• funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    universities take plagiarism very seriously. Friend of mine teaches stage craft (how to make sets, props, costumes, lighting and sound design/planning/execution/engineering)

    First semester, first test, easy pass: Someone pokes their head into the class and my friend goes to the door to answer them, stepping outside for like ~30 seconds

    comes to mark the papers:

    “In a proscenium theater, what is the very front of the stage called?”

    Real answer: apron

    55% of the student answers: the same made up word that sounded vaguely Portuguese with no hits on Google.

    even though it’s super dumb and super easy and barely matters at all and is a one word answer to a basic question - the students ended up being investigated by the university and my friend had all his classes audited.

    • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      I may be dumb, but to clarify: they were assumed cheating because the word was fake, and the only reason for so many duplicated fake answers would be if they shared a faulty answer sheet. Right?

      • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        yeah, I mean a forgivable wrong answer would be “downstage center” “the front” “the lip” “limelights” “footlights” “wing” “leg” “curtain” “pit” - like close but wrong terminology or similar guesses.

        The fact that loads of them said the same weird wrong answer was very sus.