It's All My Fault

I do mind, the Dude minds. This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand, man.

-The Dude from The Big Lebowski

Oh, yes. This puppy will not die.

Students are allowed to take liberty when interpreting explicit verbal instruction. However, I am not allowed to interpret literally the definition of what it means to plagiarize.

Apparently, there is no black and white. Only grey. Problem is, I only speak binary. 1's and 0's. Is and ain't. Same and, well... not same.

I alluded to this incident in a previous post. I am a victim of my own device. What I mean is that surely because robot projects are group projects, everything else is, too. Including those things that I explicitly state are individual assignments. My problem is that "it wasn't in writing." Okay, it will be in the future. Ruling still stands.

Students take liberty with permission to get assistance from peers. That obviously means that they can work together and turn in identical products. I helped people with programming assignments in my computer science class in college. I did not do their work for them, nor did I allow them to do or see mine. As a matter of fact, I probably learned it better trying to help people than doing my own assignments. Hence my permission clause. But that did not mean you could turn in photo-identical copies of an assignment printed at exactly the same time in my class. No way, sweetheart.

But four groups of two or three figured they could. The evidence this morning was that they had done it on an earlier project, complete with copies. So I must have created a classroom atmosphere of "cheating is okay." My oversight while grading a previous assignment sets "a precedent" and apparently cheating is a-okay. Unless I get caught and you certainly can't enforce it now because you didn't before.

My academic integrity statement is in black and white (see that coming up again, shame on me) on my policies and procedures that students and parents sign at the beginning of each semester. It is not something I just decided to do. Nor was this a "hey let's target a handful of students because I'm spiteful" type of occurrence. No, some of these were kids that I actually enjoy having in class, go figure. But rules is rules and word is bond.

Now it has to go to a meeting with an administrator. And if they want to change it, they can. They have the access privileges. I will not.

Can you call it cheating if you get away with it? Absolutely. Double positively. Am I going to change the previous grade that you fess up to trying to defend this one? No. Am I going to follow the school policy and write the students up for an administrative referral that goes in your permanent file (oooh) like the handbook tells me to? No, I prefer to handle small issues like this "in house." Small issue? Yes, it was a 10 point daily assignment grade that probably changes the average numerical grade by a tenth or two.

But apparently the comment in my personal gradebook is the problem. It's okay to give the zero, we just don't want the label. Especially for you to think so-snd-so is a cheater. I ask:
Me: "Have I treated you differently as a result of this incident?"
Reply: "No."
Me: "I rest my case."

Look, it may have been an honest mistake. It may not have been. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I do know my policies.

And that's all I have.