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YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

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Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#191

A bit of chatter here about "it eventually catches up to people anyway" that I think misses the point. You want people to learn when the stakes are low. This is better for them, and it's better for all of us. School should gradually go from low stakes to higher stakes, not be a low-stakes zone the whole time that then tosses people into the real world. Otherwise you're presented with terrible choices like expelling a…

Your solution would cure a lot of ills besides just this; in fact it has long been known to be the formula for improving schools in lots of measurable ways. In other words you are describing "good education." They should be doing it already whether cheating is an issue or not. But they've already rejected it, at least in many public schools, because they're too resource-constrained.

...or believe they are.

...or are made to believe they are.

...or are given so much pointless BS to do that even though they're not, they are.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#192
post #162
post #158

I would love to see universities set a precedent and just catalog these YoutTbers by name, and then let them know that they are permanently barred from ever being admitted to their schools. That would send a very strong message about how dishonorable academic cheating is. Anyone promoting it is unfit for higher education, for obvious reasons.

Disagree. I argue that a poorly educated person would be more likely to cheat. In a sense, that punishment would be refusing education for the crime of lacking education.

A poorly educated person is the most likely to benefit from an education. Cheating just means they intend to get credit for an education without actually becoming more educated.

Cheaters have no place in academia.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm guessing the target of this kind of service are large classes where the professor can't practically get to examine each person's essays and internalize that unique voice. They say they can write your PhD thesis for you. How on earth can that work? You'll have years of intense one-on-one tuition with an expert in the field and they're not going to notice someone wrote the thesis? How are you going to withstand s…

Maybe they’re lying? I mean, they’re a cheating service, so bullshitting their customers seems par for course. What are they going to do, try and get their money back? Bring a suit in Ukraine? Leave bad feedback? I’m sure the review system is gamed by the company, since they are professiomsl cheaters . Getting a shitty paper from them is going to be like buying powdered sugar from a coke dealer.

Yep. I'm a teacher. In my experience nearly 100% of students caught cheating turned in essays that were terrible to begin with. They would most likely not pass the course even if they didn't get turned in for academic dishonesty.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, precisely!!!! The system is. broken. to. begin. with. And not just with cheating, with a number of different factors. What incentive, as a student, do I have to NOT cheat if I won't get caught?

1) your own personal ethics, and 2) the fact that being caught, especially in a college environment, has consequences.

[updated my comment, apologies for the poor wording]

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One community particularly harmed by academic cheating is foreign students, particularly those from China and India. Cheating amongst foreign students, particularly those from India and China, occurs at elevated frequencies [1]. But there is money to be made. Universities earn fat tuitions. And parades of scumbags take exams, write papers and falsify figures for a fee. The result is limited enforcement in the specifi…

When visiting a university in China, I saw a prominently displayed list of students who were caught cheating in the most recent term. I haven't yet seen such lists in American universities.

That’s because American universities don’t put your name on a list when you cheat. They expel you.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One community particularly harmed by academic cheating is foreign students, particularly those from China and India. Cheating amongst foreign students, particularly those from India and China, occurs at elevated frequencies [1]. But there is money to be made. Universities earn fat tuitions. And parades of scumbags take exams, write papers and falsify figures for a fee. The result is limited enforcement in the specifi…

When visiting a university in China, I saw a prominently displayed list of students who were caught cheating in the most recent term. I haven't yet seen such lists in American universities.

My partner is finishing their masters in China currently (native Chinese). The levels of cheating that go on within her course alone are mind boggling:

1. Girls asking their would-be boyfriends to complete their essays and attend modules.

2. Purchasing completed essays from Taobao.

3. Copy pasting others work from Baidu with only name alterations.

4. Paying exam setters for exam questions.

Of course this is anecdotal but she has often tried to explain the culture of "Getting. good result is more important than how you got it". Cheating and succeeding shows you're resourceful. Getting caught is the only shame. The pressure and competition drives people to cheat because if you don't, you're left behind by everyone else who is.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#199
post #183

I think the solution to this is...classes have homework assignments throughout the semesters, but your final paper is one that you write in class. And it's like 50% of your grade. The purpose of the homework assignments throughout the semester is to prepare for the final. If you ace the final, even having paid for essays - then congrats you were able to learn. Cheating is too easy now. There's a website where you can…

> I've even seen websites that give solutions to Kumon homeowork. For those who don't know Kumon - it's an after school curriculum to help kids develop academically, to get to grade level if they are behind, of to accelerate ahead even further if they are already ahead. What's the point of cheating on those...

Smh. Cheating at Kumon is pointless. It's the process that matters, the end result is meaningless.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is stealing from stores that don't have good security also useful to society, by bringing future competition to the industry? And if so, does that make stealing moral?

The difference is that diplomas are not fungible but most products bought from a store are.

I don't understand how that changes the reasoning. If something is immoral, I argue that it is still immoral even if everyone is doing it. Why would that change if that something immoral involved a non-fungible good?
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