Is this the worst ethics teacher?
64 Dartmouth Students Charged With Cheating In Ethics Class
According to the story, attendance in religion professor Randall Balmer’s “Sports, Ethics and Religion” was measured using handheld devices known as “clickers.” In late October, some students passed their clickers to fellow classmates. Those classmates then used the clickers to answer questions which made it appear as though they were present in class.
The ethics course was originally intended to help student-athletes. In its second year, the class grew to more than 280 students. Attendance and cheating became a problem.
Balmer discovered the problem when he noticed a discrepancy in the number of student responses to in-class questions using handheld clickers and the number of students in the classroom on Oct. 30, 2014. Balmer presented both a hard copy version and a clicker version of certain questions, and noted that 43 students did not respond to the paper version of the questions but did respond using clickers.
Obviously the students are at fault for breaking the school’s honor code. Clearly, professor Balmer did not make an impression on his students’ ethics during the first few classes. They felt they could cheat and still get a good grade.
Sources:
- 64 Dartmouth Students Charged With Cheating In Ethics Class
- Dartmouth: 64 Students Cheated by Rob Wolfe in Valley News
- Sixty-four students charged with honor code violations by Parker Richards in The Dartmouth
