Technology, Culture, Commentary on the Internet Revolution

Student Faces Expulsion for Facebook Study Group

by Mike Abundo on March 7th, 2008

Note to self: do not send kids to Ryerson University. They’re a bunch of neo-Luddites.

Study groups may be a virtual trademark of the Ivory Tower – but a virtual study group has been slammed as cheating by Ryerson University.

First-year student Chris Avenir is fighting charges of academic misconduct for helping run an online chemistry study group via Facebook last term, where 146 classmates swapped tips on homework questions that counted for 10 per cent of their mark.

The computer engineering student has been charged with one count of academic misconduct for helping run the group – called Dungeons/Mastering Chemistry Solutions after the popular Ryerson basement study room engineering students dub The Dungeon – and another 146 counts, one for each classmate who used the site.

Avenir, 18, faces an expulsion hearing Tuesday before the engineering faculty appeals committee. If he loses that appeal, he can take his case to the university’s senate.

The incident has sent shock waves through student ranks, says Kim Neale, 26, the student union’s advocacy co-ordinator, who will represent Avenir at the hearing.

“All these students are scared s—less now about using Facebook to talk about schoolwork, when actually it’s no different than any study group working together on homework in a library,” said Neale.

It’s the same old story over and over again: musty old professors raging against kids’ newfangled learning tools. I’m suddenly reminded of those silly schools that ban Wikipedia. Someone should compile a public list of neo-Luddite schools to avoid.

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