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Comment by alexmat | Hacker News Reader

Seems like teachers aren't spending enough quality time going over the assignments with students. When I was teaching a Java class last year at a community college, I had students present their homework in front of the class. It was very easy to figure out who was cheating and who wasn't.

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Quality time costs money. A potential problem is that the majority of teachers are adjuncts who are not full time employees, and who are likely to be working multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. Not only does catching cheaters take effort, but pursuing it to the point of disciplining a student can be a nightmare for the teacher if their department doesn't support them.

When I taught an electrical engineering class, the prof with whom I shared a syllabus and exams, made the exam problems look a lot like the homework problems. The kids who (probably) cheated on their homework lessons paid for it on the exams.

Perhaps likewise for the humanities courses. In my own experience, writing essays and term papers for the regular course assignments was what got me so I could write a decent essay quickly during a "blue book" exam. I don't know any way other than sheer physical practice, to learn how to do that. You can't pay someone else to practice for you.

I knew an adjunct who, in the words of the department head, was fired for being too harsh on cheaters.

I put it in my syllabus and run it by the department head before each quarter that anyone caught cheating in any way will immediately fail the class and be reported to the administration. I also emphasize it to the students at the start of each quarter.

I've caught a few people cheating, but I usually fail them for the assignment instead of the class and spend extra time working with them to get their grades up. I've only had one repeat offender and I enforced the rule. The student came up to me a few months later and thanked me. Said it made him re-evaluate his commitment to school.

Can't expel your income streams...

One issue is the fear that if the student decides to lawyer up, then the adjunct will be completely outgunned, and there is no clear indication of the extent of their liability. As a former adjunct, I certainly would not have gone there. The department was probably making the same calculation. In addition, as a temporary worker, an adjunct can easily be blackballed, so their strategy is to be as docile as possible.

My mom is a retired high school teacher, and it's a completely different story. Among the "perks" in her contract were legal representation and liability coverage.

It all depends on the school and the crazy politics.

When I was an undergrad, certain ethnic groups were untouchable on the campus. There was also a lot of paperwork involved and cracking down on cheaters would focus attention on the department.

> likely to be working multiple jobs

A substantial fraction of contract cheaters (as in, the ones actually doing the work), are current or former adjuncts who need the money.

Unless someone is paid to take the entire class. If it's not in your subject (a big 200 person Chemistry 101 class), how would you even know? A Chemist could just show up for the tests and earn $1k for 4 ~ 5 days of work.

Obviously this will be a problem for massive lecture classes, maybe those should be graded heavily on attendance with mandatory id inspection. But you're right, in the conditions you describe, this problem is not solvable.

I don't know about higher education, but my aunt teaches K-12 in San Diego. She says that over a period of about 8 years, her class size tripled, making it impossible for her to spend the same amount of time with each student as she used to.

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