In first year university courses there are usually hundreds if not thousands of students enlisted in one class. Try to imagine the workload faced by the professors of these courses, especially if they lack sufficient teaching and/or marking assistants. Unfortunately, when put in these situations, profs may be tempted to cut corners. I encountered such a situation recently.
I provide tutorship to a first year student at the university which I attend, and while aiding this student with problems in an assignment we happened across certain 'helpful hints' on Google. It turns out that the questions posed on the assignment (for which there was only one correct answer) were all on the internet, along with the answers. All my student needed to do was type in the first few words of the question and voila!
Don't worry, we only used the internet answers for checking his answers, but other students may not have been quite as disciplined.
I know that being a professor is a tough gig, especially if its only one part of someone's very hectic life. But if you're going to cut corners, you should probably re-think your strategy.
The students may be happy as they walk away with higher than expected grades, but seriously, you're only hurting them in the long run.
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