How much should an astronomy forum indulge cheaters

Question

17 out of the last 20 questions have been people cheating on their schoolwork. I just wondered how many of these kinds of questions should be asked before conscientious people say "No more."

Answer 1

Has school even started in the US yet?  I was surprised.

I did not know that...

In any case, I answer when I'm in the mood, but some of these kids post their entire assignments on here...  those I do not answer.

CUL

Answer 2

In books and authors when people ask questions for a book report people give rude answers or suggest that they complete the assiment there self's. The same steps should be taken hear. Or people should pose the question as illegal

Answer 3

Slackers...

Answer 4

Here's my philosophy on this stuff...

If the question is a multiple choice I usually don't answer, but I might give hints to lead them to the answer, unless they have received poor answers, then I am tempted to give the correct answer and explain it.

If it's an essay or calculation question I will try to point them in the right direction, but not give them the final answer.

I think chastising them but then helping them is a good compromise.

Disinformation is not helpful. First, they don't blame themselves when they get it wrong; second, many of us are trying to debunk myths propagated here, and being associated with bogus answers undermines our credibility; third, I want to instill critical thinking and simply giving the wrong answer is counterproductive in this effort.

Finally - some of the homework questions that are posted are very poorly constructed and demonstrate the teacher/professor lack of knowledge on a given topic. This is not uncommon - test-banks available with textbooks are full of poorly constructed questions (some are out of date, and some are just wrong). I like to deconstruct such questions because I think it helps the students to understand better.

Answer 5

don't be too hard on Smilin' Bob, Brant, he still puts his faith in a pill that... well, nevermind.

I was gonna ask this same question!

My answer?  Disinformation.

When they ask:

Which planet has rings?

a) Saturn

b) Uranus

c) Neptune

d) all of the above

we should all answer d!

that'll show em!

Answer 6

They will always find someone to answer their homework questions, because some people just can't resist showing how "smart" they are.

.

Answer 7

I'll answer homework questions from time to time, usually if the asker hasn't posted an entire assignment. If I do answer a multiple choice question, I often put more info, such as explaining why each choice is correct or wrong, etc. That way, if they at least read my answer, then maybe they'll get tricked into learning a bit.

Sometimes, when in a grouchy mood, I'll tag my answers with "a google search tells me that bla-bla-blah" :)

Let's face it, most people don't give two cents for Astronomy, and wouldn't care if there were so much light pollution that it blotted out the Sun, let alone the stars. Not only that, but the kids doing this aren't going to care about any recriminations from the likes of us 'dorks' regarding their studies, which they obviously already consider a bore and a bother. Maybe we should go post annoying questions in the E!/Reality TV sections as revenge.

Answer 8

I totally agree.  How are you ever going to learn anything if you don't find your own answers?

Answer 9

I agree Brant, I will not contribute to the dishonesty, unethical behavior, or just plain laziness of students. I have at times intentionally given incorrect  or vague answers like:

"The answer is definately B., or C. then again it could be all of the above, no wait.....its A. Did I say "A"?...I meant E."

The most fun would be to give incorrect answers, and then see the expression on their face when they get their grades.

That would be priceless.

We could only hope that the cheating will eventually catch up with them.

Answer 10

There is a category for Homework Help under Education and Reference.

According to the yahoos, multiple choice questions are ok but fill in the blank questions are a violation of community guidelines and should be reported.

I do not answer any homework questions. I do not feel that helping out a cheater is moral. There is never a homework question given to a student who does not have the resources to find the answer in their textbook or to extrapolate an answer with information already supplied in his/her education.

One can choose several options. 1- Ignore the question and hope everyone else in the A&S forum does also. Normally, this results in a person answering the question because they are point hungry. I have even seen a person in here chide the questioner then give the answer anyway for the points (I will be polite here and not say lindajune's name). 2- Explain to the questioner that there is a forum for Homework Help and A&S is not it. I have received thumbsdown for doing this. 3- Explain to the questioner the downside and long-term effects of cheating and do not give the answer. 4- Grab the 10 points any way you can. 5- Give a deliberate wrong answer hoping to confuse the questioner enough that they are forced to look up the answer in their textbook.

My normal approach is 1 or 3.

The ideal y/a system would allow us to push a button that kicks these questions to the appropriate categories (in this case HH) but this will never happen.

Helping out a person seeking HH is never a good idea. Intelligent persons here know very well the condition of children spit out by the educational system today. It's not up to par. The point of having a child answer a homework question on their own is not so much that now they know why planets are round. The process of researching answers and developing brain function skills to solve problems is what is being taught. If we short-circuit that skill, the child suffers in the long-term.

Contributing to the cheating process results in more kids with 2012 and moon landing hoax questions here down the line because we take away their ability to formulate logic and reasoning skills which need to be developed in an educational system.

I personally disagree with y/a allowing multiple choice HH questions. But I am not the king.

We all know very well the level of the majority of questions already being posted in A&S. If we want to raise that bar, even just a little, then not answering HH questions is the only way to go.

We must never forget the great answerers who have permanently left y/a because they were fed up with the quality of questions in this forum. Let's do our part to keep A&S somewhat respectable before it becomes a joke forum for the kids.

The only time I violate my principles is when a child has sincerely attempted to research a question in their textbook and could not find the answer. I will then not just give the answer but an explanation of the reasoning behind it.

There are many other options available to a student before coming to the quick fix y/a. 1- The student's parents. Where are they? And why does the student not go to them for educational guidance? We must encourage children to seek help by communicating with their parents first before jumping onto the internet. 2- Students need to feel able to raise their hands in class when they feel confused or unsure about a current topic. 3- The student can be encouraged to ask a friend to be their study buddy in a school subject they have difficulty with. 4- If a child is having some sort of learning disability, whether it is reading comprehension or reasoning skills, these need to be addressed before the child becomes an adult. There are tutors and other help systems built into most educational school systems to address these special needs.

Point grabbers need to think twice. Appearing smart to a school kid may be a short-term high for you but the detrimental long-term effects on the child is the burden that your answer will carry with it.

Answer 11

This behavior is unacceptable. But in the end, they will be the ones with the bad grade on the report card.

It is bad enough that they load the forum with these questions, but some of them are so simple that I don't even think they are trying to answer them.

I loved your answer saying the milky way was a candy bar! That was very clever, and you set her in her place at the same time! That was a very well worded answer.

As for these ingrates, I have faith that "karma" will show its ugly head. Its not a force, its just an inevitable consequence.

People in my class do this thing all the time. They post questions on Answers, and then people give them the answers without even thinking about what they are doing. In my school, we are loaded down with homework, but I would much rather miss an episode of American Idol than cheat on my homework.

My best friend and I are really the only people in my class who don't do this. And although we don't get to play many video games or watch a lot of TV like the others do, we end up getting straight A's on our report cards, while their finals are D's.

Although they may get an easy point or two for their homework, they won't have access to yahoo when they are taking their exams, and that is when they get what they deserve for not doing anything. This happens in my class all the time. They cheat on their homework, and then when it comes test time, my friend and I get the highest grades in the class, while their highest grade is usually a C or lower. But hey, more people out of the way for valid Victorian!

And these people have text books, and internet access to use if they want. Instead of getting other people to do their homework, how about looking it up on the internet. Seeing as they were either sleeping or text messaging during science class, it isn't our responsibility to do their homework.

I don't mind correcting someone's homework and telling them what is wrong and why. I don't tell them the right answer, but I explain the question and why their answer was wrong. I do that in school to some of the lower grades, but I refuse to do homework for someone.

But like I said, they will get what they deserve. I never cheated once through advanced physics and got straight A+'s while those that did cheat got a final grade ranging from D's to C's. No one got passed a C+ for finals in science or math that cheated.

I wish there was some kind of rule about this sort of cheating. It would give my a great pleasure to report all their questions.

EDIT: Like the person below me said, explaining the long-term effects of cheating on homework is a good choice, though these are school kids we are talking about... as one of them, I personally would just skip the answer without looking over it, but then again I would never post such a question.

Like I said, the only time I would ever answer a question about homework help would be either if they didn't understand the question, or if they wanted to know if they got the question right. I wouldn't just say it was wrong and then give them the right answer. I would explain why the answer was wrong, and try to steer them in the right direction regarding the answer to their question.

But with kids these days, cheating is huge, unfortunately. Kids will sometimes hide notes in the bathroom and then ask to go to the bathroom during the middle of the test. They also copy of each other's homework, but my teachers are pretty good at spotting these situations. I have also had occasions where kids will literally text message each other answers on their cell phones. With small cell phones these days with a full QWERTY keyboard inside, it is easy to do. I have an env2 and it makes no noise texting if it is on silent and I am texting. Though I don't text during class, I will occasionally during a foreign film I get dragged to.

So I guess the point I am trying to make is that we can't convince these people to stop cheating because they will just ignore us. They will block everything we have to say out, unless we give them the correct answer. But I do believe that they will get what is coming their way because on the final tests, they will get busted for cheating, and will get a low grade. Cheating used to be a popular thing in my school, but under new administration it seems to have gone down. I am truly ashamed of what is going on with the young population these days. I am around them all the time, and I am worried what will become of a majority of them. Everyone wants to be a singer, or an actor and they think that if they want to be one, the automatically get a record deal, or an acting role in Hollywood when that isn't the case. Education is no longer a top-priority in this country, and I worry about the future repercussions as a result of this. These kids that cheat affect the ones who are doing the homework as well. They slack off, and end up not understanding (big surprise) and so the rest of the class that is actually doing the school work is held back because of these people. For me, this is more than just an annoyance; it hits on the personal level a bit. As a student, and being around these people, it does pain me to say that popularity is being based on cheating on tests, and homework assignments. I have always refused to help people cheat and as a result, I don't have very many friends, but the friends I do have are wonderful, and we stick to our morals which is going by the wayside these days. I believe "coolness" is based on a person's ability to be educated, and to have a bright future in their lives. I don't know if I have a bright future in my life, but I know that my education will help me a long ways.

I am just so fed up with people cheating on everything. It is disgusting. The future of this country is not bright if people continue this appalling behavior. I know it sounds like I am over-dramatizing everything, but when you are a student in this era; it isn't so much of an exaggeration.

As the person below me said, there are probably a lot of complaints surfacing, but we all know Yahoo is awful when it comes to taking people's concerns into consideration. I would love to report all of these questions as cheating on homework assignments. I have read the "code of conduct" over and over again and I was very angry to find out that it was not illegal in the answers community to post questions asking for not just "help" on homework, but doing it for them.

And honestly, the thing that bugs me most is that they don't even say "please" and I've noticed that over half the time, they don't pick a best answer.

After looking at the profiles of some of these people that posted, what, like 20 questions? I noticed that none of them answered one single question. Its bad enough that they expect us to do their homework for them, but they don't even contribute to the answer's community. That is not a fair setup. Yahoo should really do something about people like that.

Cheating is a growing epidemic in this country. I play an online game called "Roblox" and there is a forum section there. I visit the forum from time to time, and during the school year it is loaded with people asking others to do their homework for them. The moderators banned questions about 2012 there, but not these homework questions which I find appalling, but then again that’s just me.