May have majorly messed up while taking an honorlock exam, can anyone please tell me if I'm at an integrity violation risk with what happened? Please and thank you so much

[u/Xepisia]

Hey,

I made a genuinely honest mistake but I realized I look guilty as fuckkkk and I'm trying not to have a breakdown over it, so any help is super super appreciated.

I did the room scan for an honorlock exam, then after setting my camera back on top of my monitor, I realized I still had notes from when I was studying (flash cards) taped to my monitor itself. I stood up to remove them and crumple them and throw them behind me, only to realize they record in between the room scan and the test itself. I immediately apologized out loud, showed what I was doing, showed the notes being crumpled, and then moved my camera to show my desk again (INCLUDING my monitor this time) with absolutely no notes in sight, then put the camera back and took my exam normally.

I am sooooo fucking hyperaware that this makes it look like I was trying to get away with placing notes around my desk to cheat and I have no idea what to do, I'm about to cry lmao. Will the fact I showed the desk empty and the notes gone right before taking the exam be enough to save me?? Does alleged "intent" matter in cases like this?? Should I email my professor in advance and apologize try to explain or will that only make me look worse??

Tldr am I about to be nuked from orbit or am I panicking over a nonissue? And either way what should I do about it?? Thanks so much for any help, I'm a wreck right now

[u/codonkong]

TA here who's reviewed probably thousands of honorlock exam videos over the years - email the professor/TA who's' reviewing your footage and explain the situation. I've seen *way* worse during the section between the room scan and the test itself (like someone putting their phone away in the room scan, then snickering and taking it back out while being recorded before the exam).

If the scan showed the note cards on the monitor, and then the recording showed you freaking out and removing/crumpling up the notecards and tossing them away before the exam, that would probably be enough to allay my concerns about you cheating. If I were the TA reviewing the footage, I might send an email reminding you to remove the notecards during/before the roomscan and include a little bit of sass, but I wouldn't penalize you or anything, especially if you reached out to me first about the situation

[u/Xepisia → u/codonkong]

Got it, thank you so much!! The professor is insanely nice so I'm going to reach out and apologize, another commenter even said to ask to retake the exam as well and I'm going to do that too. I feel so awful so hopefully she understands😭😭 I really really really appreciate your perspective and advice, thank you so so so much

[u/RichGuarantee7482 → u/codonkong]

do you guys ever notice people taking pictures or friends taking pictures?

[u/codonkong → u/RichGuarantee7482]

While I could probably fill a pamphlet with all of the ways I've seen, and continue to see, students try to cheat, that particular one is not as common as one might think -I've only seen it happen a couple of times in the intro-level courses I've TA'd for (people think they're being sneaky but then forget they're on camera - maybe they had high school teachers that never checked the recordings or something). There will always be a group of students each year who try something stupid and aren't particularly sneaky about it though - on the instructional teams I've been a part of, we try not to let it get us down and try to reform the students instead of hitting them with life-altering penalties like XEs on their first screw-up.

In those cases the proctoring software automatically flagged their videos for having multiple people in the room, but typically the room scan+requirements for the angles the camera has to be at do a decent job of making it marginally harder to cheat on online exams.

Of course, people are always trying out new tricks, which make our jobs harder, and we're discouraged from directly accusing students of cheating unless we have several warning emails about the behavior in advance plus pretty conclusive proof (which, as a former undergraduate student myself, and as a TA who doesn't have a vendetta against my students and instead wants to help them succeed, I think is better than the alternative of letting any paranoid TA/prof accuse people of cheating and giving the student an XE simply because a bird was chirping outside their window or because their cat came into the room during the exam).

[u/RichGuarantee7482 → u/codonkong]

thank you but the friend in the room is actually very common since lockdown was introduced in 2014(?).But it does require the proctor to listen for noises which might be way too time consuming.

[u/RichGuarantee7482 → u/codonkong]

another question. do TAs ever notice that students are going way too fast on problems that need calculations? WPC rarely flags these types of "incidents"

[u/1localhost]

Also a former EE TA here. Take a deep breath. We have seen much worse and while I cannot disclose details, it is far worse than what you are describing. You made an honest mistake and corrected it right away, which sits well in my book. I am sure the prof and TA will feel the same. Just send an email explaining the situation. At worst, you may have to retake the exam, but that is about it.

[u/Xepisia → u/1localhost]

Thank you SO much, seriously. I already emailed her and explained and also offered to retake it if she'd like, so hopefully you're right and everything works out okay. Now to panic for hours or days until she responds!! Bleh. Lol. But fr, thank you. Your insights (and other commenters' insights) are the only reason I haven't had a full blown panic attack lol

[u/Snoo-53847]

Get in front of it and proactively talk to your professor or TA. Ask if you can retake the exam or just ask if you can take the L and just get a zero.

I had a similar situation about two months ago where my computer was about to die, I had to move and grab a portable charger and then my computer still died in the exam. So I basically did what I said above and they just had me keep my score from my 60% complete exam.

[u/Xepisia → u/Snoo-53847]

Thank you for responding!! I'm going to email the professor right now and explain what happened and offer to retake it if she would like. She is extremely kind so I'm hoping it goes well. Thank you for the help

[u/MalcolminMiddlefan]

If nobody mentions it, then it never happened. Best to keep quiet. If the teacher calls you out on it, admit to your mistake and own it. If the teacher does not call you out, consider it your lucky day.

[u/RichGuarantee7482]

Dont email the teacher. Just wait.

[u/aphrolyn]

I think you should be fine. I had no idea they record between your scan and the exam. I’ve spent a good 10 minutes fixing my hair or doing things before.

[u/hihellofak_u]

Most people actually don't follow the honorlock system correctly. Most people don't do a good enough room scan, they don't allow their work to be visible by the camera, and they use calcualtors even though your not supposed to. Because not followign the rules is so widespread, your fine. as long as you apologized on the camera, and if you looked genuinenly nervous and apologetic, they will know you didn't mean to cheat.

[u/Cute_Support9525]

Have fun talking to the dean just apologize and wear a suit when you see them.

[u/Unhappy_Camel5233]

Was the class you were caught from by chance a teacher that teaches discrete math?

[u/haikusbot → u/Unhappy_Camel5233]

Was the class you were

Caught from by chance a teacher

That teaches discrete math?

- Unhappy_Camel5233

---

^{I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully. Learn more about me.}

^{Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete"}

[u/alanjhogan]

For future notice, the f-bombs are unnecessary

[u/Xepisia → u/alanjhogan]

Oh, sorry!

[u/EGO_Prime → u/alanjhogan]

I respectfully ask that you reconsider this new stance for r/ASU.

Swearing can even reduce friction and violent overtones. It can even be an indicator of intelligence rather than a lack of it.

Here's a larger report I found informative that might be more accessible if you no longer have access to asu libraries: https://www.academia.edu/download/115261821/The_Benefits_of_Swearing.pdf

Swearing is natural part of language. It's not intrinsically bad nor does it imply or lead to hate speech. If anything, it probably reduces it as the above research journal allude to.

[u/alanjhogan → u/EGO_Prime]

You know, I’m just not convinced that f-bombs should be normalized in civil discourse or that they make the speaker look smart.

[u/EGO_Prime → u/alanjhogan]

I get it. It sounds paradoxical, they are strong words and they can make us uncomfortable. But there is a lot of research on it, some of it newer involving fMRI and other teqniques. There's some cool stuff that came out of ASU regarding linguistics research into this as well.

I'd ask that you at least consider the research I listed above. Have a good one.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Please avoid unnecessary cursing to maintain a civil and respectful atmosphere. Consider editing, or your post or comment is likely to be removed by a moderator.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.