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<blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 1542139" data-attributes="member: 2013">I actually had some take-home exams in college... the professor gave us the exams and said, &quot;you may use ANY resource to complete these exams except for professors in this university's physics department.&nbsp; That means you can use TA's, grad students, each other, the book, professors in other universities, etc.&quot;I actually thought that pretty clearly spelled out what would be cheating - and made it easy for him to check on (by asking around at faculty meetings). I actually had a friend that was a physics professor at USC that I COULD have gone to, but I just got together with some of my classmates over the weekend and we collaborated to solve the problems ourselves.&nbsp; Since our professor explicitly said we could use each other to solve the problems, I did. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />The problem, IMO, is that there are lots of resources out there, and it's hard for most people to differentiate which resources are &quot;cheating&quot; and which are not without a list of &quot;allowed&quot; or &quot;forbidden&quot; resources.&nbsp; This does not mean I think &quot;copying verbatim&quot; is okay - it's plaigarism and/or copyright infringement... but if I am told, &quot;your research problem is X&quot; I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect the student to make use of all resources available - including the internet - in his research unless he is specifically given a list of &quot;allowed&quot; or &quot;forbidden&quot; resources.&nbsp; *Not* to copy from, but at least gain guidance as to how to approach the problem.&nbsp; But then, the first lesson that I was taught in our physics curriculum in college was, &quot;a good physicist doesn't memorize thousands tables and formulae.&nbsp; A good physicist knows what book to look them up in so he can spend his time working on actual problems.&nbsp; Storing tables and formulae is the reason for books and computers and such - so we don't have to.&quot;Interestingly, I am told that one of the more &quot;in vogue&quot; cheating methods employed in college today is the use of cell phones with text messaging and/or cameras... the &quot;first student in&quot; to a test takes a picture of the test and/or text messages back and forth with his buddies to get the answers.&nbsp; These technological abilities didn't even exist 3-4 years ago.--The Sigil</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Sigil, post: 1542139, member: 2013"] I actually had some take-home exams in college... the professor gave us the exams and said, "you may use ANY resource to complete these exams except for professors in this university's physics department. That means you can use TA's, grad students, each other, the book, professors in other universities, etc." I actually thought that pretty clearly spelled out what would be cheating - and made it easy for him to check on (by asking around at faculty meetings). I actually had a friend that was a physics professor at USC that I COULD have gone to, but I just got together with some of my classmates over the weekend and we collaborated to solve the problems ourselves. Since our professor explicitly said we could use each other to solve the problems, I did. ;) The problem, IMO, is that there are lots of resources out there, and it's hard for most people to differentiate which resources are "cheating" and which are not without a list of "allowed" or "forbidden" resources. This does not mean I think "copying verbatim" is okay - it's plaigarism and/or copyright infringement... but if I am told, "your research problem is X" I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect the student to make use of all resources available - including the internet - in his research unless he is specifically given a list of "allowed" or "forbidden" resources. *Not* to copy from, but at least gain guidance as to how to approach the problem. But then, the first lesson that I was taught in our physics curriculum in college was, "a good physicist doesn't memorize thousands tables and formulae. A good physicist knows what book to look them up in so he can spend his time working on actual problems. Storing tables and formulae is the reason for books and computers and such - so we don't have to." Interestingly, I am told that one of the more "in vogue" cheating methods employed in college today is the use of cell phones with text messaging and/or cameras... the "first student in" to a test takes a picture of the test and/or text messages back and forth with his buddies to get the answers. These technological abilities didn't even exist 3-4 years ago. --The Sigil [/QUOTE]

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