Hi Rod,
This happened to me my first semester. Like you, I wrestled with myself but eventually decided I had to give the student the benefit of the doubt. Like other TIPSters that have jumped in, though, I now go back and mark through the correct answer by hand on Scantrons and, interestingly, I no longer have students claiming the Scantron made a mistake.
Julie
Julie A. Penley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology
El Paso Community College
PO Box 20500
El Paso TX 79998-0500
"Hetzel, Roderick D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi folks:
I have a situation that I've never come across before and wanted to get
your perspective.
I just finished teaching a large (120+ students) non-majors Abnormal
Psychology class this semester. Because it was a large lecture class,
the major assignments in the class were five multiple-choice exams, each
worth 100 points, plus a few scattered quizzes. Because the class is so
large and I don't have a teaching assistant, I held an optional meeting
after each exam for any student who wanted to review their exam and
discuss items they got wrong.
During the review of exam 3, one of my students asked what he should do
if the scantron marked a correct answer as incorrect. I told him to
circle the item and bring it to me at the end of the meeting. When we
were done, the student showed me the scantron. He had circled 7 items
that he claimed the scantron had incorrectly graded. He said that he had
at first filled in the incorrect answer, but when he realized his
mistake he erased it and filled in the correct answer. He said that he
must not have erased very well so the scantron read the incorrect
answer.
The student earned a 52/100 on this exam. If I were to give him credit
for these 7 items, then his grade would be raised to a 66/100. This also
would raise his final course grade from a D to a C. His grades on the
other four exams in the class were 34, 62, 78, and 80.
I told the student that I would think about the situation and get back
to him. He asked me during the next class if I had made a decision. I
told him to schedule a meeting with me outside of class and I would talk
with him about it. I reminded him several times to do this in the
following weeks, but he never contacted me to schedule the appointment
until yesterday, the day after classes ended.
I have never come across a situation in which a scantron machine made so
many mistakes on one exam. In looking at his answer sheet, he had erased
his answers very well, so well in fact that I have no clue how the
scantron machine could have read them.
If the student had scheduled an appointment with me, I had planned to
explain my dilemma and give him an opportunity to come clean, if he had
indeed cheated. If he told me that he hadn't cheated, then I was going
to give him a chance to answer those 7 questions again when he took Exam
5 during the last day of class: same content but different response
options. Of course, now classes are over and all the exams have been
taken.
Not sure how to proceed at this point. On one hand, I could take his
word and give him credit for those 7 items, but if he had cheated I
don't want to reinforce that behavior (not to mention his lack of
follow-through on all of this) with a higher final course grade.
I meet with this student later today. Any suggestions would be much
appreciated!
Rod
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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