A student at Toronto's Ryerson University has been charged with 146 counts of academic misconduct after organizing a Facebook group for his Chemistry class. According to reports, the group was designed to allow collaboration amongst students while working on their homework assignments. Strangely, the professor has no policy against students working together on homework assignments, yet he found this form of collaboration to be inappropriate. The story can be found here:
http://www.switched.com/2008/03/07/student-faces-expulsion-over-facebook-study-group/
It's an interesting case to consider. Certainly it would be tough to get 145 students to study together in the same room, so having this online group allows for them to work together more easily. Then again, it could be considered an unfair advantage given the asynchronous nature of the discussion and the potential issues with accessibility for other students in the class.
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