Students and Cheating

I am in agreement with Gray (2008) who states that the online learning environment is no more or less prone to cheating than the traditional face to face learning environment.  He mentions that if a person wants to find a way around the system – including the honor system – he or she will find a way, at home or in a classroom.

As has been previously discussed in EPS 415, students from other cultures may have vastly different ethical standards and values.  As Kasprzak and Nixon (2004) noted, students from countries torn by war or genocide, or under dictatorial rule, might not consider a term paper or research ethics of any great significance compared to their own problems. (p. 5) Also, their country may not be as concerned with cheating or place as much focus on it as the American culture does.

Within America, plagiarism is probably the most wide-spread and frequently discussed form of cheating in both online and face-to-face classroom environments.  This is fueled by readily available term and research papers written by others for use by others; I am truly amazed, and appalled, at how many sources for these papers, both free and for a fee exist.  No wonder 30% of all students plagiarize on every written assignment (Wilhoit, 1994)

Another form of cheating in the online learning environment is when taking an online assessment.  Unlike a traditional face to face assessment, the online form could be open book as no-one knows what materials the student might have access to during the examination.  Also, if students are separated by time and space (one of the features/benefits of online education) one student could complete the assessment, pass information along to another student who would then have the ability to complete the assessment having the answers pre-determined and ready to go.

It all comes back to the inherent ethics and values of the student.  However, as instructors we can help prevent cheating in several ways.

Regarding plagiarism we can educate students on what cheating and plagiarism is, as many of them may not be aware what acts would be considered cheating.  We can also provide structure and specifics to each assignment that is not general in scope which would require students to share their own thoughts and support those thoughts through research.  Sharing ideas on how to research and take notes effectively in support of proper acknowledgements and citations (ideas such as those shared on http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/03/) would be helpful resources to students.  And as we will be doing at the end of this class, we could require submission of papers to www.turnitin.com prior to submission for final grading.

Relating to online assessments, instructors could allow students a certain amount of time to complete the assessment/examination.  This would not allow students to search for answers using additional resources as they would have be familiar with the material presented previously and are being questioned on.  We could use random questioning to help prevent students in one time zone to take the test and forward the questions asked along to another classmate in another time zone.  And finally, we could ensure that the activities and discussions accurately support and reflect the objectives of the module/lesson.  If the students successfully completed the previous activity assignments we should have a feel for the level of student understanding before the assessment even takes place.

References & Resources:

Gray, D.  Online Cheating, UMassOnlineBlog , retrieved on March 22, 2009 from http://www.umassonlineblog.com/2008/01/11/online-cheating/

Kasprzak, J., & Nixon, M. (2004) Cheating in Cyberspace: Maintaining Quality in Online Education.  Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, 12(1), 85-99.

Rowe, N.  Cheating in Online Student Assessment: Beyond Plagiarism. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Volume VII. Summer 2004

Wilhoit, S. (Fall 1994). Helping students avoid plagiarism.  College Teaching 161-164.

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