As a Spanish professor, it's interesting to read this because it highlights various cultural differences.
- Here, it is always assumed that many students (maybe 50%?) will cheat if they believe they can do so without being caught. When the pandemic hit and we moved to online testing, basic anti-cheat measures like shuffling the order of questions in a test or not allowing going back to previous questions were taken from the get go, it's considered obvious here that you need to do that (just like, in an on-site multiple-choice test, you have to either have several shuffled versions of the test, or enough distance between students that they can't see each other's test, or really good surveillance). It's shocking to me that this professor is surprised that cheating happened under these conditions.
- On the other hand, while cheating students are failed and/or otherwise penalized when caught, we would never penalize, or even scold, a student for not snitching. Snitching on your classmates is almost universally considered a bad thing to do here, and we would never demand that students do that, not only due to the fear of retaliation mentioned in the post, because... it's just not right, they're your classmates!
- When I myself was a student (also here in Spain), I had a professor who spent some time in an American university and used to talk enthusiastically about how in America they had a very strict academic integrity culture and cheating just didn't happen at all. No students would even think about it, because it would be a dishonor, they would be deeply ashamed if they got caught and no one would want to talk to them anymore, or something like that. While this professor was a good guy and I'm sure he really believed what he was saying, I never really believed it. Accounts like this confirm I was right. I think he probably saw there this attitude of not accepting as a given that cheating will just happen when possible, similarly to the post author, and confused his American colleagues' thoughts with reality. I often wonder how many professors in America live in this bubble where cheating does not exist if you don't see it, and whether it's just naiveté or hypocrisy.
> It's shocking to me that this professor is surprised that cheating happened under these conditions.
I think it's a bit of laziness and religious mentality. In US it is believed, I think, that making the rules, framing them in language of morality and harshly punishing the ones that don't obey them is as good as understanding and solving the actual problem.
Holy word, sin, punishment.
And when enough money is involved you my go light on punishment which is beneficial for enforcers and provides outlet for people who otherwise would bring down this system and replace it with something more reasonable. There's so much gray area everywhere under the overt strictness of the rules.
This mentality is visible in so many systems in the US.
> Snitching on your classmates is almost universally considered a bad thing to do here, and we would never demand that students do that, not only due to the fear of retaliation mentioned in the post, because... it's just not right, they're your classmates!
Why exactly is it "not right"?
I agree that the student should be compelled to police their peers. Both because everyone should be allowed to decide for themselves if they want to take the risk reprisals, and also because it may create perverse incentives.
But I don't accept that it's "not right". College is a golden opportunity for young people to participate in building the kind of society they want to spend the rest of their lives living in. Do they want one where corruption and other injustices are exposed in the open, or one where they are swept under the rug and allowed to perpetuate themselves?
A quick cheat or bribe for a shortcut to meet your goal feels good when you can get away with it, but how will it feel down the line when you're the one who have fallen victim and nobody will speak on your behalf? Because this is the precedent you're setting for your students here.
Not right in the way, that probably 50% do this - and you will be stuck with them for few years in multiple classes.
> College is a golden opportunity for young people to participate in building the kind of society they want to spend the rest of their lives living in
For most, it is just a piece of paper that allows them to get a job -> and often doesnt even prepare for that job in useful ways.
Also it is a place that is supposed to teach you lots of useful stuff, or at least "winder your horizons" stuff - but it fails at all of those.
Nearly everything I learned during university was done on my own.
> As a Spanish professor, it's interesting to read this because it highlights various cultural differences.
> - Here, it is always assumed that many students (maybe 50%?) will cheat if they believe they can do so without being caught. […]
It really is a cultural difference. Spain and the UK have ticket barriers for their public transport, while Germany and Switzerland don’t, preferring to rely on random controls.
- Here, it is always assumed that many students (maybe 50%?) will cheat if they believe they can do so without being caught. When the pandemic hit and we moved to online testing, basic anti-cheat measures like shuffling the order of questions in a test or not allowing going back to previous questions were taken from the get go, it's considered obvious here that you need to do that (just like, in an on-site multiple-choice test, you have to either have several shuffled versions of the test, or enough distance between students that they can't see each other's test, or really good surveillance). It's shocking to me that this professor is surprised that cheating happened under these conditions.
- On the other hand, while cheating students are failed and/or otherwise penalized when caught, we would never penalize, or even scold, a student for not snitching. Snitching on your classmates is almost universally considered a bad thing to do here, and we would never demand that students do that, not only due to the fear of retaliation mentioned in the post, because... it's just not right, they're your classmates!
- When I myself was a student (also here in Spain), I had a professor who spent some time in an American university and used to talk enthusiastically about how in America they had a very strict academic integrity culture and cheating just didn't happen at all. No students would even think about it, because it would be a dishonor, they would be deeply ashamed if they got caught and no one would want to talk to them anymore, or something like that. While this professor was a good guy and I'm sure he really believed what he was saying, I never really believed it. Accounts like this confirm I was right. I think he probably saw there this attitude of not accepting as a given that cheating will just happen when possible, similarly to the post author, and confused his American colleagues' thoughts with reality. I often wonder how many professors in America live in this bubble where cheating does not exist if you don't see it, and whether it's just naiveté or hypocrisy.