Dartmouth Abandons Controversial Online Cheating Investigation at Medical School

Dartmouth's Geisel medical school is dropping its investigation into alleged online cheating, the New York Times reports:

In March, Dartmouth charged 17 students with cheating based on a review of certain online-activity data on Canvas — a popular learning-management system where professors post assignments and students submit their work — during remote exams. The school quickly dropped seven of the cases after at least two students argued that administrators had mistaken automated Canvas activity for human cheating. Now Dartmouth is also dropping allegations against the remaining 10 students, some of whom faced expulsion, suspension, course failures and misconduct marks on their academic records that could have derailed their medical careers.

'I have decided to dismiss all the honor code charges,' Duane Compton, dean of the medical school, said in an email to the Geisel community Wednesday evening, adding that the students' academic records would not be affected. 'I have apologized to the students for what they have been through.'

Dartmouth's decision to dismiss the charges followed a software review by The New York Times, which found that students' devices could automatically generate Canvas activity data even when no one was using them. Dartmouth's practices were condemned by some alumni along with some faculty at other medical schools.

A Dartmouth spokesman said the school could not comment further on the dropping of the charges for privacy reasons.

'The moral of the current story is clear,' argued the Times reporter on Twitter.

'Colleges that use surveillance tech can end up erroneously accusing some of their best students.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.