Record time

I was working out this morning (which gives me good think-time; an hour on the cross-country ski simulator, in the dark [I don't like to put the lights on too early; some mornings I can fool myself into thinking I'm still asleep] helps me plan my day).

And I got to wondering: doesn't my stats class have an exam coming up? And I thought about the calendar, and I thought about how there are only 2 weeks class after Thanksgiving break.

So when I got done, I logged on to the campus online-class-info system and looked up my syllabus.

Whoops.

Exam is Friday.

So I announced it this morning and gave a list of topics. (I give "review sheets" because it's kind of expected, but unlike SOME individuals in SOME departments, I do not give "sample questions" that somehow mysteriously show up on the actual exam).

So I started writing the exam when I got on campus around 6:45 (left a little early today) and after I got out of class. Luckily, I can "recycle" old questions by changing some of the numbers around, and I've been teaching this thing long enough that if I do a mash-up of old tests with some rewording and renumbering [and sneakily saying "assume the data are non-normal" when I used to let them assume they were), I'm almost done with the first version of the take home (in record time).

I still have the other two versions to do. I always do multiple versions of the take home test on the assumption that either
a. if they're stupid enough to cheat they'll probably cheat off of a different version and I'll catch them

or

b. if they're not that stupid at least they will be slowed down by trying to find someone with the same version as them who's willing to collaborate.


That said: I seriously doubt people are cheating in this class. Or if they are, the ones who cheat are cheating off of people who are as bad as or worse than them. And of the good papers, the mistakes that get made are unique to each paper, which I consider strong evidence AGAINST cheating.

And you know? I've made my peace with F students cheating. If they cheat and they're still failing, I'm not going to go through the rigamarole of catching them and prosecuting them (because all too often the "prosecution" turns into "persecution" of the person turning them in). I mean, unless it's really blatant and then I see it as a challenge. But otherwise, I'm willing to shrug and go "eh, it's THEIR integrity." and figure that if they keep doing it, it'll bite them in the ass at some time where it will really count, like on the job.

(FWIW: I never cheated in class or plagiarized. You can disbelieve me if you want but it's true....I had a VERY bad experience with an assistant teaching assistant (she was an undergrad, I was a graduate TA) in one of my classes. She didn't nail the students who obviously copied off of each other (down to the same misspelled words) and when I questioned her on it, her tone was "oh, lighten up. Didn't you cheat when you were in school? Everybody cheats!" My very icy response was "no" and I immediately went to our supervisor. Interestingly, that was the last semester that particular person was a UTA....)

And you know, as much as I bitch about the online-course-documents website, it was useful to me this time. I normally have my doubts about it because I think it enables people who are tempted to skip class to go ahead and skip; they assume "I can get the notes online" or "I can get any homework assignments online." And yes, technically, that's true: I post bare-bones outlines and some of the diagrams and figures I show on the site. And I do post the homework. But - every time I think of stopping doing that, every time I grumble about how it enables Those Who Would Skip to just get the (probably inevitable) F that they get, I see one person come to class with a printout of the diagrams, and I see them taking copious notes on the diagrams. And that kind of stays my hand - the GOOD students will use it to their advantage. The poor students may not use it at all, or use it to justify skipping classes. The mediocre students - some of them it may pull up, some of them may side with the class-skippers. But if it helps a few people...then I guess I can't agonize over people using it as an excuse for laziness.

And it does save me a lot of frustration of having people who skipped/were sick/walked out before the end of class coming to me next class and saying, "Can I get a copy of what you handed out last week?" (To which I am always tempted to say, "But of course...let me go over here to my Invisible Pack Horse that carries all of the things I need and get a copy." But I think that would reflect poorly on my evaluations. I'm also tempted to invoke the Invisible Pack Horse when someone asks me (as they do every week) if I have a stapler. No, because the stapler I brought to the classroom at the beginning of the year has "walked away" and I'm unwilling to buy another.)