Academic Dishonesty : The Technological Era

Academic dishonesty is the use of unauthorized assistance with the intent to deceive an instructor. Academic dishonesty includes behaviors like cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication. Cheating is the use of materials, information or notes that are not authorized by the instructor. Plagiarism is the act of claiming or using someone’s own words or ideas and using them as your own without giving them credit. Fabrication involves falsifying information or data.

Cheating has always been an issue among students. Almost everyone cheats in some fashion in classes. Whether it’s by blatantly copying another student’s answers, or working together on an assignment meant to be done on your own, cheating will remain a staple occurrence in academic life. In Rebekah Nathan’s article, “The Art of College Management: Cheating,” Nathan (2005) delves into students’ various reasons for cheating and even includes cheating as an “aspect[] of student culture,” (p. 27) from the point of view of a student. Nathan defends cheating as a whole by including it as an inevitable part of student culture. Additionally, she claims that everyone cheats, further diving into the idea that cheating is not inherently wrong. As a result of consistently defending cheating, Nathan neglects to provide worthy solutions to the issue as well as ignoring the consequences of cheating.

The article “Academic Professionalism vs. Academic Dishonesty” by Joel A. English argues about integrity and plagiarism. Joel says, “Integrity IS DOING the right thing even when nobody is looking” (Joel A. English, 1), this is one of the mindset, which the people who commit plagiarism have. In the author’s point of view, academic plagiarism is “…an act of desperation. Nobody wants to cheat. Nobody feels good about it when they do. But people do it when they run out of time, lack self-confidence, or have no respect for the academic progress” (Joel A. English, 3), I cannot agree more. Joel clarifies the types of plagiarism, also give to the

Ethics are the principals that build an individual’s character and integrity. It is the code of conduct that a person lives by; it is the way that a person conducts themselves when no one is around. Stealing, lying, and cheating are wrong, yet every day in the workplace these issues occur. Growing competition lends to the need for people to do what they can to get ahead and stay ahead. Ethics are pushed to the side as people try to gain power or to stay out of trouble, all at the risk of tarnishing their character. This same mindset has spilled over into Academia. A student’s desire to successfully earn a degree by any means necessary has caused educational institutions to address these ethical issues by setting policies in place to combat academic dishonesty.

If a college campus harbors an environent where cheating is seen as acceptable and an activity many people participate in, even students with correct morals and no desire to cheat themselves are less likely to report fellow students for unsavory behavior. This can also go a step further and that same student who failed to confront a peer for cheating, may give in to the school’s atmosphere and start cheating themselves. This makes them all the less likely to report other students for fear of appearing hypocritical and/or being reported themselves. A study on honor code effectiveness was completed by Sally Sledge and Pam Pringle at a small public university (Source E). Their results showed that only 8% of students would report a fellow student for cheating. Even more surprisingly, 40% of students anonymously stated that they had “violated the honor code and not been caught”. This points to a very cheater-friendly attitude at this particular school and shows that the honor system is not very effective in this

Chace, W. M. (2012). A Question of Honor: Cheating on campus undermines the reputation of our universities and the value of their degrees. Now is the time for students themselves to stop it. (Cover story). American Scholar, 81(2), 20-32.

In “Is Diogenes on your Campus?” Karen Bleeker states that Community colleges must prize integrity to reinforce the behaviors of the honest students. First of all, studies shows that this widespread problem and one that may be accelerating. Both objective studies of academic dishonesty and anecdotal evidence from professors and administrators seem to show that students are cheating more often that in the past. If this continues, not only will the integrity of the academic process be threatened, but we will be raising a generation of students who think such behavior is normal. In addition, allowing such cheating to continue hurts and angers honest students. They choose not to cheat for a variety

The University’s Policy of Academic Misconduct (2012) provides an orderly process for dealing with academic integrity and outlines the procedure for navigating through that process. As students at the University of West Florida, we are expected to maintain an environment of trust and integrity (University of West Florida, “Policy of Academic Misconduct”, 2012). Plagiarism is defined as the use of others’ words or ideas and offering it as your own without crediting the sources (University of West Florida, “Policy of Academic Misconduct”, 2012). Some examples outlined in the Policy of Academic Misconduct include assisting others’ student to engage in an act of misconduct and completing an assignment that is not your own (University of West Florida “Policy of Academic Misconduct”, 2012). Additional ways of plagiarizing include cut, copy, and pasting a paper or paraphrasing information without citing the sources and purchasing and submitting an academic work as your own (Suarez and Martin, 2001).

Often, having a college degree creates a sense of pride and accomplishment in an individual as well as the people around them. They are seen with more respect and admiration and are considered to be more successful. However, their degree would have no value if the university they attended was known for their lack of academic integrity. Cheating in universities has become a huge problem in today’s society. This is why universities have adopted academic integrity policies. This importance of honesty is especially crucial for major research universities such as Oklahoma State University(OSU) and The University of North Texas(UNT).

Academic dishonesty is a crime that the University of Iowa State takes very seriously. There are several steps in the policy for dishonesty that ensure the student is well aware there is an issue and has a chance to give their side if they think their work was not dishonest. Academic dishonesty is not just in the form of using another student or persons work and handing it in. Trying to get a professor to give you a better grade or a friend to give you one of their assignment, by offering them some cash or other reward is also considered academically dishonest. If a student is suspected to have committed an act of dishonesty, the Dean of Students will be the first to know because the professor or TA are

Academic dishonesty is a threat to every student and every institution of higher education. The very act runs contrary to the fundamental values of higher education (Bowers, 1964). Dishonesty compromises the integrity of the individual student as well as the reputation of the institution (Engler, Landau, & Epstein, 2008; Gallant, 2008).

Technology is rapidly evolving and changing, and as a result of the increasing availability and propagation of several forms of technology, academic dishonesty cases in every college and university have greatly multiplied and become a global issue. The issue on cheating behaviors in students is so pervasive and uncontrollable that it is almost considered as commonplace (Arhin & Jones, 2009). One of the hardest challenges for educators is knowing how and when to discipline their students. In the given scenario, there are several issues to take into account; the first and foremost being the issue of academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty is defined by the Webster dictionary as the intentional participation in deceptive practices regarding one’s academic work or the work of another (Faucher & Caves, 2009). Jones (2011) states that many institutions of higher education have adopted academic dishonesty policies, instituted academic integrity tutorial completion prerequisites for next term registration, and acquired plagiarism software detection tools. They go on to say that within the past few years, high-tech cheating is gradually replacing the simple cut-and-paste cheating, and educators must be proactive and develop instructional strategies that integrate all facets of appropriate digital citizenship, that is, digital ethics. By implementing these academic dishonesty and integrity policies and making them attainable to

Student Perceptions of Cheating in Online CoursesYour Name:Class Name:University Name:Instructor Name:Student Perceptions of Cheating in Online CoursesAcademic integrity has long been a core concern of faculty as well as administrators operating in campuses. Recent statistics done on the extent of cheating that occurs in college campuses shows that the large majority of students have engaged in this vice to some extent. The core difference in today’s environment is the wide proliferation of technological devices that are used for both delivering as well as accessing information on university courses. Educators are fast becoming concerned on the impact that technology has on the numerous forms of academic dishonesty. Indeed a number of sources have argued that the internet is fast becoming a major culprit for the increasing instances of academic dishonesty. This paper therefore strives to examine what is the prevalence of cheating in online courses looking at it from the college student’s perspective.The number of students who a-re actively participating in college level online courses has far outpaced other forms of distance learning. Online courses are becoming a critical part of many campuses long term strategy as evidenced by the fact that colleges have seen a distinct increase in the levels of online enrolment. The growth in learning opportunities online has increased on the concerns concerning cheating in online courses (Cluskey et al, 2011). Numerous studies have

McCabe et al (2001) offered many explanations as to why students commit academic dishonesty, but I would argue that there are new explanations to help explain this phenomenon. When I think of academic dishonesty I think of students cheating on exams or plagiarizing, but this study failed to consider cheating completed over the Internet. If I were to search for a paper on cybercrime, I could find many written all I would need to do is purchase one. Finding papers online is simple, but getting caught is even easier, however, many students continue to purchase papers online. I do agree with the authors that

McCabe has said that an estimated seventy percent of college students have admitted to some type of cheating. He supports this claim by saying that the parties to blame here is the school system and the media. HBU defines academic dishonesty to when a student cheats or steals someone’s work and passes it as their own among these are a list of actions that count for academic dishonesty. Some examples being brought up about dishonesty is how in the NFL saw past the deflating incident in the Super Bowl were it seems like the media praised the player for his actions (Loschiavo). Therefor, students think it is correct to do be dishonest in their class work.