Free Essay About The Take-Home Lesson From The Harvard Cheating Scandal

Introduction

The Harvard cheating scandal is perhaps one of the most disruptive scandals that rocked not only the Ivy League but also has ripple effects on most academic institutions. This scandal refers to the subject Government 1310 titled ‘Introduction to Congress’ being taught by Professor Matthew B. Platt in the spring class of 2012. Accordingly, nearly half of the 279 students who enrolled in the subject have been accused of academic dishonesty or cheating on their take home exam. While the degree of how the students cheated varied, it was quite clear that most of them have collaborated, an activity which has been previously forbidden by the professor.

Nature of Take Home Exams

Under certain circumstances, what other people may consider as cheating can be viewed as an initiative. What made this case quite complicated though is the nature of the test that was given to the students. By analogy, take home exams, no matter how hard or easy it is, could not avoid having outside influence. The very nature of these exams gives students leeway to seek for ways or initiatives that they deem necessary in order to answer the examination at hand. For the same reason, students could not be assumed to keep themselves isolated from each other when they have all the opportunity to collaborate with each other.

Conclusion

If the professor values integrity in his exams, then he should have refrained from providing take home exams in the first place. On the other hand, students who were accused of cheating may not have intentionally done so for the sake of cheating itself. Most likely, the similarities in their answers, although it shows collaboration, can also indicate that they are taking the exams lightly as what most take home exams are supposed to mean, at least on a student’s perspective. It is highly probable that they did not expect the professor to be so strict on this particular exam because he has allowed the students to bring it home in the first place. Even so, cheating scandals such as this one places a huge dent to the integrity not only of the students but to the academic institution in general. And so, in order to avoid similar instances to occur in the future, take home exams should be avoided unless the professor is prepared to accept the possibility of collaboration.

References

Robbins, R. (2012, August). Harvard Investigates "Unprecedented" Academic Dishonesty Case. Retrieved February 2015, from http://www.thecrimson.com/: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/8/30/academic-dishonesty-ad-board/