Comparing this story with a similar one in the New York Times, it seems the students' excuses aren't at all consistent. We have a bunch of guilty cheaters making up weak excuses and hinting that they're the victims instead of accepting responsibility. What's happened that so many people today can't accept responsibility for their actions? "Students may not discuss the exam with others..." is self-explanatory and straight to the point. The students are guilty as charged, regardless of what they say.

Future keaders of the free world.

Harvard's administration will ultimately figure out whether the students actually cheated or were just lazy in their approach to this class. The real failure here needs to be placed squarely on the shoulders of the professor who failed to set specific guidelines, failed to define expectations in his syllabus, and failed to define a culture of responsibility in his classroom. If the administration places blame on specific students, so be it, but hopefully they will discipline what appears to be a faculty member who doesn't seem to care.

How could these Harvard students be confused! The instructions said you cannot discuss this with others? That is plain, concise and clear, how could that be confusing. This prima donnas have everything but they take shortcuts because they assume that everyone is doing it and nothting will happen. Let the axe fall where it may! Pull their degrees and teach them about accountability.

"Bridling" at accusation of cheating? The excuses are pure rationalization. The issue is trying to push any possible interpretation to the illogical limit. This speaks to a lack of character, not confusion about the rules. Just because the course had encouraged exchange of ideas, the same does not apply to an exam where sharing with others was explicitly prohibited.

Next time, the prof should highlight the rules, as done in the online version attached to this article.  And maybe the 125 can use that as an excuse.  "We didn't see that rule because you didn't use a yellow highlighter on it".  wah, wah, wah.

Jackderby, maybe the fault lies on the shoulders of Harvard for having recruitment policies that select for students who were raised in a culture of "achieve by any means, its only a problem when caught, and if caught, make excuses".

I thiink the professor is to be commended for having the integrity to bring this event into the open, rather than burying it to avoid embarassment to the school.  It was a profiles in courage moment for him or her.

My biggest issue with online learning is the potential for mass cheating.  It is very difficult to "swap ideas" in an in-class exam.  How do we even know who is doing the work or taking a test on the internet? 

In this case, directions seem clear; students were allowed to use sources but not discuss with other students. There have always been different rules for different assignments; there was no misunderstanding.  Cheating is rampant and needs to be addressed before a degree from any school is meaningless.

The instructions clearly state that students should not work together. There is no ambiguity. I uncovered something similar when I was a teaching fellow in economics at University of Michigan. In my case, it only involved two students, and it was clear which one was copying from the other. Cheating occurs, but I have no reason to believe that it's widespread as someone else indicated. Harvard is to be commended for following up on this. It's not clear why they would need to change their policies or enact an honor code. Everyone knows that cheating is unacceptable, and the process seems to be working.

Harvard needs to take some responsbility for this mess.  It has allowed grade inflation to the point where anything less than an A- is seen as a failing grade.  It has  admitted students for whom geting high grade and thus automatic admission to the 1% is the primary rason for going to Harvard.  And it employs teachers who boast of giving the easiet course in the catalogue to foster these two defalut policies.. 

It's Harvard, where it's probably the easiest to get an A or B among all the schools in Boston. Hard to get in, easy to do well, and easier to network after.

Take home exams ask for this kind of behavior...it's why so many schools don't allow take homes. I do'nt understand why people are shocked, but I guess if you haven't been to college in the past couple decades, you wouldn't see just how much our standards have changed. We're still better then Europe tho! Where the German head of education is caught having plagarized on his phd.

More than the prof more than Harvard and maybe even more than the students in a way, the responsibility lies with the PARENTS!

I have found that other parents are the greatest impediment to raising a responsible caring and respectful child.

It amazed me to watch the bullying scandal/trajedy play out in Hadley and then see all the do gooders impliment "programs" in every school in the state, while never pointing at THE GD PARENTS who created the bullies in the first place.

POGO  "We have met the enemy and he is us."

It's worth pointing out that only a handful of students are quoted here as not feeling any responsibility for their actions. They may not be representative, despite the headline. Students who are ashamed are not running around shouting excuses to a reporter.