Sugared Harpy

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Ciao!

People…

I’ve been enduring training for the possibility of teaching some online classes. Really as supplemental income to my regular teaching…and I’m curious about it. The training is three weeks, all online, and the assignments are simple, more of a way to teach you the software and the university’s expectations for instructors and students.

Okay, so.

One assignment called for me to respond to particular scenarios posted. As in, what would I do as an instructor?

This is one such scenario (edited down a bit, it was longer):
You give your students the usual bio assignment at the beginning of an introductory English class. One student, Jerri, responds with this post: “Straight up - I’ll duke you out for class English chicken…no really. Hair pull to the knee…. WHACK! That’s Phat!

Whack! That’s Phat! Those don’t even go together, but oy.

I doubt if “That’s cool,” is posted it would be considered a problem.

Another scenario got me irritated because of other trainee responses, not the thing itself:
A graduate student asks for an extension on a paper. When he does turn in the paper, you find that it is exactly the same as one turned in by another student. The other student turned his in on time.

My response was something along the lines of (1) It’s possible the the students exchanged papers to see if they were on the right track, and the late student accidentally uploaded the wrong paper. A quick email should fix that right away, seeing that they would have the correct paper readily available. (2) If the late party is clearly guilty, the former party may or may not have realized that their work was being used but should have exercised caution before sending out their paper. (3) Both could have used the same paper-writing service, which is not acceptable.

My actions, however, for most of the above situations are pretty much the same. Copy both papers for my records, file and incident report with the school, and contact the students.

Here’s what got my goat. Most of my fellow trainees could not understand that I was seeing multiple situations and still adhering to school policy of filing an incident report.

“As long as these papers were not originally shared in the distance class, then someone email the other student the paper. Sorry but that is the situation.” (Typo not mine)

“Melissa, students need to learn “early on” that rules and regulations are important. That should be taken into mind.”

“Melissa, no question between two students, academic integrity is violated by each student. We need to stick to rules of plagiarism without a doubt.”

And yet their own answers were: file an incident report. Just like mine. My answer just didn’t come with the automatic assumption that students are out to get me. Some totally are, some just aren’t.

Posted by Melissa on June 27th, 2008 under Histoire d'Art

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