Student caught cheating when leaving class after handing me the exam

Question

Usually I am quite clear that cheating and plagiarism are unacceptable. Although every semester I have to deal with several cases of plagiarism, I had not expected students to brazenly cheat in exams. A few seconds after one student handed me the exam, as she was leaving, I noticed that she had written answers on her hand. She was showing it off to a classmate and laughing as they left. In my country, just writing anything on the hands or anywhere they can read (including the table) is usually considered cheating. Students can check their answers when they are given their corrected exams back.

I know I could have created a scene on the spot, prevented the student from getting out as she was leaving the classroom, provided evidence of cheating, and graded her exam as 0. But other students were handing me their exams at the same moment, and many others were still writing down their answers. That would surely cause a commotion. I was paralyzed and did not know how to react. I am still not sure how I should have reacted, or how I ought to react in the future. I feel being aquiescent may have an impact on other students' behavior, and also on my feeling of self-respect.

Now I'm facing a dilemma. The student was not caught in flagrante delicto. The evidence for cheating is also gone. If it matters, the student's grade wasn't great either (4,8/10). I cannot decide myself between leaving the issue alone and forgetting about it, grading the student more severely in the next exams, or somehow lowering the student's grade (the last option is a little risky as the student could denounce me).

Answer 1

Exact rules will depend on where you are. But normally the student has due process rights: to be confronted with the evidence of her cheating, and to appeal to some higher administrator or body if she desires. Two of your options (grade more harshly / secretly lower grade) are things that you would do unilaterally, without the student's knowledge, and without giving her the right to challenge. In my view, these options are therefore totally inappropriate and unethical.

The evidence against her is your testimony about what you observed. If you think this would be sufficient evidence under your university's rules, then it is appropriate to pursue formal punishment as the rules dictate. If you don't think it's sufficient, then do nothing, and let the student complete the rest of the course without prejudice. (Though of course you can watch her more closely in the future, and perhaps institute procedures to deter this kind of behavior in general.)

Answer 2

For this particular incidence, I am afraid that the window of opportunity for acting on it has closed. Be prepared for the next time. Have a camera ready. Have stuff to say ready. Make sure to watch this particular student on the next exam: she's not going to fly under your radar next time round, and over the length of her coursework, that brag might cost more than the one cheat bought her.

If she no longer has courses with you, she likely will with others. You can tell them of your goof informally so that they keep an eye open.

The easiest way out longer term is to create exams where cheating (short of communication) does not help. I remember exams where people were allowed to bring one hand-written sheet of A4 paper (in the U.S., you could declare one sheet of "legal" legal): condensing the course contents like that was so much of a learning experience that you usually could then forego the sheet anyway. There were others where you were allowed to bring anything except electronic devices: the time on those exams just was far too short for applying significant amounts of knowledge not suitably internalized.

Remember: in their job, they will be allowed to look up things, too. So try teaching and checking for skills that go beyond dictionary lookups.

Answer 3

It's not proven that she cheated.

I have known several students who would write their answers on their hand during the exam, so they can later compare their results with others. I don't know in what country you are in, but if you should go after the alleged cheating, the student might carry this situation to court.

It's then up to you to prove that she had the notes before she entered the exam, which I doubt is possible for you. Therefore, my suggestion is to let it go and be more careful next time, should you see the student again.

Answer 4

You have to have the cold hard evidence.

I had a student hand me his paper with the hand with the notes on. Excuses were:

these are not for this exam – oh yes they are
Sorry I made some notes last night and did not wash my hands – been to the bathroom lately?

I took photos and it went to the exam board: safe and case closed. Student can submit a letter of appeal explaining their side. The photos were clear and conclusive.

So, get the evidence or you cannot act.

Answer 5

Sorry, but you did not catch a student cheating

While distracted and surrounded by many other people and some noise, you saw something on a student's hand, which you assume was written text, which you assume was illicit. You assume the student was laughing about having cheated on the exam.

Well, you know what they say about what happens when we assume (urbandictionary.com)...

I can give you multiple reasonable explanations of what happened, none of which involve the student cheating (and, in fact, some other answers have already done so).

... but try talking to the student regardless.

Ask the student to come to your reception hours, or at some other time to your office. Ask her about her experience in the course. Ask if she had any difficulties, and if so, what they were. If she gives any indication that things were not perfect, and doesn't maintain a perfect poker-face, give thought to how you, or others, can help her cope with this difficulty.

Now, you may think that this is rewarding criminality with kindness - and I guess that's true. But this would have the potential of getting a student who's having trouble academically to pursue a positive way of facing their difficulty. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't - but students are our charge, we should try to help them, and this student might be in need of help.

There is also the - non-zero - probability that the student will admit wrongdoing on the exam. If that happens, deal with it as you see fit, but don't "fish" for this explicitly.

Answer 6

To add another perspective on the problem: There are two things which may be used by the student as excuse

• You do not know if the notes were used. It is a very weak excuse, but they could appeal that the notes were not used and possibly not even useful for the exam. Probably this exuse will not hold, though.
• The more complicated part: They can claim, they made the notes during the exam. As long as you cannot disprove it, this would be fully legitimate.

So it is important to catch them in the act. The other option left is to confront them and they admit it.

Answer 7

A complication is that a university is a business nowadays, and students its clients. If they don't get their degree, YOU have failed to deliver the service the client has paid for. This is an important factor, and in your situation I'd kick myself for letting this one go, be more wary in future, and not pursue anything punitive.

^{Somewhat similar situation: I was assisting invigilation at a Russell Group university in the UK (so, sub-top; not Oxbridge but just below). My job is guarding exams between sessions (receiving new ones, handing over finished ones), keeping a record of any time a student takes a toilet break (from/to), replacing active invigilators that need a toilet break, and various sundries like phoning assistance when a student had a seizure. As one of my checks, during each session I check the cisterns of all toilets, and similar hidey holes [unconnectedly, this is how I quickly found one of the porters wasn't quite the 'recovered' alcoholic he claimed].}

^{One day I find a set of engineering course notes, in a taped-close map, with only four students in that building taking that specific exam. So I put a post-it on it basically stating, "You're in trouble, better go check with your course admin before things get worse"... A too-obvious ploy, but might work on a stressed student? I also passed a message to the head invigilators in both rooms that had a student sitting that exam. So both testified my record that exactly one of the four went on a toilet break, about one third in, and then continued the exam till full time. And this student actually contacted the admin immediately after, about this issue; so you have full confession this specific student prepared for cheating and opened their notes midway their exams. Not sufficient for any steps!!!}

^{What then happened was a meeting of a committee, with the student plus a student representative for support; plus the course head and a representative of the Vice-Chancellor; plus me and various written statements by the invigilators. They eventually ruled that yes, the student did try to cheat[!?], but there was no proof that they actually benefited from it. No reprimand, no official statement, nothing; I'd guessed a re-sit of that paper would be the absolute minimum consequence. All in all I lost a lot of (unpaid!) hours on paperwork; a low-paying job I was doing because it's fun most of the time, and about 50min out of each hour I could effectively work on my laptop on other business.}

^{A suspected factor in this all is that it was an overseas student, meaning they pay far more than the UK cap of £9000/year; they almost all pass even though most struggle with the language. Another bitter reminder that I was working in a degree printing business, is that universities in the UK (since previous 'Conservative' government) don't fall under the Education but under the Business department.}

Answer 8

I would suggest that avoiding a public scene is the top priority actually. Besides the student herself, a public drama/humiliation would upset other students and make it harder to do your job.

Secondly, you did catch her in the act in the sense that you personally saw it. Just as if you saw someone peeking over their neighbor's shoulder. Tell her you saw this, escalate it perhaps (even if it goes nowhere she'll do some serious sweating). And she's on notice she better count her blessings and not do it again.

Answer 9

As anyone with even a cursory legal background knows, your eyewitness testimony of what you saw the student do is evidence. It is not true that you have to film some event in order to have evidence that it occurred. My guess is that the university would take first-hand eyewitness evidence from one of its instructors very seriously, and there is a reasonable prospect that when confronted with this evidence, the student would not deny it.

If you want to pursue this, you need to go through the proper procedure to make a complaint about academic misconduct. There is no reason you would need any additional evidence beyond your own eyewitness account, but if you want to augment this with other evidence, you could try asking some of the students she was showing off to. Whatever you decide, do not bypass this process and then unilaterally penalise the student by marking her more harshly on other work - that is tantamount to acting as judge, jury and executioner yourself, and if it comes to light, you will be dropped into a world of shit.

Answer 10

A couple of thoughts on 'what should I do in future?':

• If you spot something similar, don't make a big deal of it, but simply call the student over to you and ask them to wait to talk to you after the others have gone. That way you have more time to deal with the situation, and the student has less ground to complain that you accused them in public.
• When you talk to the students about cheating being unacceptable, remind them that knowingly allowing others to cheat is also unacceptable.

Answer 11

Are you a TA or a faculty member. If you are a TA, tell the professor of the class. if you turn your grades into someone else, notify that person.

If you are the teacher, notify the head of the department and possibly an assistant or associate dean of the student's college.

People are going to cheat and sometimes they will be brazen about it. Willful ignorance, including cheating your way through college, is becoming increasingly common.

I am rather glad that I was a graduate teaching assistant more than 30 years ago and willful ignorance didn't seem quite so prevalent back then, but maybe I was just naïve and innocent. That was more than half a lifetime ago for me.

Answer 12

I would just let it go...for now. For the next test, bring out all the artillery to catch her in the act. Try to get a proctor so that there are two teachers in the room to serve as witnesses.

Answer 13

What you should NOT do:

• Reduce her grades/marks as a secondary consequence .

• Judge her based on this instance throughout her coursework.

• Approach her about the issue, as she might try to avoid you throughout the course.

What you should've done:

• Check students BEFORE they enter the examination hall for bits of paper, electronic devices and any other aids that students may use for cheating. (A handheld metal detector will eliminate all electronics.) Ask students to empty their pockets.

• If you clearly see cheating going on at any point in the examination and it is an individual case, ask the person to stand back after everybody gives the papers and exits the class. If there is CCTV, you can surely find evidence to book the person as per the examination rules.

• Catch the cheater and hold him/her back before he/she leaves the exam hall. (if you have CCTV cameras, then this might not be necessary)

• If you suspect someone is cheating during the exam, slowly walk toward them and stand near that person, if they know they're being watched, it is unlikely they will continue.

• Before the exam starts just brief the students, telling them that you will not take cheating lightly and those caught cheating will suffer extreme consequences. Also tell them the CCTV footage will be reviewed after every exam.

And if you do decide to take action, do it officially, by consulting with the school administration, also, try not to make the student hold a grudge against you later.

Answer 14

I'm teaching CS, and I'm really full of this cheating endemic. I've got 3.5+ students copying code from the internet. They practice the ancient technique of obfuscation by renaming the variables. Also found that the same student was not able to solve a problem two degrees of magnitude less complex on her own. Upon being confronted, she denied the "allegation". She continued her streak of copy/paste/rename the whole class. Final grade was 1.01, the next to minimum passing grade, which is 1.00 because I didn't want to do plagiarism research for her next year too.

My approach is to spend as less time as possible with students not willing to learn something. I just pass them the exam, with minimal grades (so that I get rid of them, otherwise they will keep register my classes). Why spending energy with such individuals, while the focus shall be the increase of the level of knowledge, and not acting as an intellectual police?

The company of the students willing to learn (which are not necessary the good students, but they turn into good students by time), asking academic questions is preferred to policing/enforcing rules to the students only interested of their grades. I try to limit my interaction with the latter category.

I don't think I'm alone here. I've interviewed people for private sector, and for example fresh master graduate was unaware of any language other than VBA (but only Excel) and when asked to solve an introductory problem involving a if in a for loop the candidate was lost. Given the grades, the candidate should have been more than fluent in algorithms, databases, C++ and Java.

My advice: minimal grade and move on.

Answer 15

It depends on your relationship to your students in general and this student in particular.

If local laws and regulations permit, I'd have the student come in for a conversation about it. Potentially, you could record this conversation, or have a witness (who would ideally not be another professor in this department). Also, realise the student may be doing the recording, even if you don't.

I'd approach it as a point of inquiry - "I saw you walk away laughing and pointing at your hand, and I'm concerned that you might not be taking this class very seriosuly. Am I right about this? You scored a 4.8/10 on this. What was that laugh about, anyways? I don't like to assume people are cheating, but it quite looked like it to me. Was there something else going on?" If you start from a place of empathy (and not presumed guilt!), you'll probably get further and you've created a chance for a conversation.

Answer 16

I don't think that you can do anything right now about it.

If you would bring it up now, she could just say you are lying and since it is her word against yours and you don't have any evidence, the administration is mot likely to take her side.

So I wouldn't do anything about it right now, but for the next exam I would pay more attention towards her and if she is doing it again, you can call her out on it.