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The Things You Find While Doing Online Research

Lifer
edited January 2015 in General
I was researching an assignment online and came across an assignment sheet that was, word for word, what my prof had put on canvas as our assignment guide/requirements/topic. The one online was from York University and by someone else. I'm not sure if that's unethical on the part of my prof, or someone else, but it does seem strange. Does this seem strange to anyone else?

Comments

  • Lifer

    Not to mention, the course that the matching assignment sheet belonged to is a 3rd year course and it was used for a first year course at SFU. I find that interesting because the topics are way too open ended for a first year course.

  • Annie
    From Code of Academic Integrity and Good Conduct:

    "All members of the University community share the responsibility for the academic standards and reputation of the University. Academic integrity is a cornerstone of the development and acquisition of knowledge. It is founded on principles of respect for knowledge, truth, scholarship and acting with honesty. Upholding academic integrity is a condition of continued membership in the university community"
  • Lifer
    Yeah, my question is whether or not the action counts as a violation of the code of conduct.
  • Annie
    Sounds rather dodgy - maybe you can pass it to the dean of the department...
  • TalkUBC
    Defs plagiarism unless he cited it. 
  • MXC
    It's just an assignment, jeeze.
  • TalkUBC
    Are you planning to blackmail him or something to give you an A?
  • Lifer
    @TalkUBC, no. I actually never considered that because my mind doesn't think in those terms. I dropped the course and was genuinely curious because I care.
  • Shayan4440
    You actually need permission from the genuine source. I've had several professors who asked other professors if they can use their material. That's the legal and proper way, but if he's just distributing it for class assignments and he's not really making any money off it, then it's not really a big deal.
  • TalkUBC
    Part of his/her job duties as a professor/lecturer is to develop curriculum and assignments, and his salary is paid for that, so technically it is kinda making money off of it.
  • Shayan4440
    edited February 2015
    First of all, departments make the curriculum. Professors merely dictate how the course is run around that curriculum. Secondly, assignments aren't a mandatory aspect for classes. Nowhere does it say that professors MUST give assignments. Therefore, whether they gives assignments or not is irrelevant to their job. In other words, the distribution of class assignments won't have an effect on how much money a professor makes. The assignments are solely there to supplement his or her lessons.
  • TalkUBC
    edited February 2015
    You're not getting the point. Indirectly, as a lecturer, whether professor or not (there's a difference), part of his/her job requirements is to be able to properly have some form of systematic procedure to evaluate students' understanding and application of course materials and lectures--this includes assignments. Thus, the lecturer is indeed being paid for that.

    It's like being a basic cook (lecturer) for a restaurant. You're getting paid to cook and serve food, but you don't create the menu in most cases, the top chefs/managers/owners do (still consisting of cooks), you cook the food and serve it to the customers (students). You're not fulfilling your job duties that you are being paid your wage for if you go to McDonald's and buy their new delicious Chicken Bacon Onion Sandwich and serve it to the customers are you?

    And professors do design much of the curriculum, which is why some of them are allowed to pick which textbooks to use, or even write their own if they feel one is not adequate enough (e.g. Barry Cartwright or Neil Boyd). And professors make up the department.

    So it's not like they make $x per assignment they create and assign, but if their not doing a good job on evaluating students' knowledge and application of the course where assignments would be appropriate in a course, this could prevent a promotion/raise, or $0 salary if they have no tenure and get fired at worst.
  • Shayan4440
    edited February 2015
    Your initial argument was that a professor's salary is partially dependent on them developing a curriculum and assignments. However, there are several errors in this train of thought.

    First let's establish what a curriculum is and how it is made. As I said before, the departments decide the curriculum, the curriculum being the core points of study for the specific course. When introducing any course, administrators of the faculty get together and discuss what the objectives of the course are and what they want to achieve from it. Professors play a role in creating the curriculum, but only a small one. When it then comes to teaching the material, the professor can organize his lectures to his or her preference. This includes what textbook the course will be using, the assignments, and any other supplemental sources. It is important to state that these things don't have a direct impact on the professor's salary, which is what you initially argued.

    It is true that professors can write textbooks themselves to meet the curriculum. They do that so the goals of the department can overlap with the professors teaching better. There are many business professors who have done this (Tingling and Gemino with BUS 237, Blazenko with BUS 312 and so on). This does not, however, mean that professors get to change the course objectives. Almost every professor teaches the exact same content regardless of the textbook because that's what the curriculum states. This then nullifies your point that professors are obligated to create a curriculum. The truth is that they just follow what the department set for the course.

    Yes, a professor's job requirement is to evaluate students in their comprehension of the course material. However, there's no proper format that one must follow to achieve that. There are courses where there's only midterms and a final exam and that's it. Under such conditions, what happens then? Your argument clearly omits these scenarios.

    I get where you're coming from, but given your initial argument, you're not giving any supporting facts to assure the validity of your claims.
  • TalkUBC
    tl;dr
  • TalkUBC
    edited February 2015
    Jk. Yup, and I still maintain that argument as a fact. You're thinking too much in $/x terms.

    You do know that the "administrators" of a faculty are made up of professors and senior lecturers right?

    These things indeed do have an impact on the professor's salary, not directly, but as part of their job duties they are just expected to do so under their Collective Agreement contracts.

    Never did I say professors get to change the course objectives. Obviously this would lead to wide discrepancies from lecturer to lecturer, course to course. BUT, part of a professor's job duties is to indeed develop curriculum, there's no denying this. And refer to line 2 again for how curriculum is set out.

    Of course there's courses with exams only. Refer to last post. It's still part of the systematic evaluation of students' understanding of the course and its objectives. I guess I should have added "and/or" and "may" to be clearer.

    As for supporting facts, if you want cold hard evidence, I forgot where I saw it but if you dig into the SFU Policy Gazette under the "Academic" subsection it was like Section A-something you will be able to see what I'm saying in formal language stipulated there.


  • Shayan4440
    edited February 2015
    "You're thinking too much in $/x terms."

    Everything you say diverges from what your initial argument was...I'm focusing on dollar terms because that's what YOUR argument was.

    "You do know that the "administrators" of a faculty are made up of professors and senior lecturers right?"

    Administrators aren't lecturers...These people include the dean of the faculty and other high ranking individuals. Just recently they added a new business course. It was solely the faculty administrators and head of the department that played an integral role in creating the course and its curriculum. The professor for that course will now be in charge of carrying out the learning objectives of that class.

    "These things indeed do have an impact on the professor's salary, not directly, but as part of their job duties they are just expected to do so under their Collective Agreement contracts."

    Your initial argument highlighted that assignments are a duty of professors and that those duties impact salary. If giving assignments are apart of "their job duties," then courses with exam-only grading schemes contradict your argument. It's as simple as that.

    I will state this one last time. In the end, a professor's job is to make sure the student is leaving the course with adequate knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. This can be done through exams, assignments, and projects. There is no specific combination that is more acceptable. To state that these things affect a professor's salary, however, is silly because they are not standing terms. They are just resources that are at a professor's disposal.
  • TalkUBC
    Yes, but you're focusing on dollars/per something. Think more in dollars for a list of duties.

    You're essentially just reiterating everything I basically said especially in the last paragraph.

    Yes, in the end, a professor's job is to ensure the students' comprehension of the course objectives. If a professor chooses to include assignments as part of this evaluation scheme, it becomes a component that the professor utilizes to perform his job duty of exactly that—a systematic evaluation of the understanding and comprehension of course materials. The professor's salary is being paid in part to fulfill this specific job duty, and thus, when assignments are chosen to be distributed, the professor is making money from those assignments in an indirect way.
  • Shayan4440
    edited February 2015
    It would only be dollars per duty if the duties were specifically mentioned in his or contract. Since a professor's duties are general, it would be flawed to view it that way because methodology ranges person to person.
  • TalkUBC
    Yeah and I'm saying it's not dollars per duty. But dollars for duty. These duties are general, as stated in the Code, but it is expected of them. Therefore it does affect their salary. Duty's expectations not met? Will affect your salary in a way of raise, promotion or tenure security hindrances or at worse letting go if it's flat out not meeting requirements of collective agreement.

    We're getting into circular debate here. It's clearly not getting anywhere, I intend we agree to disagree? I appreciate your responses, thanks for the active and spirited debate.

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