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March 29, 2024, 11:56:05 pm

Author Topic: Cheating in Uni  (Read 1888 times)  Share 

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Justin_L

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Cheating in Uni
« on: November 28, 2021, 10:22:08 pm »
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Maybe a bit of a strange post, but what are people's thoughts on cheating in uni? Not necessarily the act itself, but the culture around it and how you would respond if you became aware that people were intending to cheat/had cheated in a course.

Personally, I can sympathise to some extent with people cheating on formative assignments (eg. individual essays or projects by working together / accessing past exemplars or samples) because it helps them to learn even if it is still morally wrong. I draw the line at summative assessments though - I feel that cheating in an exam is simply wrong because it's unfair to others who are doing it fairly and offers no educational benefit.

Recently, I found out that some of my friends were intending to cheat in a uni exam. I'm not really sure what to do because I don't really want to lose them as friends, but I also don't want to get caught up in it or let something clearly wrong just slide. I've lost a lot of respect for them as friends, which really sucks because I've known them for years now.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2021, 10:23:43 pm by Justin_L »
Да здравствует революция государственного модератора

Aaron

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Re: Cheating in Uni
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2021, 10:39:34 pm »
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Formatively or Summatively, the act of cheating is wrong. Even if it's minor, the act itself damages character and integrity (even if it is only known to self). Can appreciate your point re: still learning, however I struggle to see how we should accept this still if guidelines are set for everyone to provide a fair playing field and a small minority choose to go around it to get ahead. If the intention of the assignment/task was for those to learn off each other, it would be set in this way.

If you want to get ahead and do well, follow the guidelines and work hard, just like everybody else. Do it with integrity.

It's a decision your friends will make and they have to live with it. They'll always know what shows on their transcript isn't the real deal and it'll come out when they get hired somewhere and can't do said skill. I think it's quite a predicament if there's no evidence that cheating will occur - it's really your word against theirs if you decided to report it. I think what's important here is that you maintain your own integrity and character by not engaging in it yourself. It's something that is really hard to prevent because there's always going to be these types of people in our society and I wonder how effective it would actually be trying to convince them not to.

(P.S - I know people cheat frequently and for some their circumstances are quite sad and perhaps their motivations for doing so are quite strong, but it still doesn't excuse the fact that some poor bugger who's working extremely hard will just scrape over the line vs. somebody who genuinely knows stuff all and manages to look amazing because they cheated).
« Last Edit: November 28, 2021, 10:47:22 pm by Aaron »
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