TheStar.com | GTA | Student faces Facebook consequences
A Ryerson University student is facing academic misconduct charges for organizing a Facebook group for fellow chemistry students to “get help with some of the questions the professor would give students to do online.” As he describes it:
“So we each would be given chemistry questions and if we were having trouble, we’d post the question and say: `Does anyone get how to do this one? I didn’t get it right and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.’ Exactly what we would say to each other if we were sitting in the Dungeon [a physical study space],” said Avenir yesterday.
I can see that the prof might be worried about an online version of answer keys that I’ve been told have been popular in fraternities for years. Yet if this is a method of studying that students find valuable, and they go about it in an honest way, it should be encouraged…especially since they’re going to do it anyway. It might be more work for an instructor to structure questions so that answers can’t be shared, but it’s work that all students would benefit from.