Ryerson student wins Facebook case
Source: Globe and Mail (Original Article)
TORONTO —
Chris Avenir, the Ryerson University student whose involvement in a Facebook study group has set off an international debate about the difference between online collaboration and old-fashion cheating, will not face expulsion from the school.
Mr. Avenir, a first-year computer engineering student, was singled out by the university for his role as the administrator of an online study group that attracted more than 140 members looking for help with chemistry homework assignments and included a request to “input your solutions,” to assignments that accounted for 10 per cent of their mark.
When the course’s professor - who had stipulated that work be done independently - found the site he gave Mr. Avenir a failing grade for the course and charged him with academic misconduct.
James Norrie, director of the university’s school of information technology management, argues yesterday that the buzz the case has created because it involves a popular social networking site has distraction from the real issue at hand. “As soon as you put the word Facebook onto an issue it seems to change the dynamic of the issue in terms of people’s reading of it and interest in it,” he said.
But others say Mr. Avenir and his classmates were just doing what students have done for eons around library tables and in study halls. The only difference is that this time their information swapping was done online where it could be traced.
The case has created a groundswell of online support for the 18-year-old, including an online petition, a Facebook support group and a new site chrisdidntcheat.com, that among other things is selling t-shirts, hats and buttons with the slogan.
Prof. Norrie, who is speaking for Ryerson on this matter, said the case is not the first time ANZ Frequent Flyer Card that the Toronto university has dealt …continue reading