Author: Brett F. Sanders

Brett Sanders is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Urban Planning and Public Policy and Interim Dean of Undergraduate Student Affairs for the Samueli School.

Contact: bsanders@uci.edu

An Unpleasant Fall Quarter Surprise

Courses in several Departments had exams impacted by Chegg during the Fall quarter. Chegg is an online resource that allows users to post any technical question (or problem) and then wait for an answer (solution). While taking an exam, a typical incident of academic misconduct begins with a student who creates a screen-shot of an exam question and uploads it to Chegg as an image file. Within a matter of minutes to hours, an answer to the question is posted by another user or agent of Chegg – and becomes available to paid subscribers. Furthermore, any text or math that appears in the image is identified and extracted, and then a text version of the question is generated and available for search engines like Google. If a student who is taking the test simply cuts and pastes an exam question into Google, a link to the solution available on Chegg will appear if it’s been solved – and will be accessible to those who are subscribers. Hence, academic misconduct continues when students search for answers to test questions and view posted solutions. The most common mode of cheating involves students who panic when they don’t know how to solve a problem and they resort to an online search.

During mid-Fall quarter, as I was providing assistance to two faculty who had exams compromised by Chegg, I wondered whether the course I was teaching (ENGRCEE 170) was also impacted. I concluded that it was not – but I would later learn that I was wrong and that I was searching the wrong way. I made the mistake of searching Chegg based on the course name and course number – what I needed to be doing was searching Google based on the full text of each question that appeared on my exam.

Evidence of academic misconduct only appeared to myself and TAs when we graded the final exam and noticed solution patterns that: (a) were wrong and (b) used equations and notations that we did not teach in class and did not appear in our book. Shortly thereafter, one of my TAs found one of our final exam questions on Chegg – and then the house fell down – nearly all of the exam questions had been posted on Chegg along with solutions.

I contacted Chegg to request a report of users who posted exam questions and viewed the solutions, and to request that they remove the material. Within a few days, I received reports for both of the midterm exams, as well as the final exam. This revealed the UCInetIDs of several students in the course, UCInetIDs of students not in the course, and users with ghost email addresses. To complete the investigation of students who were involved, I worked with several campus offices (Privacy, Student Conduct, Campus Counsel, and Student Affairs) to get approval for OIT to trace the IP addresses of the students who used Chegg. OIT can cross-reference the IP addresses provided in the Chegg report against the IP addresses of students who logged in to take the exam (based on the class roster), but only after an approval process for ensuring privacy protections. Alas, the investigation took quite a bit of time and the results have now been submitted to the Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct for (possible and likely) disciplinary action. The investigation showed evidence that 11 students engaged in cheating out of a total of 167 students in the class.

So What’s the Point?

We are stuck in this awful situation for the foreseeable future. UCOP has chosen not to take action against these companies, and individual instructors don’t have the resources to fight and win this battle. This really goes beyond any university. It strikes me that schools across the country at all levels ought to be working together to force government to better regulate these companies. Recently, Chegg created something called Honor Shield, which is a non-starter for me. It asks instructors to upload whole exams to their website so Chegg can check to see if users are submitting questions from exams. Are you ready to turn over all your exams to Chegg? Good grief.

We are left taking steps to discourage and minimize exam interference. (I think “prevent” is too strong of a word.) Some of you are using tools like the Lockdown Browser and I’d be curious to hear how that is going. I elected not to use that in my class over concern for (disadvantaged) students who were having various challenges with hardware and software – just staying online can be a challenge for many students. And overall, I just hate making life more difficult for the vast majority of students in order to control misconduct by a small minority of students.

One thing that I recommend to faculty is an announcement and/or statement on the syllabus that the university has the investigative power to identify cheaters based on the IP address used to access an exam.

Another important reminder for students is that ethics is a foundation of our profession.

And yet another important point is that Chegg solutions are frequently wrong! Imagine this: paying $20 a month to have access to solutions to problems that are wrong and provide strong and clear evidence of cheating to the university. In addition to students, I suspect parents might be interested in hearing this message, especially when graduation is delayed and education costs go up tens of thousands of dollars.

Nevertheless, my final point is to not over-react and make life too difficult for the majority of the students out of concern for a small minority. Of course, finding the right balance is always tough and variations in approaches can be expected by the instructor and course.

Available to Help

I’ll close by saying that I’m available to help: (a) I have a Chegg account so I can show instructors posted solutions to problems, (b) I have a Dean’s letter that I can share with faculty for use in requesting a report from Chegg, and (c) I’d be happy to chat with you and provide guidance and suggestions if your course is impacted.

And on we go….

Author: J. Michael McCarthy

J. Michael McCarthy is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.  Prof. McCarthy attended Summer Faculty Working Groups facilitated by The Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DTEI) and worked with Changwei Chen, a DTEI fellow, to prepare for on-line course delivery with an on-campus fabrication laboratory. DTEI Working Groups are made up of 4-5 faculty involved in course planning who meet on a weekly basis to share ideas and get feedback and recommendations from DTEI experts.

Contact: jmmccart@uci.edu

What course are you planning?

ENGRMAE 183 – Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms.

Figure 1

Prototype of a mechanical walker.

What are the main instructional goals?

I am updating this class to adopt a project-based approach for Spring of 2021 and a new textbook that I developed, Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms: a Project-Based Approach (MDA Press 2019). While visiting Professor Bernard Roth at Stanford, I taught a similar class where I tested the project-based approach, and it helped me to develop this new book. The project-based approach allows instruction to shift reliance away from more theoretical textbooks such as Geometric Design of Linkages (Springer, 2011), which consists of equations from beginning to end.

What steps are you taking to achieve these goals during the COVID-19 pandemic?

My experience with the DTEI Summer Faculty Working Group has given me the confidence to teach a majority of the class on-line in with a combination of synchronous and asynchronous materials. I have prepared a number of videos with the help of an excellent team of undergraduate and graduate students that walk the students through the basic techniques that yield innovative designs and digital prototypes. 

Figure 2

Digital prototype of a mechanical walker.

The main challenge I face is constructing physical prototypes (Figure 1) with a class that could be over 60 students.  A team of undergraduate and graduate students together with Ben Dolan of the Institute for Design and Manufacturing Innovation, and volunteer consultants Ron Kessler and Brandon Tsuge, have helped define a procedure for the on-line purchase of component parts and manufacture using laser cutters and 3D printing. This procedure results in something the student designers can assemble.

The plan is to divide the class into three person teams and have them design a part by part digital prototype of a mechanical walker (Figure 2), and then generate a parts list for purchase and drawings for manufacture.  I will obtain the purchased parts and Ben Dolan will make the manufactured parts.   Then I will schedule ET302 for use by each team one at a time for assembly of their walking machines.  This will limit the density of people in the space and work within the campus guidelines for return to campus.

What’s one thing you would want other instructors to know based on your experience?

My main message is that is takes hours of preparation to provide students with the opportunity to learn new material and to be creative with its application in a combined on-line and project-based learning format.  

I have developed hours of video demonstrations as well as an ever changing set of notes.  And I have spent much of the summer working with my volunteers to identify parts and fabrication methods to make it easy to remotely design and manufacture the walker components, so the project teams meet only to assemble their mechanical walker  I am very grateful to colleagues in the DTEI Summer Faculty Working Groups, my DTEI fellow, and my team of undergraduate, graduate students and volunteers, who have helped me every step of the way.  I plan to practice further on a small group of graduate students in Fall 2021, so that I can successfully and safely guide undergraduate students in Spring 2021 in the design and fabrication of a set of unique walking machines, following campus requirements during this pandemic.

Authors: Ariane Jong, Esther Cookson and Daniel Kahl.

The authors are MS/PHD students in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and will be Teaching Assistants this coming year for a two-course sequence on fluid mechanics and water resources engineering. Ari and Daniel were also appointed as DTEI fellows in summer of 2020.

Contact: arianej@uci.edu, cooksone@uci.edu, dkahl1@uci.edu

What course/lab are you planning?

We are planning the hands-on laboratory component of a two-course sequence: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics (ENGRCEE 170) and Water Resources Engineering (ENGRCEE 171). 

Figure 1

A kit delivered to students includes plastic fittings, rubber washers, and tubing so students can create physical models of water reservoirs and distribution systems at home.

What are the main instructional goals?

This course sequence introduces students to fluid mechanics (including mechanisms and conservation principles for mass, momentum and energy transport) and the application of these principles for analysis and design of water resources systems such as water supply systems and drainage systems.

Hands-on learning experiences are included to bring theory and problem-solving to life and allow students to contemplate the limitations of theory and grapple with the challenges of measurement errors. Additionally, these experiences aim to give students an opportunity to be creative by designing a system to meet a specific need. Specific learning outcomes include knowledge of measurement techniques, analyzing data, merging theory/models with data, designing water systems and report preparation.

What steps are you taking to achieve these goals during the COVID-19 pandemic?

With input and guidance from Professors Russell Detwiler and Brett Sanders, and inspired by the use of kits for at-home labs in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, we designed a new set of laboratory assignments that students can do at home with a kit to achieve the hands-on learning goals of the class. The experimental kit includes an assortment of low-cost supplies like plastic nozzle fittings, rubber washers, and tubing, which students will combine with 2-liter plastic bottles to create physical models of water networks with reservoirs, pumps, and pipelines (Figure 1).  The kit also includes a small submersible pump and a measuring tape, and students can use smart phones as timers for measurement purposes. The purchase and delivery of these kits to each student was made possible by a sponsorship from the Irvine Ranch Water District.

In the first course, ENGRCEE 170, students will collect data on water level, flow velocity, and discharge and use these observations to develop, calibrate, and validate a simulation model.  The model is then used to make a prediction on a system with different dimensions. Hence, the main goal here is for students to grapple with concepts of measurement error, structural model error, and uncertainties in predictions.

Figure 2

The kits allow students to build and test physical models of water system networks including reservoirs, pipelines and pumps.

In the second course, ENGRCEE 171, students will use the test kit to build water networks consisting of multiple reservoirs and pipelines that are interconnected in different ways with tubing.  From week to week, the system configuration will change allowing students to test different hypotheses about flow of water in network systems. Eventually, the students will configure a network that models a simplified water distribution network including a submersible pump (Figure 2). Data collected from this system will then be used for system modeling with software developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for water supply system analysis and design, EPANET. These experiences will allow students to deepen understanding of network concepts such as “flow in parallel” and “flow in series.” Students will also gain experience using software that is widely used in practice and experience learn how well software can reproduce what is observed with measurements.

What’s one thing you would want other instructors to know based on your experience?

DTEI training emphasized that you can never really know what kind of circumstance a student might be in, or what factors may be affecting their capacity to learn from home during this time.  Consequently, we each spent time building these systems at home with careful consideration to the resources that would be needed, including tools, supplies and guidance. We also tested out different experimental procedures to find the best approach, and we prepared a set of instructional videos for guidance. Hence, our first message we’d like to share is that it’s important to consider the types of resources (tools, water supply, etc.) that students are likely to have at home, and its valuable to test lab procedures in several different household settings so methods can be optimized before assigning them to the class.

The second point we want to emphasize is that at-home labs present students an opportunity for greater autonomy and responsibility in a creative process, and for making critical design decisions. In our Department, most class projects involve teams and there is no shortage of opportunities to gain experience in teamwork. However, when students work in teams, the level of engagement of students is variable leading to a type of inequity where some students gain much more experience than others. We plan to survey student attitudes about the experience at the end of the quarter and learn more about the pros and cons of this approach.

Acknowledgement

Sponsorship of the at-home labs by the Irvine Ranch Water District is gratefully acknowledged.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put enormous stress on the lives of people around the world, forcing changes in our work, lifestyles, studies, and everything imaginable. In these times, delivering engineering education in line with our core tenets of human connections, experiential learning and diversity poses enormous challenges. The purpose of this blog is to communicate the creative activities taking place at the Samuel School to fulfill our mission. We aim to inform instructors and staff across the School with potentially useful ideas and information, and share best practices. We also aim to share student experiences that are helping the Samueli School to achieve its goals. We are a team! If you are interested in sharing your experience on this blog, please contact me.

Brett Sanders, Ph.D
Interim Associate Dean of Undergraduate Student Affairs
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Professor (wos) of Urban Planning and Public Policy
bsanders@uci.edu