Professor Files Lawsuit to Find Students Who Posted Exam Questions Online

KION546 ^ | March 20, 2022 | Joronica Vinluan, Cheri Mossburg

[nickcarraway]

An assistant professor of business at Southern California's Chapman University has filed a lawsuit against five students, whose identities remain unknown, alleging copyright infringement for posting exam questions anonymously in an online forum.

According to professor David Berkovitz's attorney Marc Hankin, the students, who took midterm and final exams remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic during the spring semester of 2021, are alleged to have posted elements of the tests on Course Hero, a crowdsourced website dedicated to course-specific study supplements.

Because the professor grades on a curve, Hankin said, Berkovitz believes by posting exam-specific questions on Course Hero, "students may have inflated their grades, penalizing other students who did not cheat."

[TexasGator]

“Prof just needs to mix up his exam questions.”

In this case, each student would need a unique test.

[9YearLurker]

I didn’t read the actual article, but as long as all students for a specific exam were being tested at the same time there wouldn’t be any value to questions being posted online anyway.

Therefore, I take this to have been posted for the benefit of students in another section being tested at a later date either within the semester or in a subsequent semester.

That would make it virtually the same as the age-old practice of fraternities saving copies of old exams for future students.

[TexasGator]

“I didn’t read the actual article,”

I stopped reading your post after this.

[Night Hides Not]

Never had that problem in my accounting classes in college. I had the same professor for over 30 semester hours, and he had two tests: a mid-term and final. Every test had the same format, five questions, all essay, and the first sentence of the answer to two (sometimes three) questions was, "based on the information you've given me, I cannot answer the question." You then had to explain why.

It was rumored he thought up the questions walking up the two flights of stairs from his office to the classroom.

He had a wicked sense of humor...as a sophomore, you feared him. As a junior, you came to appreciate him. As a senior, and beyond, you loved the man. I attribute his method of teaching to being able to pass the CPA exam 15 years after college. I finally got back into accounting as a career after the military, and trying my hand at other professions.

[high info voter]

Wow...going to college and learning to cheat to make it through.

.....isn't that normal now days???

[9YearLurker]

You’re still out to lunch on this. If you give students an exam in an environment where they can access the Internet, you’ve compromised pretty much any answer-style exam. You’re giving them a real-time “take home” exam.

[TexasGator]

“I didn’t read the actual article,”

I stopped reading your posts after this.

[9YearLurker]

That might explain why you are still out to lunch on this.

[I got the rope]

Cheating is cheating.