>Well, sure. But that wasn't the *assignment* ...
>the assignment was to provide answers to a set of obviously easy questions
>in an elegant, navigable way ...
>
>and, to Mike Salvo (or someone) -- yes, I told the students that it was
>open-web and that, as always, they were each other's own best resources.
>No one objected when two students met in MOO space to discuss the quiz
>while everyone was taking it ...
>
OK Mick, that does it for me. Now I know why the other students are so
pissed off, and I can;t say as I blame them. It's not so much an issue of
*policy* as it is an issue of *courtesy*, which hits people where they live,
especially when the reward of grades are at stake. The two who met in the
MOO had *each other's* consent to do so, and since others were aware that
they were doing so, everyone was cool with it because they had an
*opportunity* to object if they had wanted.
But this kid pulled the "sneak attack" in the eleventh hour, and ripped
everyone off without even deigning to seek consent. Your crowd feels
cheated because he ignored some of the basic netiquette that we all practice
here, in our own technorhet communities. Haven't we asked each other for
links to each other's syllawebs? Yes, we do a majority of the work
ourselves, but when we see that one of our colleagues has done it more
elegantly, don't we at least extend the courtesy of asking before we swipe?
I think most of us do. And even if we don't *have* to, we do it anyway,
maybe just to compliment the original webber on a job well done.
Your student should be subjected to the decision of the online community
that you've set up in the classroom, Mick. Go with the democratic method
that Tim Mayers suggests, since that seems to be how you've allowed the
class to work all along, and since they would need to write their way
through the decision collaboratively, as a community.
The "stealth webber" ought to have a voice in his own defense, too, but you
should (like any good judge in a democratically schizo system of checks and
balances) reserve the right to make the final decision.
Good luck, Mick, and keep us posted on the outcome.
Claudine Keenan