Thinking About College Teaching

A reader has asked me to comment on the issue of PowerPoint vs. lecture. I don’t see this as an either-or situation. In my three earlier posts about PowerPoint, I discussed things I had learned about using it and making PowerPoint slides available to students.

In the last 15 or so years of my teaching, I studiously avoided “lectures.” Instead, I used PowerPoint to enhance my classroom presentations because I believed it was important for students to see as well as hear material. It helped for me to think of PowerPoint as a technologically advanced form of writing material on a chalkboard, which is what I did in my early teaching days. Just as I wrote bullet points and summarized material on the chalkboard, I minimized content on PowerPoint slides. I did not write complete sentences on the chalkboard, and I introduced new points one at a time. The advantage of PowerPoint was that I could save material I had created–and that meant I could easily use it again and make it available to students. I also believe that the process of creating PowerPoint slides improved the organization of my material and improved my presentations. My PowerPoint slides were also my own notes to guide me through a presentation without being tied to written notes at a lectern. A remote control device for PowerPoint allowed me to roam the classroom.

In short, PowerPoint enhances your classroom presentations; it does not replace other means of presenting material.

Chris Roush asked me to write about student evaluations of teaching. That was also the topic of my discussion with students in Ruth Walden’s “Mass Communication Pedagogy” course a few weeks ago. I began that discussion with some historical perspective–the fact that in my years as an undergraduate and graduate student (covering the years from 1960 to 1971, with three years off for military service), I did not complete a single evaluation form for any teacher or course. That simply wasn’t done, or at least at Indiana University at that time. Not many people believed that students should or could evaluate their teachers and courses. That has changed, and student evaluations are probably required at a majority of colleges and universities.

Most evaluation forms cover two dimensions–the teacher and the course. They typically include specific questions about each (e.g., “It was a pleasure to attend this class,” or “The teacher showed a sincere interest in each student.”) as well as a summary question about each dimension (comparing the teacher and course to other teachers and courses).

Evaluations do matter, and they are used for two basic purposes. Their formative use–the more important–helps teachers improve their teaching.  Administrators and other teachers use them in a normative or summative sense to evaluate teachers by comparing them to a norm or to others. That normative use has the greater potential for misuse and abuse. While normative evaluations may be unavoidable in promotion and retention decisions, administrators must also use them in a formative sense and to exercise caution when using them normatively.

In addition to experience with student evaluations of my own courses, in my role as senior associate dean, I read student evaluations of every teacher and every course in our school for more than 10 years. I made sure I looked at and read comments on every form every term, and the total was in the tens of thousands. I discussed the results of the evaluations with many of the teachers.

My experience and secondary research taught me several things about evaluations. I learned that certain factors have little impact on student evaluations: grading practices, the teacher’s gender, and the teacher’s experience. I also learned that some factors could affect evaluations. One, overall scores on the teacher dimension were generally higher than the course dimension–students often have more positive attitudes toward the teacher than toward the course (especially required courses). Two, ratings for graduate-level courses were higher than those for undergraduate courses, probably because of the higher level of interaction between teacher and student in graduate courses. Three, ratings were higher in smaller classes than in larger classes, again because of the level of interaction.

Those differences mean that when evaluations are used normatively, it is vital that appropriate comparisons be made. One teacher’s evaluations in an undergraduate course cannot be compared to those for another teacher in a graduate course, for example.

Formal student evaluations are completed at the end of a course, which is too late to make any changes or improvements. For that reason, teachers should use an early feedback mechanism to learn students’ reactions to the course and teacher. After the third week of a course, I distributed a form that asked students three questions: What are up to three things that are making this course a good learning experience for you? What are up to three things that could be changed to make it an even better learning experience–keeping in mind that I cannot change certain things? What are other concerns and anxieties you are having about the course?

I learned that the third question often gave me the most useful feedback. After studying the feedback forms, I talked about them in the next class session. If necessary, I explained why I did things a certain way or why I could not change some aspects of the course. Even if a teacher cannot make changes, the act of asking for suggestions and explaining the rationale for certain practices conveys a sense of caring and responsiveness to students.

Rich Wells asked, “I would like to better understand how to get students to think rather than just spoonfeeding them facts and expect the facts to be memorized for tests. I’ve been told I do this well, but I still want to improve. What are the right kinds of questions, exercises, etc.?”

That is an important question, and I hope to hear from others who have their own ideas and techniques. Think about how you present material in class and how you test students’ knowledge of the material. Instead of spoonfeeding facts to students, I tried to engage them in a dialogue and make them think as I presented material. I don’t claim that it was true Socratic dialogue, however.

When I presented new material for them to learn, I tried to start on the foundation of what they already knew, and I did not introduce formulas until I had talked through the problem that a formula was supposed to solve. (I recommend James Zull’s great book, The Art of Changing the Brain, which explains how the brain changes physically when it encounters new information. The first thing the brain does is to try to match the new information with familiar information in its memory.) When you introduce a new topic, tell students how the concept relates to what they already know–and why they will find the new concept useful.

A simple example from my advertising media planning course illustrates this. One concept I used to discuss was “cost per thousand,” a way to compare the costs of advertising by taking into account the size of the audience. I began by saying, “An ad in magazine A costs $100,000, and an ad in magazine B costs $150,000. Which is the better bargain?” Students said that it depended on the size of the audiences, and I asked, “How can you compare the two?” Eventually, a student would say that one needed to know the cost for reaching one person, and I said, “How do you find that?” A student would explain that you needed to divide the cost of the ad by the number of people in the audience (and multiply by 1,000 to get cost-per-thousand). I asked students to say in words what the process was, and then I asked them to make their own formula as a way to explain how to make the comparison. I found that process to be more effective than starting by saying, “The formula for cost-per-thousand is <(C/Audience)*1,000.”

When you use a process like this, it is important to be patient for students to respond and to guide the incorrect responses to correct ones. You should also call on students and not wait for volunteers; that will keep all the students alert and thinking about the topic.

On exams, you can pose questions as hypothetical situations and ask students to think about and solve the problem instead of asking for memorized answers. To make this more effective, make sure students have a chance to practice this kind of problem-solving before the exam.

Other ideas?

Dear readers,

When I started this blog more than a year ago, I had a list of topics I wanted to write about. I have completed that list, and unless you give me questions or suggestions, I will be silent until I think of something.

What’s on your mind about teaching? What is a pressing question?

Tom

In my years of teaching, I heard many teachers bemoan the fact that students were not knowledgeable about current events or about news about their chosen field. (Just this week, faculty members in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication have been exchanging emails about their frustrations and solutions.) Teachers of news writing courses say students do not read newspapers or keep up with the news. They want students to read newspapers to see examples of how news stories are written and to have a better frame of reference for making news judgments.

A common strategy for trying to overcome that problem is to give news quizzes and include performance on those quizzes in course grades. Teachers tell students the news quizzes will cover material from the student newspaper, and some require them to read the New York Times or other newspapers. Otherwise, there was no hope that students would know enough to make a news quiz even marginally successful. I often saw students poring over the newspaper and talking to others just before class began, trying to scan and absorb enough knowledge to do reasonably well on a possible news quiz.

In such cases, teachers use an external reward (satisfactory grade) to induce a desired behavior–reading a newspaper. I don’t believe many students ever internalized the reward–received the satisfaction of knowing more about the world and how it affected them in the course or in their lives. The news quiz was more of a negative reinforcement–to avoid a bad grade. To stimulate an internal reward, teachers should try to get students to read about current events for an internal reward.

I saw one of the best and most successful strategies for doing that in a class taught by Rich Landesberg, who is now on the faculty at Elon University. As a graduate student, Rich taught a broadcast news writing course at UNC-Chapel Hill. When I observed him one day, he had students participate in a “story conference” that was modeled after what television news producers do each day. He had students stand around his desk at the front of the room to talk about possible news stories for a hypthetical station’s evening newscast. (I believe he got more participation by having students stand than he would have gotten if they had stayed in their seats.) I saw students clamoring to volunteer with their own ideas of stories and to tell what kind of “angle” they would give to the stories, and I believed they experienced an internal reward for their efforts. I shared Rich’s idea with other teachers, and I saw others adapt the story conference idea to newspapers, too. Students starting reading about current events for the satisfaction of participation and not to avoid a bad grade on a news quiz.

I taught advertising courses, and I wanted students to be aware of news about advertising. For one or two class sessions a week, one or two students were assigned to give a two- or three-minute report to the class on a news topic about advertising. They were instructed to end their report with a statement of how the news related to something we had studied. On other class days, I sometimes spent five or ten minutes talking about a news item about advertising and related it to a topic in the course.

Giving news quizzes sounds like an easy way to “correct” the problem of students not being aware of current events, but I think teachers should do more. They should make discussion of news (or current developments in specific fields) a part of the course, and they should relate that news to the course content. Try to make knowledge of current events rewarding in and of itself,  and not just a way to avoid a bad grade on a news quiz. Above all, we should not assume that students are lazy or ignorant just because they don’t know the details of the latest news developments.

I was delighted last week when Professor Ruth Walden asked me to talk to students in her Mass Communication Pedagogy course in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill. The topic was student teaching evaluations and other ways to improve teaching.

As a college student in the 1960s, I never once participated in the evaluation of a teacher. In that era, very few people believed that students should have a role in evaluating teachers, and that attitude persisted through most of the 1970s and my early years of teaching at UNC. I was glad to tell the students last week that such attitudes have changed and that student evaluations are now widely used. I was also able to tell them what I had learned by reading thousands of student evaluations in my role as an associate dean.

Student evaluations are generally about two dimensions–aspects of the course and characteristics and behaviors of the teacher. Each dimension usually includes several specific questions and a summary question about the course or teacher. I found that certain factors did not usually affect student evaluations, including the teacher’s toughness of grading, gender, or experience level.

I did make some generalizations about factors that do affect evaluations. One, ratings for the teacher are generally higher than ratings for the course, especially for required courses that some students resent. Two, teacher and courese ratings are higher for graduate-level courses than undergraduate-level courses. Graduate-level courses are usually smaller, and there is more interaction between students and the teacher. Three, ratings are usually higher in smaller courses than larger ones. Finally, teacher and course ratings are generally higher in skills courses than in conceptual courses.

Because of those generalized findings, one cannot compare teacher evaluations across different kinds of courses. Comparisons should be made within categories of courses. That is certainly true in the case of summative or normative evaluations that are used to “grade” or compare teachers for hiring or personnel decisions. It is less true for formative evaluations that are used for diagnosis and improvement.

I advised students in the class to keep a record of their student evaluation scores to identify areas for improvement and to show progress in improvement. I also advised them to use informal feedback instruments to ascertain student responses to teaching early in a semester so they can change things that can be changed.

When I was teaching, I gave students a simple questionnaire after three weeks of the course. I asked three questions:

• What are up to three things that are making this course a good learning experience?
• What are up to three changes that could make it an even better learning experience?
• What concerns or anxieties, if any, are you having about the course?

After reading responses from students, it is important to discuss general outcomes with the class. If I could make changes, I did. I explained why I could not change certain things about the course. Learning about student anxieties may have been the most useful thing about this procedure, however. They relate to things that are very important but are not really about changes in behavior or policies.

Student learning can be enchanced with the proper use of guest speakers. To make guest speakers effective, however, teachers must carefully plan how those speakers will contribute to the course and to student learning. In my own teaching and in the observation of other teachers, I learned some effective ways of integrating guest speakers.

Scheduling is a key factor, and I realize teachers must sometimes schedule guest speakers when they are available. If possible, schedule speakers when their topic fits with your course schedule. That means you should give them guidance about what you want them to discuss and show. Guest speakers will appreciate that kind of guidance. I stressed that I wanted them to conduct an interactive class. Sometimes, I was able to get speakers from the field of advertising to talk about a “case” involving a problem their client faced, and they sent me materials in advance to give to students. I told students they needed to be ready to contribute to a discussion of strategy and told them the speakers would call on them. That led to some very interesting and useful discussions. When speakers asked for questions about their material, I made sure I asked questions myself to get them to talk about topics I wanted them to cover. Instead of asking guests to make a formal presentation, I sometimes acted like a talk show host and led them through the topic.

The most effective use of guest speakers or videos is when the teacher is present, and you should avoid using them just as a way to “cover” a class when you cannot be present. Some situations like that may be unavoidable, but you should tell the students ahead of time why the speaker or video is important. Tell them what the speaker will talk about and why the topic is important to their learning and to the course. Before you show a video, tell students why it is relevant and what to look for. After a speaker or a video, review it and reiterate why it was important and what students should have learned.

In this post, I continue my presentation of ethical dilemmas for teachers. I got the following case studies at a workshop from Professor James Soles of the Department of Political Science at the University of Delaware.

The Weeping Mother

Eric is your advisee and is taking one of your courses this semester. His mother calls you because she has not heard from him for three weeks. You know he has had a checkered academic career because of immaturity and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Another student has told her that Eric has an alcohol problem and is not attending classes. He has been attending your course and is doing well — on the basis of his midterm grades. You explain to his mother that you are not permitted to discuss Eric’s situation with her unless he gives you permission. She begins weeping, insisting that your refusal means he is in real difficulty. Finally, she begs: “Please, just tell me whether or not I need to get a leave from my job and fly to the university. If you can’t tell me that, I’ll have to come.” You are aware of restrictions on what you can say about students, even to their parents. What is the appropriate response?

The Handball Advantage

You play handball three times a week, usually with faculty colleagues. Recently, you met some of your male students at the handball court. One of them good-naturedly challenged you to a match, and you defeated him with ease. Several other male students challenged you later, and you beat them all. Yesterday, you and the other handball players went out for a beer afterwards. While there, one of your female students joined the table. When she heard you bragging about your victories, she said, “Hey, no fair, these guys are all getting points by letting you beat them at handball. What do the women have to do, clean your office?” What is the appropriate response?

The “A” Student

Tony, a senior in your course, has challenged your authority all semester. He demanded that you explain your credentials to teach the course and challenged every class assignment and argued that the course project, which is worth 50 percent of the final grade, is weighted too heavily. You returned the projects yesterday, and Tony just left your office after a 30-minute attack on your evaluation of his project. You read his project very carefully because of his previous attitude, and you concluded that it was only an average project. With the C grade, he is certain to receive a C in the course. He complained bitterly, asserting that you are biased against him because he is not a major in your department and said the grade will destroy his 4.0 GPA. He has shaken your confidence, and you are tempted to check his academic record via the computerized record system that you can access from your office? What should you do?

The Landscape Gardener

You are invited to the home of a colleague from another department. Her gardens and landscaping are beautiful, and you express your admiration to her. She tells you the work was done by a young woman who is a student in your media history course this semester. Before class the next day, you tell her how much you admired her work at your colleague’s home and ask her if she would be interested in doing similar work at your home. She says that between the landscape work she has already scheduled and her school work, she really doesn’t have time for additional projects. Your express your disappointment but say you understand. Later that week, Jane stops by your office. She says that if you really need the work done she will try to fit it in between other jobs. What should you do?

The First Draft

John has been struggling in your media law course. He attends regularly, participates in discussion from time to time and seems to be a serious student. However, his two exam grades have been borderline passing, and he has only the term paper and the final exam left to salvage the course. He is very concerned about his term paper and has been to your office several times to discuss the topic and how he should approach it. Today, he came to see you and asked if you would read the first draft of his paper and offer suggestions so that he could be certain of meeting your expectations. You reply that to do so would give him an unfair advantage over other students, and you do not think it would be fair to them. He asks if other students have asked you to read and comment on their drafts. When you say no, he says, “If they haven’t asked and I am concerned enough to seek your help, there’s nothing unfair about helping me do a good job. It’s not my fault the other students don’t care.” What is your response?

The Doctored Resume

Tim asked if he could list you as a reference on the resume he was circulating to potential employers. He had done only average work in the two courses he took from you, but when you suggested that he might want to ask someone else, he replied that you were the only professor he had taken for two courses and that you knew him better than anyone else. You reluctantly agreed because he seemed rather desperate for a reference. Three months later, you receive a letter from one of his prospective employers asking you to fill out an evaluation form. A copy of Tim’s resume was enclosed. You read it with considerably surprise because it asserts that Tim graduated with honors, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and was vice president of the student government association. You know that these three statements are untrue, and, while not certain, you doubt several other items on the resume. What should you do?

DISCUSSION

The Weeping Mother: Teachers are not supposed to discuss a student’s record or situation with anyone other than the student, and that includes parents. (Some universities allow students to sign a waiver that allows academic officials to discuss their record with parents.) I am torn on this situation, because I am also a parent. If I knew the student was in trouble, without revealing details, I think I would have said, “If I were you, I would be very concerned about your son, and I would come to see him.”

The Handball Advantage: This is probably a situation that started out innocently with a teacher who wanted to get to know students better and show them he was a regular person. It went too far, however, and he should stop playing handball with any student, and he should make sure all students knew that.

The A Student: The dilemma here is whether to look at the student’s academic record in other courses, especially because he is not a student in your school. It is natural to want to find proof that he is wrong (or right) about his claim about a 4.0. You could ask him to bring you proof that he has a 4.0–not that it should make any difference in the grade you give him.

The Landscape Gardener: While it might be noble to try to give more work to a student, this one is out of bounds. Arrangements like this should be avoided as long as she is a student in your school, and not just after she finishes your course. You must avoid all appearances or hints of unethical behavior.

The First Draft: The applicable rule here should be that you will not give any student an advantage that you do not give to all.

The Doctored Resume: As soon as you see evidence of a false resume, you should report it to the employers to whom you wrote your recommendations. You should also tell Tim about what you have done and that he needs to correct it immediately.

In my mass communication pedagogy course, I gave students several minicase studies about potential ethical dilemmas. My purpose was to prepare them for situations they might face and to stimulate discussions. I present the following case studies with the same purpose, and I will have more in my next post. I invite other teachers to share their own experiences with ethical dilemmas. (Some of the cases were submitted by students.)

Media Law Tutor

You are a graduate teaching assistant in an undergraduate course. After the mid-term examination, you are approached by two students who failed it. They tell you they are desperate and must pass the course this semester to meet graduation requirements. They are so desperate that they want you to tutor them over the material, especially material that will be on the final exam. They have checked to determine what tutors in the other departments are paid and offer to pay the same to you. What do you do?

The Editor-Teacher

It’s been 10 years since you left the newspaper business to teach journalism, and for five years you have been teaching at a small liberal arts college. You enjoy your new career; you teach one of the department’s two reporting courses and sit on the media board overseeing the student newspaper. Still, you miss the adrenaline rush of deadlines and the real world, so you decide to start a weekly newspaper in the town. Some friends are willing to foot the bill for your start-up costs, based on your assurances that there will be sufficient advertising to pay the operating expenses. You estimate that your job as editor and publisher will take about 30 hours per week, assuming you can recruit students from your classes to act as reporters and advertising representatives to gain practical experience. Does this raise any ethical issues?

Freelance PR Work

You are employed 3/4 time by a university as an instructor in news writing and public relations. You also freelance to supplement your income and have been approached by a group needing assistance in developing news releases and positioning statements. The group is a subcommittee of a high school parent-teacher association, and no conflict is apparent in what they wish to accomplish and what you do professionally. However, in a few weeks, you realize the group has shifted its strategy and plans to target a number of colleges to persuade them to modify admissions policies. Your university is one of the schools targeted. What do you do about the information you know that could have an impact on the university? Do you continue the freelance assignment?

Faculty Colleague

You notice that a faculty colleague seems to be spending a lot of time with a particular senior undergraduate student. You see them leaving the professor’s office late at night, driving in the professor’s car on the weekend and eating meals together at a restaurant in town. Their manner toward each other is affectionate and familiar. You walk by a half-open door into the professor’s office and find one of them massaging the other’s neck and shoulders. Is it your place to question your colleague’s behavior? Do you anonymously drop a copy of the university’s policy on amorous relationships in your colleague’s mailbox? Do you confront the professor in a friendly way? Do you report it to your department chair? To the university attorney?

Research Project

Professor Smith is doing research for a book about advertising. The success of the project is crucial to his receiving tenure. He has collected thousands of survey responses as proof of a brilliant new theory. Professor Jones has assisted Smith with part of the project and discovers that the data do not support the theory. Smith, without telling Jones, has manipulated the data to favor the theory. Jones finds out and confronts Smith with that knowledge, but Smith attempts to rationalize his actions with a weak explanation. He is desperate for tenure and still plans to publish the book. What should Jones do?

Gimme a Break

A student in your course received a D on the first exam. He is concerned about the grade and has talked to you about the test. As the second midterm nears, he comes in more frequently to talk about his fear of doing poorly again. You discuss ways he can improve his study habits and go over points from your lectures, but the conversation always seems to break down with the student bemoaning his hopeless situation. Two days before the second exam, he comes in your office and sees you looking over an old exam from two semesters ago. You are looking at it to help you write the next exam. (You write new tests each time.) He asks if he could look at the old exam to see what kind of questions might be asked. What do you do?

Bioethics

Here is a case from the pages of last month’s newspapers. A biology professor at UNC-Chapel Hill told his embryology class that it was his opinion that older pregnant women should be tested for the possibility of having a baby with Down syndrome. If the test showed that to be true, the woman should have an abortion. That drew protests from some students in the class, including at least one who had a sibling with Down syndrome. Other students did not object. What do you think about what this professor did?

DISCUSSION

Media Law Tutor: As incredible as it seems, I actually learned of such a situation in another department where graduate TAs were tutoring students in their course for pay. I reported that to the chairperson of that department, who made sure it would not happen again. Part of our responsibilities as teachers is to help students as much as possible, but never for material gain.

The Editor-Teacher: If something smells like a fish, people will probably assume it is a fish, and this situation has that potential. Teachers should avoid the hint of suspicion, and this would not be a good idea. In addition to the issue of using student work for your own commercial gain, there is the issue of conflict of commitment. The general rule for outside consulting is that it should not exceed one day a week; 30 hours exceeds that.

Freelance PR Work: This is similar to the previous situation, and the teacher should sever the arrangement as soon as he becomes aware of the possible conflict of interest. In this case, I would also make sure my dean or chairperson was full informed of what I had done.

Faculty Colleague: The dilemma here is deciding how far to go. At a minimum, I would talk confidentially to my colleague and point out how that behavior was very, very risky. I don’t think I would go to a superior unless the behavior persisted, and I would report the behavior because of the potential negative impact on the student and the department or school.

Research Project: I would have a serious conversation with my colleague and would say that I could not continue. I would also say that I would report the data manipulation–because of my absolute belief in academic integrity–unless he or she abandoned the project.

Gimme a Break: I would not give a student a break that I would not give to any other. I always made it a practice to make old exams available to all students on the course Web site (or in the test file at the Undergraduate Library in pre-Internet days).

Down syndrome: While I defend the freedom of speech of any teacher or student, I believe the teacher should also be sensitive to how his remarks might be perceived, expecially by students who might have relatives with Down syndrome.

In my two previous posts, I discussed academic integrity. In this post, I present mini-cases about academic integrity that I used in my pedagogy course to stimulate thought and discussion and to prepare students for situations they might face as teachers. I present them here with the same purpose. I also give my own thoughts at the end. I would like to hear from other teachers who have faced dilemmas about academic integrity.

1. You are administering a final exam and notice that Student A is staring intently at Student B’s test paper. You notice a pattern–A looks intently at B’s paper and then writes something on his paper. This goes on for a few minutes until A looks up and sees you staring at him. What action do you take, if any?

2. You are grading exams and notice similarities in answers to essay questions between Student X and Student Y. You are dismayed because you had taken steps to try to reduce test pressures in your course, including the distribution of possible essay questions that might be on the final exam. What action do you take, if any?

3. You are teaching a course called Ethics and the Internet. Students have the option of writing term papers or making a Web site. A student approaches you with the idea of creating a Web site that will be a resource for undergraduate research papers. By posting those papers at the site, the student wants to encourage the sharing of academic interests, lift the level of campus discussion, provide students with an opportunity to publish their research, provide a community service, and show the Internet world the kind of work being done at your university. You also realize that such a site would be a haven for would-be plagiarists. What would you tell the student?

4. You are teaching a course in which students have turned in several writing assignments. By the end of the term, you have identified which students have strong writing skills and which do not. The final assignment is a term paper that will count 40 percent of the final grade. A student who has done poorly on all the previous assignments turns in a very well-written paper. You suspect she has given you a paper written by someone else, but you can’t think of a way to prove it. At the same time, another student who has done very well on the previous assignments turns in a term paper has contains several passages that you are able to prove were plagiarized. How do you handle the situation?

5. In a Current Issues in Mass Communication course, students are assigned to write a paper on a topic from a list you provide. One student writes an excellent paper about censorship, but you suspect it may have been written for another course — possibly by another student — because it is only peripherally related to topics on your list. You have no proof, so what do you do?

DISCUSSION

1. The important thing here is to minimize distractions to other students during the exam. You can quietly separate the two students, or you can continue to monitor their behavior carefully. When you grade the exams, examine and compare their papers carefully.

2. Without making accusations, ask the students to see you (separately). Point out the similarities and tell them you are trying to find a reason for them. Do not take any official action until you are reasonably sure there was a violation of academic integrity. It is possible that these students studied together and prepared answers for questions they expected on the exam.

3. I would share my concerns with the student and ask if he or she has thought of that problem and has a way to prevent illegal usage. You cannot stop the student from creating such a site, but you do not have to give it your blessing.

4. In the case of the student with the sudden improvement, I would discuss the paper in detail and ask especially about the sources used. Again, I would begin with the assumption that the student was not guilty of a violation and would not change that assumption until I had reasonable grounds for doing so. For the second student, if I had solid evidence of plagiarism, I would proceed in an official manner and report my suspicion to the Student Attorney General. The fact that the final paper may have been an aberration would not stop me.

5. Without making an accusation, I would talk to the student about the paper to determine if it had been written for another course. If it had been, and if I had not been explicit about a prohibition on such action, I would tell the student the topic was not acceptable because it was not on my list. The key here is to make sure that you tell students they cannot get double mileage out of a single paper.