Students just need to be aware that they should learn from solutions provided by wolfram alpha (there's nothing wrong with that), otherwise they're going to flunk the closed-book exams anyway.
Just make the tests challenging-the ones who actually did their homework will pass. The ones who didn't won't.
Wolfram Alpha helped me many times-sometimes you're simply stuck on a problem and no one is there to help. But like anything, you can use it to cheat and not do work, or you can use it to help you learn more.
It may be difficult trying to teach these kids how to perform the math itself when they can show the homework, but ultimately they are failing themselves when it comes down to needing a fundamental understanding on the process itself.
This reminds me more of teachers scoffing at calculators being a crutch. It comes down to the students' willingness to learn, not how to thwart cheating on homework.
If someone were really serious about abusing the service they could pull out a C in the class even with hard failures of the tests.
I think I found the problem.
The difference in magnitude ends up being too much. Either each homework assignment is worth almost nothing or they outweigh tests.
One of the easiest ways to inflate grades without explicitly lowering standards is to decrease the proportion of the final grade that depends on the midterm and final. Cut out the midterm for "more instruction time" and leave a 20% final. Homework is now worth an absurd 80% of the grade... that's no good. Throw in a project, participation, or auto-graded "e-labs" with infinite attempts. Suddenly it's really difficult to get anything less than a B unless you really just don't give a crap. But also kinda difficult to actually learn because So. Much. Busy. Work. And, on top of everything else, we're punishing the one student who's not cheating.
Any time I see a lower division syllabus where closed-book exams are worth less than 40% of the grade, I'm instantly suspicious.
> but ultimately they are failing themselves when it comes down to needing a fundamental understanding on the process itself.
Yup.
> It comes down to the students' willingness to learn, not how to thwart cheating on homework.
In fact, you can leverage the calculator or WA to teach the material at greater depth. No longer need lots of practice with trig identities or u substitution? Great. Maybe we can write a few proofs instead, or use the time to work through a large case study.
I'm not sure how much to read into this, so forgive me if I'm misunderstanding the tone; but calling an F after not doing any of the work oneself a "surprise F" seems a lot like calling it a "surprise loss" when one hasn't shown up for any of the team practices. (If you were just observing that students are surprised by such F's, no matter how often it's pointed out to them, and no matter how often they've met such outcomes before, then I am forced reluctantly to agree.)
Source: did this, got a C in freshman calc.