[HN Gopher] EFF Questions Methodology Behind Dartmouth Cheating ...
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       EFF Questions Methodology Behind Dartmouth Cheating Allegations
       [pdf]
        
       Author : jasonhansel
       Score  : 71 points
       Date   : 2021-05-09 13:49 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.eff.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.eff.org)
        
       | troelsSteegin wrote:
       | For more, the NYTimes:
       | https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/technology/dartmouth-geis...
       | 
       | "Almost immediately, questions emerged over whether the committee
       | had mistaken automated activity on Canvas for human activity,
       | based on a limited subset of exam data.
       | 
       | Geisel students said they often had dozens of course pages open
       | on Canvas, which they rarely logged out of. Those pages can
       | automatically generate activity data even when no one is looking
       | at them, according to The Times's analysis and technology
       | experts."
        
         | an_opabinia wrote:
         | What a horror show.
         | 
         | Were the MCATs used for admission sufficiently reliable? Most
         | people think so, and since future test scores are most strongly
         | predicted by prior test scores, medicine is trending away from
         | ranking (ie non instructive) exams once you're "in." Net
         | increase in pass fail medical programs. Step 1 just became pass
         | fail. Things like ABSITE becoming optional (ie diagnostic or
         | instructional). Inbound students are so high quality despite
         | there being so much more of them that maybe the testing really
         | is counterintuitively too intense.
         | 
         | Even if it were true that the students cheated, it isn't
         | material anymore, it maybe never has been, _after you've been
         | admitted_.
         | 
         | Could it work differently? I feel like your average medical
         | dropout (no offense, essentially the average programmer on
         | Hacker News) probably cheated more in school than an admitted
         | medical student does. Remote leetcode has exacerbated that.
         | 
         | On the other hand, a 23 year old who has made it just past the
         | 1st year into their BigCo job probably faces more soul crushing
         | false positive bureaucracy like watching your every digital
         | move than a 23 year old 1 year into a top ranked medical
         | program. The EFF would get much more mileage out of advocacy
         | about 360deg reviews, PIPs, stack rank, meetings about
         | meetings, "mental health days," etc. than this fortunately
         | isolated and rapidly ameliorating incident.
         | 
         | Because if there's one thing big tech people are actually
         | really bad at, it's reducing soul crushing bureaucracy.
        
           | dogman144 wrote:
           | I don't really understand. What point are you trying to make?
        
       | pgn674 wrote:
       | EFF's blog post on it:
       | https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/proctoring-tools-and-d...
        
       | dogman144 wrote:
       | It's exciting that the EFF is getting a new sense of relevancy
       | due to digitization of all the things through 2020.
       | 
       | They seem to be in a strong place to launch clear counterpoints
       | to admin teams who signed up for whatever tech without really
       | understanding it but are now trying to make admin findings with
       | the tech.
        
         | tailspin2019 wrote:
         | I've been increasingly impressed with a lot of their activities
         | in recent months.
         | 
         | A few weeks ago I donated for the first time and became a
         | member.
         | 
         | https://supporters.eff.org/donate/30for30--D
        
           | gumby wrote:
           | No complaints about previous directors but the organization
           | has really taken off since Cindy Cohn became the executive
           | director.
        
             | tailspin2019 wrote:
             | I wasn't aware of Cindy Cohn - thanks for educating me.
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Cohn
        
       | lupire wrote:
       | Utter stupidity.
       | 
       | Download the files before the exam and use them to cheat --OK.
       | Browse to the class site during the test -- cheating.
        
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       (page generated 2021-05-09 23:02 UTC)