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I am teaching Calculus 2 and 3 this semester from a common text, and a significant number of my students are handing in perfect homework assignments that are clearly copied from Chegg, et al. As homework grades are a minuscule part of their overall grade, I'm not concerned that some of them are "getting away" with this, because they'll get washed on quizzes and exams if they can't do the work.

That said, I am concerned about what cheating does to their willingness to ask good questions in class or come to office hours. Students are already hesitant to ask questions of professors, but I believe cheating on homework creates two additional roadblocks:

  1. Students may be worried that asking questions will make it more obvious that they have no idea what they're doing, despite the fact their work looks perfect.

  2. Students may be worried that coming to office hours will allow them to be cornered by me, since their lack of understanding will be evident in a one-on-one conversation.

While they have chosen their own path by deciding to cheat, I would like to have a better understanding of what I can do to remedy this situation. The question of the cheating itself has already been addressed in considerable detail here, but I am more interested in how best to solicit more questions from students.

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with this situation?

AegisCruiser
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  • It's hard for me to parse a question like this where we are asked to assume by hypothesis an environment where there is widespread cheating accepted by the instructor. – Daniel R. Collins Oct 09 '17 at 22:05
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    Don't give grades to homework and make it optional, so that only those interested in learning something will do it and they would not cheat (this is what I do since a few years and it works reasonably well). – Massimo Ortolano Oct 09 '17 at 23:28
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    I've considered a variety of solutions to the "cheating problem," but I don't love any of them. I'm most interested in the "questions problem" at the moment, though the two problems are obviously related. Ungraded homework is a half-solution in my eyes--it will stop the cheating problem but it doesn't directly teach the weaker students that careful homework completion is a prerequisite for success. And if they don't do the homework at all they'll likely be so adrift that they won't be able to ask decent questions anyway. – AegisCruiser Oct 10 '17 at 00:02
  • Do not the students care to learn at least to survive the exams? If they realize they cannot get through exams without understanding, they will want to ask questions. Perhaps give them an ungraded practice exam to expose their ignorance, if indeed they are coasting? – Joseph O'Rourke Oct 10 '17 at 00:22
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    @JosephO'Rourke: One problem is that there are many (most?) K-12 environments nowadays, even some college classes, where no one is ever failed no matter how poorly they do. So students may simply not believe there is any problem, even in the face of multiple test failures, until they get their first real "F" at the end of the semester. – Daniel R. Collins Oct 10 '17 at 01:39
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    @DanielR.Collins: Almost any environment in which students hand in homework done when not directly supervised (and in which there does not operate a strict, applicable, and enforceable anti-cheating disciplinary regimen) is an environment in which widespread cheating is accepted by the instructor, whether the instructor realizes it or not, and whether the cheating actually occurs or not (in a graduate course, students want to learn, so many actually won't cheat, but that's irrelevant to the claim that they could). – Dan Fox Oct 10 '17 at 10:16
  • @DanFox: Disagree, and I don't even think "accepted by the instructor, whether the instructor realizes it or not" is coherent. – Daniel R. Collins Oct 10 '17 at 12:18
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    @DanielR.Collins: This reminds me of the following quote from a *real* email I once received from a student after the end of a semester: "But nobody told me that I would fail the class if I don't do the homeworks." – zipirovich Oct 11 '17 at 04:26
  • @DanielR.Collins: The consequence of such an instructor's action is to accept cheating, whether or not the instructor realizes it. The instructor's state of mind is irrelevant if the instructor's practices allow cheating. My lecture notes are redistributed by third parties; do I "accept" this? In principle I don't like it, but if I continue to post my lecture notes in practice I am accepting it, even if I try to convince myself otherwise. In that case, I don't care about the outcome, so I assert my moral rights and forget about it. With respect to cheating I do care, so I don't grade homework. – Dan Fox Oct 11 '17 at 08:01
  • As a non-US citizen, I don't know about Chegg, but reading your question, it looks like an organisation which solves children homeworks. This is a widespread issue: sometimes I see homework questions on the related StackOverflow website, being answered by experienced programmers. Although it's ok for people to help each other, we should refrain making children homeworks (if they can't help themselves at their level, how will they ever be capable of joining StackOverflow and help others?). Did you already contact Chegg organisation about this issue? – Dominique Oct 13 '17 at 07:12

1 Answers1

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Imagine a scenario where you don't have a hypothesis about your students' unwillingness to ask questions in class or during office hours. Your question may just boil down to: "How do you get students to interact with you in class, without expecting them to initiate?"Absent your hypothesis, you might:

  • Ask them to (anonymously?) submit their answers to a general question, such as "What is something you wish we spent more time on in class?"
  • Have them work on a problem in groups of four students and write up, as part of their solution, what they though was the hardest part of the problem, and one thing they still aren't sure of. Read the responses to the class, and comment on them as necessary.
  • Make "asking a question" part of their homework. Give them examples of "good questions" you might want to see.

We all know that some students cheat. I open the internet and show my classes Wolfram|Alpha and the Mathematics stack exchange, and that they can find answers to most of their questions in relatively little time. I have a serious conversation with them, warning them that they will most-likely fail if they can't figure out how to work on their own. I make myself available. However, I know that many students have just been brought up (scholastically speaking) with this as their mode of learning. They will not be bothered to physically come to my office, during a certain window of time, and ask me stuff. And I completely understand this!

However, I think the best questions can be asked in class, and I have a greater chance of hearing them if I make them (questions) part of the assignment.

Nick C
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  • I'm planning on giving a midterm evaluation, so I'll definitely put a question based on your first bullet. On second bullet, group work has been a bit of a slog anytime I've tried it this semester, but maybe I just need to give it more of a chance. I really like your third point--great idea.

    I've also shown my students WA and described how it can be used for good, rather than evil. In each class I tell them they should be emailing me or visiting my office with questions, and I have had some success with that.

    I'll definitely look for places where I can assign questions moving forward.

     – AegisCruiser Oct 10 '17 at 00:13
  • Agreed @ building problem posing ("asking a question") into the homework. – Benjamin Dickman Oct 12 '17 at 03:13