She won't get a grade out of pity. I'm saying that I realize that there may be desperate situations for anyone, no matter the gender or age, to make foolish decisions. If this student had come forth and told me about it instead of trying to cheat her way to a grade, I might have given her even more of my miniscule spare time.

Musleguy - I tell them to do everything themselves, but to properly attribute any copyrighted works if they DO use some external media. This semester, they are all focusing their efforts on some other Maya project (I'm their 3dsmax teacher), so what they do in my class isn't really portfolio class work, more of an exercise. Thats fine with me - I want them to do a good job in my class, but if they choose to do their Piece de Resistance in Maya, that's their choice. BeatYourSoul - I totally agree, her basic attitude towards her learning and career development seems corrupted. I would have wished her to express her desperation and maybe I could have helped. I'm sure she understands that her education is for her own sake, not the teachers'... but this whole desperate, mindless conduct must be the result of some alarming private situation that I cannot fathom from the cosy confines of my own comfortable life...

Thanks for your help, folks. I feel terrible realizing that this student pulled my leg for several weeks. Actually, the student is a 40+ year old woman who's eager to get into 3d - and I have given her special attention and hours of spare time assistance, just because the demography of our industry has very few 40+ y/o women. I'd love to see more females get into 3D and I do my best to help them out. Getting fooled over like this really ruins my enthusiasm as a teacher. Instead of 100% concentrating on teaching and inspiring, I now also have to be on the lookout for frauds.

Strangely enough, I can understand her apparent desperation, being an unemployed immigrant with a bleak work opportunity forecast, perhaps with children to support and an absolute necessity to graduate. It's no excuse, but its an explanation and I try not to be judgmental. After all, we're all human, and I cannot say that in some equally desperate situation I wouldn't try something equally stupid.