Higher education corruption

This is a long piece but worth the read if it is not fiction.


"You would be amazed by the incompetence of your students' writing. I have seen the word "desperate" misspelled every way you can imagine. And these students truly are desperate. They couldn't write a convincing grocery list, yet they are in graduate school. They really need help. They need help learning and, separately, they need help passing their courses. But they aren't getting it."


http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125329/

Science Chic wrote: Wow. I had no idea that such a service existed. I would've thought that professors would easily figure out writing style/syntax is totally different from the work the students produced in the classroom and it would be much harder to get away with cheating like that, but maybe professors don't require enough in-class writing, or don't pay close enough attention.

I believe they or something similar have been around for ever. After all, what are cliff notes(I think that is what they were called).
I always thought of it as a time management cheating tool or a way for a c student to get an A not a way for an illiterate to get a PhD.

Pretty shocking stuff. I actually can't believe that guy writes and researches so much for so little (and he says he only gets 1/2 of what's paid).

Also, several professors posted claiming they can often identify a fake paper because when they talk to the student about it it's clear the student has no idea about the subject. But the administration won't support them in doing anything about it unless it can be proven beyond a doubt.

It seems you could do something about it, if you wanted to. While reading the paper, the professor (well, probably really the grad assistant) could write down ten or so points presented in the paper. Then give it as a quiz to the "author". Make the quiz count as much as the paper.

Or let students do all the outside research they want and bring in their notes to a monitored room where they must write the paper. They'd have to use a school provided word processor with no internet connection, and no means to upload files. They can come and go as they wish, but must print out their work in progress for review.

It's much simplier with science/math classes where you must take the tests in the classroom. But I hope that's still required with all the online courses available. I assume you can't take your final online, can you?

I confess, in High School I turned in a paper that my neighbor had turned in the year before, then his brother turned it in the year after I did, and my sister turned it in the year after that. We each just re-typed it and changed the pictures. This was way before word processors.

Maybe this is a better example of one of those crappy teachers who should have been out of the profession long before I had to take his class. It really bugged me that I only got a B+ on the paper when the kid before me and the one after got As.