a leading (according to U.S News & World
> Report
> > listing) university for I.S. I hope your experience is different, but my
> > dean indicated that this is a nationwide problem.
>
> Yes, I saw a documentary on that. My husband teaches theology at the same
> college and has not noticed a significant issue, but students might fear
> being struck down by a higher power in that subject.
>
> > I don't give "repeat the facts back to me" questions, I give "you have
to
> > think about this and synthesize what you've learned" questions. I almost
> > never give syntax questions. In case you are interested, here are some
> > examples of the cheating:
>
> Yes, thanks for the digression on my digression!
>
> > * Take home final in what was essentially an "Intro to being a DBA
class".
> > (Yes cheating on a take-home final). How I caught them: They were given
a
> > business situation and asked to set up an Oracle database to support the
> > given requirements. Specifically, in one question they were asked to
> explain
> > what tablespaces they would need, and what they would name them (there
are
> > recommended naming conventions). As I am grading the papers, one student
> > supplied syntax fior creating tables (which I did not ask for, and
> contained
> > numerous glaring errors anyway). A few papers later, I find myself
> thinking,
> > "Didn't I just read this?" It was word-for-word, though slightly
> rearranged.
> > They even used the same names for attributes! The ironic part of this is
> > (aside that it was a take-home final, and therfore they had the world's
> > resources available to get it right), even if they had both gotten 100s
on
> > the exam (not likely), one _still_ would have gotten an F in the class,
> and
> > the other would have just barely passed with the lowes possible passing
> > grade. So-they both would have gotten an F anyway. Now, they also have
> > cheating on their university record.
> >
> > * Another class, this time three students. Assignment- create an ERD
that
> > models given business requirements. How they got caught: No two people
> will
> > ever come up with the exact same ERD, much less laying it out on the
page
> in
> > exactly the same manner. I thought I came upon photocopies. Turns out
> there
> > were very slight modifications to some names, but that's all. When
> > confronted, they deny it. I say, fine, all of you get an F for the
course.
> > Then stories start to surface. They conflict, but there is some overlap.
I
> > was able to determine who did the original work, and who just "stole"
it.
> > The original worker got downgraded, the other two got an F for the
> > assignment.
> >
> > What is really galling, is that in addition to the university cheating
> > policy, I explicitly layed out in the syllabus what kind of
collaboration
> > was allowed and what wasn't, what was plagiarism and what wasn't. No one
> > ever claimed to be confused by the policy- they just cheated.
>
> Good idea to do that!
>
> > Now here's the really sad part of the story- as I mentioned, these were
> > seniors and grad students. Could it be that they never cheated before?
Of
> > course not, so it means that faculty members either were not paying
> > attention, just didn't care, or, more chillingly, were afraid to
confront
> > the students because it would affect the faculty member's student
> > evaluation.
>
> yikes -- I hadn't thought of that! Can't wait ...
> Thanks. --dawn
>
> Received on Fri May 28 2004 - 20:04:47 CEST