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Re: [Phys-l] not our majors now!




Having access is not my complaint. Its the unequal access, coupled with the denial that access exists that is wrong. In your example, it might have taken learning how to get along, but access was generally universal. A similar notion among experimentalists when I came through was: If you don't have an (illegal) master key, you don't deserve to graduate. Still, you didn't horde the key when your fellow grad student needed in the machine shop.

My students believe that fair is interpreted as that which benefits *me* more than my competition. So having solution manuals is not, of itself, dishonest, its using that unfair advantage of not sharing it. It reminds me of the movie "Paper Chase", where the future lawyers hide books from their classmates. Cheers, Karl

Quoting Jack Uretsky <jlu@hep.anl.gov>:

But, Karl,
When I was a freshman at MIT in 1941, I had access, through the
library and through the juniors, to all of the previous 2 or 3 years
quizzes, exams, homework answers, and eveything else. That was part of
the system. (The Juniors were our friends, the Sopphs hazed us).
Regards,
Jack



On Thu, 5 Oct 2006 trappe@physics.utexas.edu wrote:

You guys missed the "Hong Kong Press" era. When I was grading core
graduate physics courses in grad school, I had several students
vociferously argue with me that my request to "fill in the steps" was
rediculous since "It is obvious..."

My supervising porfessor watched in amusement as I kept sending the
students away to fill in the steps. Finally, he asked me: "You know
why he is so confident in arguing with you, don't you?" "No, I
replied" to which he said..."Hong Kong Press..."

Way back in the 60's and 70's, Hong Kong ignored international
copyright and produced solution manuals. Because of the interest in
technology as an escape from poverty, solution manuals existed for
nearly every graduate physics text in existence. Sure it was illegal
to import them, but how many customs officials actually read the
Chinese solution manuals to discern if they are pirated editions?

After that I was livid about the "head in the sand" attitude of
Physics faculty. They pretended it didn't exist. When I got a copy
of the solution manual to Jackson's E&M and ran it under their noses,
their retort was that the solution manuals had mistakes in them...and
that the students weren't really learning.

I was not (and am still not) amused. Most graduate physics courses
have a large component of very difficult homework. Regardless how it
counts in the grades, the exams are exceedingly similar to those
homework problems.

Students who get the solutions from *anywhere* will do better than
students who never see the solution. That's a no brainer, even for an
osterich.

Years later, I asked a colleague how he prevented scholastic
dishonesty in his classes. He said: "Figure out every possible way
they might cheat (cheat sheets, solution manuals, etc) then make those
part of the acceptable ways of succeeding in the course." Engage the
students in defeating their own lopsided way of succeeding over their
classmates. For example, *let* them have a cheat sheet, give them
print outs of equations, place your old sets of HW in the library so
everybody has access to them, not just the "former UG students" or the
students who are in a research lab with grad students ahead of them.
In other words, Level the playing field for everybody, or accept that
you are part of the good old boy, fraternity cheating cabal. Most of
all, don't be an osterich and deny your complicity with the insiders.
Trying to "keep the honest people honest" only works to promote the
dishonest advantage.

Karl

Quoting "Rauber, Joel" <Joel.Rauber@SDSTATE.EDU>:

Krishna said in part:

| Even worse. I went to Google, typed in physics homework
| solutions. Third
| hit:
|
| http://www.solutionarchive.org/

I forgot that site!

I would implore all instructors to either not post solutions on line or
at least password protect them and then remove them when the course is
over. This won't totally solve the problem by any means, as students
can download and then post themselves, but it would help.

Later Krishna stated:

"I feel that this must always have been a problem. Fraternities are the
most common example, but plenty of student groups have solution files of
homeworks and exams."

I think the ease with which the internet allows you to access the whole
world's solution files makes the problem incomparably different, as you
say, an order or magnitude greater.

Yea, when I was at school the fraternities had files, but there weren't
too many with upper division physics courses in them!
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
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_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l


--
"Trust me. I have a lot of experience at this."
General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley



_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l