Jenny completed her high school education and dreamed of going to college. After 10 years and two children, she finally realized her dream. She started classes at an online university because it matched her current work schedule and allowed her the flexibility to spend time with her children. She completed her first class with excellent grades and was looking forward to her next class session. Just when things seemed to be running smoothly, other significant events happened. Jenny’s office had a downsizing, and several individuals lost their jobs. Fortunately, Jenny was one of the employees who was able to stay with the company. However, her boss, Tom, changed her hours and assigned her more responsibility. This change happened during Week 2 of her 5-week session.

Getting adjusted to her new duties required a lot of Jenny’s time, and she was too exhausted at the end of the day to complete her coursework. She barely made her Unit 3 due date and was falling behind in her Unit 4 assignment. If she did not get at least a C in this class, she could be in jeopardy of losing her tuition reimbursement. She was not going to be able to continue with school if she did not have financial assistance. Jenny contacted her instructor, Professor Poe, on Wednesday and asked him for an extension. He advised Jenny that he had posted his late policy and that she would receive any late penalties as well as any point deductions for poor writing and improper grammar usage. He stated that he could not make exceptions to the policy.

Jenny shared her concerns with her coworker, Gloria. After listening to the situation, Gloria told her, “Jenny, no one writes their own papers anymore. There are lots of places on the Internet that sell papers on just about any topic. My cousin has submitted them several times and always gets good grades. This way, you won’t get points deducted for poor writing. I’ll get a list of sites for you.”

It is Saturday evening, and Jenny is just sitting down to start her paper. She logs onto her computer and notices that she has an e-mail form Gloria. It is a message that has a paper attached that Gloria’s cousin, Louise, says should work for Jenny’s class. If Jenny tweaks the paper slightly, she can spend some time with her children and get some additional rest before starting next week’s assignment. Jenny hesitates for a moment but decides to tweak the paper and submit it. It takes Professor Poe about 8 minutes to determine that the paper submitted by Jenny has been purchased from an Internet site. Up to this point, Jenny had been receiving good grades on her submissions, but he will have to give her a 0 on this paper. He is thinking about letting her resubmit but remembers that Dean Brown has reminded faculty that they must adhere to the university’s Academic Integrity Policy. Professor Poe escalates the situation to Dean Brown. Dean Brown determines that the paper is purchased, so Jenny fails the assignment, and an Academic Integrity violation is put in her file.

Assignment Details

Upon reading the case study above, prepare a post that discusses your perspective of the levels of fault of each character (Gloria, Louise, Professor Poe, Dean Brown, Jenny, and Tom).

Your post should include the following:

• Using the numbers 1–6, rank each of the individuals in this scenario in descending order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6), with the person who was most responsible for Jenny’s failing grade ranked #1 down to the person who is least responsible for Jenny’s failing grade on her assignment as #6. (There are 6 people in the scenario, so be sure to assign only one number to each individual.)
  • #1 is the person who is the most responsible for Jenny plagiarizing on her paper.
  • #6 is the person who is the least responsible for what occurred.
• Support your decision for how you ranked each of the 6 individuals with a short explanation on why you believe they should be ranked in that order.

Then, complete the following:

• Offer your suggestions for what you believe Jenny should do next.
• Describe any time management strategies that you believe Jenny should try in the future to avoid a repeat of this type of situation.