Exam based on fraudulent research
Exam based on fraudulent research
March 8, 2006
ST. JOHN’S (CUP)—It was recently discovered that a Biology midterm exam containing information based on fraudulent research was given to students taking an online course at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Course professor Chandrika Liyanapathirana said she had no way of changing the test’s content after it was sent to Distance Education and Learning Technologies.
“I don’t have control at all,” she said. “I don’t know what happens after that. I don’t have to go to the exam centre or anything. Everything is done by [Distance Education].”
The fraudulent information, which was taken from studies published by former Memorial University professor Dr. Ranjit Chandra, was recently uncovered in a three-part series on CBC’s The National.
The study, which shows how Chandra’s multivitamin pills improve memory in people over 65, originally came into suspicion when he sent it to the British Medical Journal for publication in 2000.
Biology department head Paul Morino said the reference to Chandra’s research is “no big deal.”
“If you look at it carefully, it’s not about his research,” he said. “It’s a newsletter for the general public and it’s not a book or anything… it’s just one tiny little reading.”
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