[Englecturers] Re: Timed Tests

[englecturers at lists.ucr.edu]

Greetings again,

I agree with Dan and Ben that timed writing is important to check our 
students, but what weight should these tests have on the overall grade?

To help deter plagiarism, I sometimes have students begin rough drafts with 
in-class essays, but these essays are worth very little of the overall grade. 
Additionally, reading quizzes (of the open book variety, asking students to 
cite page numbers and exact examples) often encourage students to at least 
borrow and read the books. I too use quirky assignments to check for cheating; 
I also tell my students that if they plagiarize, I may not notify them of my 
suspicions (and resulting F in the course if my suspicions are founded) until 
the last week of the quarter, forcing students to take a calculated risk of 
cheating on one assignment. Ultimately, it takes until the end of the quarter 
to conduct research into the plagiarism, but I let my students think I am a 
dirty bastard playing their "sneaky games."

Part of the problem with plagiarism is the limited texts available for us to 
use. On other campuses I am familiar with, instructors have wider latitude on 
text selection, and plagiarism, while still present, is a much smaller 
problem.

Also, since my class is not graded on any curve, students are in competition 
with themselves (not each other) to improve their grades. I do not lose much 
sleep over the notion that a plagiarized paper may slip past me now and then. 
I feel that it is my responsibility to encourage morality in my students, not 
to enforce it.


Devon Hackelton

P.S.: There was a reading study done in the 1970s asking students of various 
educational levels (college freshmen to doctoral candidates) to comment on 
stylistic issues in (or is it "within"?) a text. The texts were varied, some 
technical and others of general interest. The results were that students who 
had limited knowledge of the subject matter were not very proficient in 
commenting on style. I'll look for the exact citation to this experiment; 
hopefully it is on my bookshelf somewhere.