Furious
Dr. Crazy is posting on the terrible things that students often do go through and get the work done anyway. I have posted on my response to plagiarism, and why it offends me so.
And then there's this one, which I've just found out isn't really covered by our academic integrity code. A student who claims to have had serious medical problems all semester (sad that I have to say "claims" but I now have serious misgivings about the student's honesty) emailed me before the last paper was due to say that she had been rushed to the hospital, and was worried that she wouldn't get the paper to me on time. Would I accept a soft copy?
Yes, I do accept soft copies in moiments like these, because like Dr. C, I tend to give these students the benefit of the doubt because many of them are in fact honest and suffering human beings. On the due date, then, I get an email with an attachment and a disclaimer that sometimes "my computer won't attach from this address." Of course the attachment is blank.
OK, let's try again: "Get it to me before Monday's class." In class on Monday, the student tells me that she dropped in my box, but that she realized that a page didn't print right, and there was a missing page. I asked her to bring the missing page next class. Red falgs all over the palce, more so when I realize that the missing page is a page that "didn't print right" a phenomenon represented by inserting about 20 hard returns and a line of gibberish at the bottom of the page, a line that contains mostly characters from the center line of the keyboard--completely unlike any actual computer generated error. Were I to compile the actual writing, it was 3.5 pages for a 5 page assignment.
The paper she turned in on Wednesday had 5 inserted line breaks and about 12 lines of new material, none of which occured in the space where the supposed "missing page" was supposed to go. When confronted, she said, "I didn't lie. There was a missing page." I was so flabbergasted, I simply told her I could not grade what she turned in on Wednesday, and would have to grade Monday's draft.
What gets me is that this, an example of bald-faced lying, is not really prosecutable under our honor code. I despise being lied to.
technorati tag: teaching-carnival
Comments
I hate it when students take advantage of generosity in this way. Incidentally, the way that I handle the hard copy vs. emailed copy issue is that my stated policy is that I will accept an emailed version in order for students to meet a deadline, but I will not grade a soft version, and so students must get a hard copy of the assignment to me within one week. No matter what's going on with a student, they can have somebody get a hard copy to me - heck, they could even mail it to me in that time. This eliminates some of the problems with people using "soft copies" as a way to pull a fast one, though I'm not sure it would have helped in this situation. How frustrating, and how awful to feel like you've been manipulated.
Posted by: Dr. Crazy | April 28, 2006 5:32 PM
I require that students send everything to me by email, and since they use it for everything, they learn fast how to do it right. It's not a cure-all because nothing is. I just like online grading and having the copy permanently. But it's amazing what some people will try.
Posted by: Nels | May 7, 2006 11:12 PM