Evening friends. Like a prepper getting ready for the end of society, I thought I better prepare for the impeding collapse of twitter under the vast weight of Elon's stupidity and hubris.
So, here we are.
To save you the tedium of the "About" page, I'm the head of misconduct (and various other things) for a large public research university in Sydney, Australia. As you can imagine, I've seen some things. I've investigated plagiarism, exam cheating, contract cheating (my personal favourite), roast cheating, fried cheating, steamed cheating, and every other type available in the global supermarket.
I hope this internet outpost will allow me to capture ideas that pop into my head about cheating, learning, universities, students and anything else I wake up annoyed about. Occasionally I might even flesh them out into something sensible. If you hang around, you might even find a few juicy tidbits (nothing confidential), and some solid ideas to help you deal with cheating, if that's your bag.
Because folks, things are pretty grim. Cheating is, in point of fact, rampant in global academia. And that was before ChatGPT.
Tons of people are freaking out about generative AI, but I'm not among them. ChatGPT, like the Covid pandemic, is an opportunity for us to change- unis, students and staff alike.
As much as we'd all like to believe that universities are home to great feats of intellectual prowess, where great minds teach budding young minds thirsty for knowledge, the more I see, the more I believe that's wishful thinking bullshit. Students want credentials so they can get jobs. Unis want students so their endless pilgrimage to build shiny buildings and climb rankings will continue. Each group somewhat quietly turning away from the failings of the other for mutual benefit. And so contract cheating is rampant, and unis continually shy away from facing that reality.
Because I'm quite contrary, but also hugely idealistic, none of this sits particularly comfortably with me. And so I see my investigative work as a way to bring some element of truth back to university, both for students and for the institution itself.
Erm sorry, went a little bit flight of fancy there. I'll stick to dick jokes in future.
Anywho, if no one reads this, I'll try to keep writing because sometimes I want to think less about cheating, and more about my dogs and Arsenal Football Club. Please feel free to comment on anything.
Cheers,
Kane