Student workers and other employees at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College committed "gross academic fraud" by misusing the institutions' Blackboard course-management system to steal test answers, The Brownsville Herald reported on Saturday, citing a university police report from an investigation last year.
Former student employees of the Office of Distance Education, which manages Blackboard, confessed to a police investigator that they had used the online system to obtain test answers for themselves or to give or sell to other students, the newspaper reported. The system allows professors to post tests and other course materials online.
The two-month investigation, conducted in May and June 2008, determined that the university and college, which share a campus, did not have sufficient safeguards in place at the time to prevent misuse of the system. The police report found that 20 people had engaged in academic fraud—the six university and student employees who misused the system and 14 students who benefited from the materials they obtained.
The university did not press criminal charges against any students or nonstudent employees involved in the case. The employees no longer work for the Office of Distance Education, officials said, and the student cases were handled through internal procedures for dealing with academic misconduct.
"It's the job of institutions of higher education to preserve and honor academic integrity," the university's president, Juliet V. Garcia, said in a written statement. She added: "The policies and procedures in place at the university provide the means for the campus to investigate and make informed decisions on courses of action appropriate for each case."
The dean of students, Mari Fuentes-Martin, told the newspaper that the university seeks to rehabilitate those who violate the code of student conduct, rather than demoralize them. Exposing students who cheat to public scrutiny would undermine the university's mission, she said.
Comments
1. rightwingprofessor - August 03, 2009 at 09:35 am
"Exposing students who cheat to public scrutiny would undermine the university's mission, she said." That mission being to award as many degrees as possible in incompetent unethical students so as to be sure and devalue the degrees of the students who graduate without cheating.
2. sportcat - August 03, 2009 at 04:25 pm
"the university seeks to rehabilitate those who violate the code of student conduct, rather than demoralize them." Big Brother, anyone?
3. tallenc - August 03, 2009 at 04:36 pm
I'm the leftwingprofessor here, but in this case, I think I agree with rightwing professor. I don't object to the rehabilitation part, but surely that comes after the punitive action...And shouldn't those who cheat feel demoralized?
4. tdelapp - August 03, 2009 at 05:08 pm
The students who received the test answers should get grades of F in those courses. The student workers who sold the answers should at least be suspended for a semester and have limited access to student employment on readmission. Who gives student workers access to the internal workings of individuals on-line courses. I think the institutional administrator of the on-line platform needs to be sanctioned as well. And I am not a right wing professor!
5. krissboyd - August 03, 2009 at 07:51 pm
I know there often is more to the story than what is in the press, but . . . I don't have a problem with a gentler approach for a minor first offense. If conspiring with others who distribute and sell intellectual property doesn't result in a stiffer official sanction that is part of their record, what does? What happens if they steal answers from a professor's files? It does not serve them well at this age to let them think they got off with less than a slap on the wrist. They and their friends and their friends' friends, who all know about it, now know that is the way it works. Hey, they are millennials. Order the trophies for when they finish their 'rehabilitation.
6. willynilly - August 03, 2009 at 09:42 pm
This problem reaches much further than this particular institution. These courses are very popular with college athletes, especially at institutions that are high profile, high stakes players in the race for the mega bucks paid for TV appearances and post season games. Florida State is a recent example of this drain on academic integrity and institutional reputation. In the FSU case, staff, using the same tactics as employees at the U of T, Brownsville secured the correct answers and passed them on to athletes needing to pass the distance education course in order to maintain eligible to play. This course system needs far more security than is currently in place. Until that solid security is firmly established, the integrity of these courses will remain highly suspect.
7. 22191530 - August 04, 2009 at 06:18 pm
"the university seeks to rehabilitate those who violate the code of student conduct, rather than demoralize them" And in so doing perhaps demoralize the remainder of the student body?
8. mlevendusky - August 04, 2009 at 06:51 pm
What in the world is wrong with demoralizing cheats?
9. 10centsworth - August 04, 2009 at 07:52 pm
Unfortunately this is just one example of problems at this institution which is a textbook study on how not to run a university. The stance taken by administration in dealing with the misconduct of the students and employees is weak to say the least. The whole episode was hidden from academic faculty until it hit the press - what passwords have been compromised and for how long? Why is the president of this institution still employed? She is essentially telling students that it is OK to cheat and if you are caught, then nothing of any consequence will happen. These students should be expelled and if degrees were awarded, they ought to be revoked. Academic misconduct of this nature should not be tolerated and those involved should be made an example of.
10. texasmusic - August 04, 2009 at 08:28 pm
How do you know the university's response was weak? There's a possibility that the university actually issued a strong punishment that simply didn't involve jail, the press, public humiliation, pillories, or tarring and feathering. Personnel decisions are usually not subject to public discussion and I suspect the university, in this case, has chosen to keep its student disciplinary actions confidential as well.
11. eelalien - August 04, 2009 at 10:29 pm
TESTS??!! THAT is the problem...find real ways for authentic assessment of students' learning, especially now that we are using 21st century delivery of course content. Good grief...education and higher ed mired in never-ending bad practices... It is clearly time for education in this country to GROW UP.
12. vkier - August 04, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Does this remind anyone else of http://chronicle.com/article/Worse-Than-an-F-Canadian-U/47802/ ? Gotta say, that one was a little more of a cheer.
13. chriskox - August 05, 2009 at 01:36 pm
The students who were not caught will graduate. We'll pay for their medical education and training. They'll submit "ghostwritten" drug company propaganda to medical journals and advance their careers accordingly. They'll become quite wealthy, at our expense, and resentful of taxation, liability and the dull witted who have not mastered the game of pulling oneself up by the straps of pilfered boots. They'll enter Congress, (ghost)write legislation to protect their interests, cut funding to schools and thus push more of you to the employment of factory methods masked in "new technology". If our esteemed Rightwing Professor were truly conservative, he'd go offline, sit under a tree and talk with his students (class roster in hand if need be). Some of us still believe in Mark Hopkins on a Log.
14. firstsai93 - September 14, 2009 at 05:44 pm
Colleges are going to find out the hard way, that tthis practice is far more pervasive than anyone wants to believe. The race to cut expenses and jam as much curriculum as possible on-line, is going to encounter the inevitable easy way out mentality. While I have no sympathy for the people who did this for profit, I can understand how others put themselves in this situation, and the most fair way to deal with them, is an "F" for the course, and require that they sit out the rest of the semester.
15. firstsai93 - September 14, 2009 at 05:44 pm
Colleges are going to find out the hard way, that tthis practice is far more pervasive than anyone wants to believe. The race to cut expenses and jam as much curriculum as possible on-line, is going to encounter the inevitable easy way out mentality. While I have no sympathy for the people who did this for profit, I can understand how others put themselves in this situation, and the most fair way to deal with them, is an "F" for the course, and require that they sit out the rest of the semester.