A Case Against Online Education

100% True
100% Scary

The letters below are blinded copies of the official communication between a Masters of Science student and an online university.

This university also offers traditional courses. The in-class option provides an excellent education.

This university is fully accredited by the North Central Association of Higher Education.

Make your own determination as to the value of this course.

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TO COLLEGE FROM STUDENT
This letter is to inform you of several occurrences of plagiarism in the most recent course taught by Dr. ***. Blinded copies are enclosed for your review. On *** Dr. *** responded to my concern via email saying “it's not entirely unusual for one student to pick up ideas from another to help form their response.” So, after the second occurrence of plagiarism I asked Director *** to look into the issue.

The graduate code of the University is clear in its expectations of honesty and character. And a graduate student, according the *** Academic Bulletin, is “ expected to understand clearly the nature of cheating and is subject to dismissal from the university for a single incident.”

I am deeply concerned with the quality of education provided to the online students. In addition to the plagiarism, the spelling and grammar used in the discussion forum was not generally at the collegiate level (consider the sample dated *** at 10:55pm). If the instructor is unable or unwilling to assure honesty and quality then the University must step in.

The actions of Dr. *** and Director *** contradict the North Central Commission’s Handbook of Accreditation on three of the five criterion: (#1) Mission and Integrity (#3) Student Learning and Effective Teaching (#4) Acquisition, Discover, and Application of Knowledge.

I believe this can be handled without a formal NCA inquiry. I request that you review this situation thoroughly and respond in writing within thirty days.

Thank you,

**** Blinded Examples

Workshop One
Concerns to professor on ***
Concerns escalated to program director on ***
Concerns followed up with professor on *** (by director)

Workshop Six
Concerns to professor and director on ***
Concerns escalated to *** administration on *** (by director)

*** Discussion | Workshop Six

GROUP ONE
***, ***, ***, ***
Posted *** @ 5:13am
Sourced as: "Based on Walgreen’s found at..."

***'s ongoing task is to offer customers the best online gaming on the web. We focus on gaming innovation with the desires of the end-user in mind. We are guided by values of fairness, trust and honesty as we continue to expand our client base and offer career opportunities to a fast-growing and diverse group of men and women. Our passion is to form and maintain a corporate culture based on respect, creativity, productivity and dignity. We will support these efforts with the most current available technology and international multi-lingual customer service. The success we achieve will allow us to reinvest in our future and build long-term financial security for our customers, our employees and our shareholders.

GROUP TWO
***, ***, ***
Posted *** @ 6:32am
Sourced as: None Given

Offer the best online gaming on the world wide web for their customers, focusing on the desires of the end-user. Our core values will be that of trust and honesty as we go into expanding our client bases and career opportunities. Maintain a corporate culture based on not only trust and honesty, but also on respect, productivity, and creativity.

*** Discussion | Workshop One

***
Posted *** @ 9:48am
In situations of trust deficiency and training self-directed teams would not be advisable. And in situations of low skilled workers it should be used cautiously. The concept is built on knowledge, trust, and understanding. To paraphrase Seinfeld the members must be masters of their domain.

***
Posted *** @ 10:55PM

In continue education on our product or trust deficiency, self-directed teams cannot produce a productive outcome. The amount of product (phones, accessories, data accessories) is not conducive or can sales representatives—to some level, be trusted with this. Inventory is very important.

*** Discussion | Workshop One

***
Posted *** @ 2:16pm
While spirituality is not an official task or concern of a company, the value cannot be ignored. Employees strive to maintain a balance of work and life; this includes their religious affiliations and commitments. Furthermore spirituality serves as a cornerstone for individual values and ethical considerations. Therefore the employer must be sure that spirituality is cautiously monitored such that it can be followed individually if desired but is not forced onto/around others in a manner that is construed as offensive (employers must also assure there is no appearance of preference).

***
Posted *** @ 9:19pm
While spirituality usually isn't considered in a company, it can't be ignored. People that want to keep their Sabbath (no matter what day it is) has to be taken into consideration in some job assignments. As a general rule, one's spirituality, along with culture values, is the basis of one's morals and ethics. High morals and ethics are qualities that companies look for in their employees. However, a company can not be biased for or against a particular religion.

RESPONSE TO STUDENT

This letter is in response to your letter addressed to Dr. *** dated ***. In your letter you stated that there were “several occurrences of plagiarism in the most recent course taught by Dr. ***.” You then presented one instance of group work and two instances of individual discussion postings that you believe were examples of plagiarized material.

The two instances of individual discussion postings that you presented as plagiarism occurred during Workshop One. Your two postings in the *** Discussion Forum were the first student postings in the discussion forum and thus became the basis for an initial thread of discussion. Of extreme importance is the fact that, unlike in-class synchronous discussions where students can add to the discussion using somewhat incomplete thoughts, the initial post of an asynchronous online discussion requires that a student state their thoughts using complete sentences and paragraphs that often include general language related to the question as it has been stated in the workshop material.

In the first example presented, both you and your classmate submitted initial posts that included five paragraphs. Your claim is that the second paragraph of your classmate’s post, discussing the role of spirituality in an organization, was plagiarized based on your fourth paragraph. Careful review reveals that your classmate submitted an initial post that included their own thoughts, several of which were entirely new to the threaded discussion. The particular paragraph in question also had several unique thoughts wrapped inside some relatively general language. In this paragraph, the student was responding to the general question, “Discuss what role spirituality plays in an organization. How do you see [this] reflected in ***?” With this in mind, the statement in the *** honesty and cheating policy that says, “Unquestionable evidence must be in hand before any action will be taken to confront and accuse a student of cheating” cannot be upheld.

The second example provided was also a situation in which one of your classmates presented their initial post. In this case, the student was describing specifically how their company could not utilize self-directed teams. The somewhat poor grammar in the post did make it difficult to understand some of the content. However, other than utilizing a few similar words, the intent and meaning of the paragraph were significantly different than yours. In this case, the student may have developed some of the thought process from your post but the thought development is no different than how students will build on a synchronous conversation utilizing thoughts initially presented by a fellow student.

Regarding spelling and grammar in online discussion forums, it must be stated that the quality of the written word is judged and graded in accordance with the stated course discussion rubric. In comparison, in a classroom setting, the assignment of participation points often has little or no relationship to the quality of grammar or spelling during classroom discussions and activities. Thus, the “penalty” in an online course is more severe than the typical classroom setting.

Finally, concerning the group work example from Workshop Six, you must remember that there are threads of discussion within the small group rooms that allow facilitators and administrators to track the development of group items such as the Mission statement in question. *** has investigated your allegation of plagiarism in this activity and will determine the appropriate action, if any, to be taken.

I appreciate your desire to ensure that *** continues to provide the highest level of honesty and quality in our academic programs.

Sincerely,