The new copying
If you want to copy off someone during an exam, don’t discuss this on Facebook. Two Belgian students received a zero as grade for their exam, based on their online conversations. Appropriate, as the national council for exam-dispute judged.
Modern cooperation
‘Want to help?’ ‘Always, of course.’ In the Facebook conversations, published on the website of ‘De Standaard’, the students discussed how they would cooperate during the exam. Before the exam they divided the subjects. Afterwards they boasted: ‘If that wasn’t cooperation during the exam…’ When somebody warned them that the school might read the messages on the internet, one of the students wrote: ‘I don’t think so.’
The evidence
Supervisors saw the two students talking during the exam, but didn’t find evidence that the two had committed fraud. After complaints of fellow students the college encountered Facebook, and finally let the students fail for their exam. The national council for exam-dispute judged the school to be right; online conversations are a valid evidence for fraud. The message: don’t let everybody read your Facebook-page. And if you still want to copy, you’d better send each other an e-mail.
