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83 Ohio State University students are accused of cheating on graded assignments in a business course using a group messaging app last school year.
According to a statement from the university, an investigation by Ohio State’s Committee on Academic Misconduct resulted in 83 undergraduate students charged with violations of the school’s code of student conduct.
The university’s policy states that students charged with academic misconduct violations may accept responsibility for the charge or request a hearing before the Committee on Academic Misconduct. The charges the students are facing include working together on graded assignments when the assignments were individual work. The punishments can range from a formal reprimanding to expulsion from the university. The students can also face grade penalties.
A professor reported in the allegations against the students, who were enrolled in a Fisher College of Business course, in April. The charges include “unauthorized collaboration on graded assignments,” the university’s statement said.
The students allegedly used GroupMe, a free group messaging app available on multiple phones and tech devices that supports calendar and document sharing.
According to Ohio State’s Code of Student Conduct, violations can result in punishment that ranges from a formal reprimand to a suspension to dismissal from the university, in severe cases. Sanctions for unauthorized collaboration can also include grade penalties.
Ohio State spokesman Ben Johnson sent an email to the Columbus Dispatch, saying that “students are welcome to use social media tools like GroupMe to communicate with classmates but must remember that the rules are the same for online and in-person interactions.”
While Johnson said sharing a due date for a homework assignment is acceptable, sharing the answers to a final exam is not.
“Students should not share anything online that is prohibited by the rules for the course,” he said.
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