Crossing the Coursework Line

I'm taking a course. Another one. Being no fool, I opted for a lighter term this time around. I figured with a new baby, I couldn't handle an intensive high pressure course this term. So I chose to do my first business case this term. Three months to do a project that is supposed to take around 60 hours to complete. No assignments. No quizzes. No final exam. Just a project. I even arranged to start it early, so that I wouldn't have to work at it for the first month after the baby was born. It's due on September 12. I'm about 75% done already. All that's left is to write two reports. They're difficult, but I should be able to handle that. I've got almost two months. And I know what I'm doing, for the most part.

The business case is basically a test of how well a student knows the materials that he or she studied in levels one through three of the program. We have to do a bunch of year-end entries in Accpac (Batch 2), perform some adjusting and correcting entries (Batch 3), input a current and future tax entry (Batch 4), prepare some schedules in relation to our entries, prepare some internal financial statements, prepare a few spreadsheets, and complete three reports with supporting exhibits. Really, the reports are the toughest part for me. But I write fairly well, so as long as I can figure out the correct recommendations, I should be okay writing the reports.

Since this is distance education, we can't really work in groups and collaborate. But the association recognizes the importance of collaboration. So one of our resources is the Student Lounge. It's an online forum where we can post questions to and receive feedback from fellow students. It can be pretty helpful, but can also deteriorate to a case of the blind leading the blind. So you really have to know your stuff when you visit the forum, or you can be easily misled.

We also have an online course tutor. We can ask questions of the tutor and get clarification on a number of points. The tutor will not premark our project and will only give guidance. Different tutors in different classes tend to operate in different ways. In this class, the tutor is refusing to answer any questions in any kind of remotely useful manner. So the students are relying on one another more than is the norm. Makes it harder, but we cope.

The final resource available for collaboration is a student mailbox, where we can email one another privately. This works well if we need to speak to a specific student, or if we want to work in a group with friends we've made along the way but don't want to share our detailed answers with the entire class. This way, we can collaborate in greater detail. But it's understood that none of us steal each other's work. No plagiarism. No copying. It's against the rules, and can get us kicked out of the program.

Every so often, a student decides to take advantage of the available resources. It's not the first time this has happened to me. I'm sure it will not be the last.

**********

She posts in the student lounge. She is wondering if she has prepared Batch 3 correctly. She posts her batch total and asks if others in the class could compare. Her batch total is incorrect. It is off by over $100,000. I post my batch total and let her know that I think she is off, and I tell her at least one thing that I think she probably missed.

She private messages me. She attaches a printout of all of her entries for Batch 3 and asks me to check them and let her know where she is out. By doing this, she is pushing the boundaries. I do not know her. We have never worked together. To the best of my knowledge, we have not taken other courses together. I am a classmate. I have my own work to do. She is basically asking me to premark her project. I can't do that.

I give a quick look at her entries for Batch 3. There are only five or six entries, so it doesn't take very long. I respond by telling her that I can see several errors. And I let her know where those errors appear to be. I provide a bit of guidance, to point her in the right direction. But I do not share my answers, and I don't give details on how she should correct her entries. She figures things out with the guidance I have provided. She emails me and lets me know that she corrected her entries and that our totals now match.

She then private messages me again. This time, she attaches a printout of all of her entries for Batch 4, as well as her supporting spreadsheet for current and future tax calculations. She asks me to check her entries as well as her spreadsheet and let her know if it's right.

She has now completely crossed the line. She is no longer looking for a check figure. Really, she wants me to complete her assignment for her. Perhaps I should just email her my completed project so that she can put her name on it, hmmm?

I look at her Batch 4 entries. There are only two entries, so it doesn't take very long. Her entries differ significantly from mine. I respond to her. I tell her that our entries are very different from one another, but that I really do not have time to check her work for her and let her know why our entries are out by so much. I tell her that she should probably review her prior courses or maybe ask the tutor for some help. And I leave it at that.

After I hit "send", I look at her spreadsheet for my own curiosity. I discover that her net income amount, which is the starting point for the spreadsheet, is out by around $110,000. There are other errors, too. But this is the main problem. And I realize that, since her Batch 3 total matches mine and she hasn't posted Batch 4 yet, she must have made mistakes in Batch 2 that resulted in the huge difference in net income. Batch 2 has around thirty entries, if a student has done it succinctly.

I do not email her back to let her know that this is the primary issue. I'm sure you can see why. I do not email her back because she is taking advantage of my good nature and continuing to ask me to premark her work. If I email her back, where will it end? If I review her Batch 4 spreadsheet and let her know that her net income is off and that she must have made errors in Batch 2, then she'll email me her Batch 2 and ask me to check all of the detailed entries and supporting schedules. And if I do that, then next she'll email me her financial statements and ask if they're right. And by the time all is said and done, I'll end up preparing her cash flow statement for her. And I can't do that. It would be wrong. Not to mention that it would eat up a significant amount of time that I do not have.

As you know, I do not have a lot of time at my disposal just now. That's why I got a head start on the class when I had more time on hand. And my time management strategy has worked; that is the reason my project is now 75% complete. I didn't do it so that I'd have more time to complete the work of other students for them. I did it so that I'd have more time with my family, at a period of time when I really need family time.

The business case is supposed to test each student on how well he or she knows the materials taken in levels one through three. It is not supposed to test each student on how well I know the materials taken in levels one through three. I know the materials quite well. We all know that, based on my grades to date.

I'm happy to provide input. I'm happy to guide a student who's a bit lost. I don't want anyone to fail this project if I can help by providing a bit of direction. But I will not premark a paper. I will not email a summary of all of my work so that it can be copied. I will not do her work for her. Ultimately, she must do her own work and complete her own project.

We all have our line in the sand. That is mine.

Make sure you are in your own course before posting questions! STOP IT!!

Don't confuse me by posting questions to the course tutor of my Level 2 course that pertain to your Level 4 course! Your "formulars" make no sense to me!! "Reduced cost", "shadow price", "generated report", and "PV tax shield" are not terms that I have learned at this point in my studies. They are not contained anywhere in my text! And when you ask a question about the "PV tax shield" that looks like this:

1) why to divide cdt by (d+t) and then multiply (1+0.5t) ?
2) considering SV, why to divide sdt by (d+t)?

while:
pv=cdt/(d+t)*(1+0.5i)/(1+i)
pv=(svt/(d+t))/(1+i)

all you do is scare the living daylights out of those of us in Level 2! I have absolutely no idea to what any of those letters refer. It is all gibberish to me. And it ties up the course tutor when he could be answering the legitimate questions of those of us who are actually taking his course.

So now, the course tutor has to try to find out where your questions came from. He won't be able to, since they are NOT FROM HIS COURSE!! But he'll try. Then he'll send you a private message to ask. You will, of course, be ignorant enough to not respond. And your questions will sit on the board for our course, unanswered, forever, scaring the people in this class who will believe they have missed something fundamentally important in their course.

This is MA1. You are in MA2. Stay in your own dang board!!

(Stupid person ... grumble, grumble ... slap you upside the ... mutter, mutter.)

Hot tip of the day

The word is "Formula", not "Formular". I can make allowances for a typo, but when you repeat the incorrect spelling throughout your question, I must object to your usage of Hillbilly-ese.

Now, say it with me: "Formula".

And the award for "Inattentive" goes to ...

... the student who posted a question to the MA1 tutor about a problem found in the FA2 textbook!

Yes, boys and girls, it is always a good idea to make sure you are reading the text that actually goes with the course you are currently taking. Otherwise, stuff like the corresponding lesson notes and audio lectures may not make much sense to you.

Just my little suggestion.

To those classmates who annoy me

Stop it. You are irritating the snot out of me. Even the course tutor appears to have had her fill of you. I wouldn't blame her if she quit.

Stop trying to cheat on your quizzes. Stop insisting that a URL on your screen displays a different "due by" time than that identical URL on everyone else's screens. Stop pretending that you are a victim in all of this, when the truth is that you just didn't bother reading your student handbook.

Are you literate? Yes? Then read the student handbook!! What is the matter with you?!

Own up to your mistakes and move on. Be a grown-up, for crying out loud!

THBBBBBBBBBBT!!!

(Oh ... and I flip you the bird via my internet connection, too. May your brand new paint job be scratched and dinged beyond repair in the Walmart parking lot!!)

Update: Quiz extensions for certain students have been granted. This despite the "absolutely no extensions will be granted" reference in the student handbook. A pretty unfair advantage as it relates to awards, if you ask me. And while a part of me sympathizes with my classmates, another part of me does not believe this is right.

AAAAAAUUUGH!!!

I need to learn to be at peace with my surroundings. I have vented. I will let it go now.

Focus. Prepare to write final exam now.

Que sera sera.

Two weeks to final exam. Eep!

Now, what was that word?

Assignments in my course have been abolished this year. In years past, they were required, but did not count toward a student's final grade. They were only used as a means to assess readiness to complete the final exam.

In addition to Tutor Support, our courses have a Student Lounge section. The Student Lounge is a bulletin board for the exchange of ideas between students.

Now, with that little bit of background, supply the word that you feel best fits the following scenario.

An online quiz, worth 30% of a course's final grade, is due November 2 at noon. At 7:00 p.m. on November 1, a person posts the following message in the Student Lounge:

Anyone want to compare answers before we all submit? In other student lounges, when we had to do assignments, we used to chat about the questions before we submitted.
I have:
1. a, 2. a 3. a 4. b 5. d 6. d 7. ? 8. d 9. ? 10. a 11. b 12. ?

There is a word for this. I know there is. Oh, what is that word, again? ...

Will justice be done?

The tutor has deleted the question from Cheater and her own posted response, and has replaced them with a very clear message that the course tutor cannot answer questions from online quizzes.

I don't know if there will be any disciplinary action taken. The program stipulates that a student's first instance of proven cheating will get him or her kicked out of the course and count as an attempt at the course, and that a permanent record of a reprimand will be put on the student's file; a further instance will get said student permanently kicked out of the Association entirely. But they might give Cheater some leniency; I don't know for sure.

I hope they are not lenient about it. Cheater's behaviour was so inappropriate and unethical, I just can't believe it. And I don't think there is any way to claim ignorance; it was pretty clear what she was doing. I know that one quiz question makes a difference of only half a percent toward her final grade, but when we have students gunning for scholarships, that half a percent can be the deciding factor. Not to mention the ethics involved in the Association's Code of Conduct, and the tutor's reputation to consider. It's a pretty big deal, really.

If she gets a higher grade in this course than I do, and she walks away with the Award of Excellence, I will be severely ticked! (Steal my thousand bucks, I'm gonna ... mutter, mutter, mutter.)

I will assume that she will be appropriately disciplined, and I will feel better believing this to be the case.

She's Cheating!

OMG! I am in disbelief! I am furious!

One of my classmates has posted a question to our online tutor. The question is, verbatim, a question from one of our quizzes. She's even supplied two of the possible answers from the multiple choice question and has asked the tutor to tell her which answer is correct.

The tutor has made it abundantly clear, on numerous occasions, that she cannot assist us in answering questions from online quizzes and that she doesn't even have access to the quizzes. So this student has not told the tutor that it is a quiz question, and is just asking it as though she were curious.

And the tutor has answered the question!

So now, I find myself in an uncomfortable situation: I feel morally obligated to essentially rat out a classmate who is cheating in the course, but I don't want to be a tattletale.

Why someone would behave so inappropriately is beyond my grasp.

Thus far ...

... well, let's see...

J finally fell asleep at around 2 a.m. Woke up through the night and woke us up into the bargain. Numerous changes and feeds later...

J woke up at his usual time, looking for another change and feed. I changed and fed him, hoping he would go back down afterwards. After all, I reasoned, we had the same kind of night; he must be just as tired as I am.

Finished feeding him. Held him up for burping. Heard him poop. And at the same time, he threw up (not spit up, but throw up) all over the bed!

Stripped the sheets, changed the baby, put him back in his crib, changed my clothes, washed the sheets. Came back upstairs. Heard J start to cry. Went to check on him.

He had been playing (not sleeping) and had once again handcuffed himself together with his plastic rings.

Picked him up, got him unstuck. He spit up on me, then pooped again. I changed him again. Didn't even bother with myself this time; what's the point?

He now sits in my lap, chewing his fingers and telling me all about his night. I know about his night; I was there. But I love him, so will let him tell me again in his own words. Soon, he will drift off, cuddling in my arms, and I'll hopefully be able to put him down and get some work done. No more time for sleep today, I'm afraid.

Must do housework this morning; people are coming over. Must start Module 5 of course today. Must beat senseless the smugly self-satisfied, childless (I know because of earlier intros), prissy little classmate who went online to the Student Lounge last night to place a comment into one of the threads from all the moms struggling with the course, to inform us of how brilliant she is. Her post even came complete with the smug smiley face.



I genuflect in her general direction.

Mental note: when successful, be proud of yourself, but don't rub it in. I feel somewhat pleased by the fact that she made 11 spelling and grammatical errors in her two sentence post.