Continue to Site

Welcome to MCAD Central

Join our MCAD Central community forums, the largest resource for MCAD (Mechanical Computer-Aided Design) professionals, including files, forums, jobs, articles, calendar, and more.

Register Log in

How to edit or delete the Audit Trial

primetime619,


I have successfully edited the audit trail files, but since this is a sensitive matter, so you can contact me at my email adress, if you want help.





Israr

Edited by: kvision
 
Israr,

It is highly unethical of you to offer these services to a student.

He is trying to cheat and you are offering to help.
 
pmack009,

I believe there is nothing unethical about sharing information which HELPS people. But, by telling a student (read profile) how to strip the audit trail from a file, you are telling them that it is okay to just take someone else's work, or work that was done by someone in a previous year, and modify any tags that identify the files as such, and then submit this work as their own.

Is that ethical?
 
markthemech,


Try to keep this in perspective...


The purpose of this website is to help people learn to use Pro/E.


If someone asks a legitimate question about legitimate Pro/E functionality, they should get an answer. The burden should not fall upon our membership to read all member profiles and try to discern who is may use these valid techniques for 'cheating', or whomight bea student as you pointed out. There are probably hundreds of students in the membership ranks that get help every day that they deserve. There are also plenty of students who help other members solve problems. Students deserve the same respect and assistance that all members should get.


If you ask me, whomever is administering your Pro/E 'tests' is doing a poor job by not implementing some safeguards to ensure that studentscan not 'cheat' by using work performed by others.


One way to do this might be to provide students with preconfigured start parts with an existing known audit trail. This would prevent users from wiping the audit trail altogether such as by creating a UDF containing all features and applying it to a new model.


Another method might be to change the modeling requirements each semester. I know I had some lazy professors in college who refused to do this, and I don't think they are getting any less lazy with tools like Pro/E.


I've taught Pro/E at a state university and made sure that I knew students were doing their own work. Partially, by observing them in the classroom while working on their projects. And I did catch a couple of 'cheaters'. It became obvious that they did not do their own modeling when they could not even make simple requested modifications without failure.


Please note that these thoughts are my own and not the position of this website.
 
Is modifying the audit trail really legitimate Pro/E functionality? If so, why does the audit trail even exist?

Our students are required to use a preconfigured start part for their projects. As the OP indicated, they would like to MODIFY their audit trail. This opens up students to be able to cheat by rewriting the histories of the files they are submitting.

Projects and exams are different every year. But if students within the same class start taking other peoples' files and just changing the colours, are they really learning how to use Pro/E?

What you end up with are grads writing on their resume that they know how to use Pro/E, while all they really know to do is steal other peoples' intellectual property. Do you want someone like that working at your company?

I know when a student is submitting work which is incosistent with their modeling ability. Using a standard start part is one way of tracking this (not the only way, either). Helping them circumvent this just encourages laziness.
 
>> Is modifying the audit trail really legitimate Pro/E functionality?


Using the method I described above... absolutely! I use this method a lotto fix corrupt model files. There is actually no way to retain the audit trail if you use this method, even if you wanted to. If your class involves teaching students how to use User-Defined features, then you have already taught them how to remove audit-trails.



>>But if students within the same class start taking other peoples' files and just changing the colours...


...Then the professors are not paying attention year to year, in my opinion.



It seems that what you are asking is that the world community protect your university so that its students are not aware of how the software actually works.


As an anology, if I was teaching a class in spelling and I asked my students to use MSWord in the classroom, it would not be reasonable for me to ask others "Please don't tell my students about the spell-checker!.... otherwise my current testing methods won't work"...


If your current methods for detecting cheating are inadequate, there is reallyno one elseto blame. You'll have to evolve, adapt, or just give in to the fact that you'll have no idea if your students are cheating or not.


Trying to police their efforts on the Internet seems likea mostfutile way to go about preventing cheating. There are hundreds of forums, tutorials, and help sites. Then only 'cheaters' you'll catch are the ones who use their real contact information in their profiles (you can be sure you just ended that practice).


I certainly don't claim to havethe answers for making sure that students in Pro/E classes actually learn Pro/E. However, I'm pretty sure that this is one way that really won't work in the long run.


...again... purely my own opinions.
Edited by: Brian_Adkins
 
markthemech,


I myself am a teacher and I agree and promise not to help the student to misuse the functionality.


But who knows who is who here in this forum.


Israr
 
<DIV>Neither MCAD Central nor it's userscondone cheating. Users of this forum cannot possibly know who is cheating on a school exam or project and who is not, nor can they know to which degreethey arehelping a student "cheat" or if they are simply answering a question to help put the student "on the right track". Our moderators do not have the time and resources to monitor the website for potential cheaters.</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>The only person responsible for cheating is the cheater. If a teacher suspects that a student is cheating, the teacher maytake that matter up with the student personally, or can send him a private message letting him know he is being watched. There are ways to be anonymous on this website. A teacher also has the ability to affect the student's grade and can quite possibly take disciplinary action against the student.</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>The users ofMCAD Centralare very used to and comfortable in helping people with their MCAD issues. Thousands of MCAD users learn by just following the threads that other people write. Please know that our members (well, most of them) are here to help and do so with sincerity at heartand do not condone any activity that would be considered unbecoming or unprofessional. </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Jason Turk</DIV>
<DIV>Administrator</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
Edited by: administrator
 
It is a sad day if it has become the teachers job to teach cad to uninterested people. The problem, in my opinion, is not that the students know how to cheat - it is that they don't realize how little they learn by doing so. As a teacher your foremost responsibility and possibly toughest task is to motivate your student's into WANTING to learn. All the rest is just symptoms of failure to do so. It is most likely impossible to be 100% sure that no one cheats, but reality will catch up. If you can't CAD, you can't CAD. Neither will you be able to hold a job that requires you to CAD. I think it is all self-regulating.
Then again, this is my personal opinion on the matter. Just felt like venting it a bit.

/F.Pend
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsor

Articles From 3DCAD World

Back
Top