We MUST be concerned about cheating no matter what the circumstance. I work for a career based technical institution and my first day lecture involves an “Academic Dishonesty” policy review and tell every student that it will be strictly enforced. I am training students to be professionals in their field of study; you can’t cheat in the real world or you won’t have a job. I too feel as many others do that there are a lot of opportunities for students to cheat in an online classroom environment but it is the responsibility of the professor to stick to the institutions policy and enforce it. If I create an assignment that I am concerned about students cheating on (but I don’t want to get rid of the assignment because it meets the course objectives) I will often make it a group assignment. In my opinion, students need to collaborate with their classmates on assignments, but they have to be told that collaboration is okay and that cheating is not. In the real world, students are often working with a partner or someone on their shift that will help them through a difficult decision or writing an appropriate memo where collaboration is necessary. I have found that if you take a hard line with the students – in online and on-campus classes when it comes to cheating and plagiarism, those boundaries will not be crossed.
Great points - thanks for sharing! - Jon
Juliette,
I agree - we need to remain cautious as we design to make this more difficult and less inviting.
Best,
Jon
In an online environment, where students are separated by time and space, the intellectual honesty of the student must be based on moral principles: Are your actions appropriate? The instructor can not have a direct face-to-face discussion with a student, can not verify if a student has created the project, and can not watch a student take an exam. It is easy for a student to cheat in such a learning environment. The level of concern should be the same for both online and traditional courses. It is easy to say that by cheating the student is only cheating themselves, by not learning the course content. However, the successful completing of a course or an entire degree program, whether done through honest or dishonest means, can have an impact on many aspects of life, such as employment opportunities, career advancement, or prestige. The ends do not justify the means, as each student’s work must always be their own.
Bill Lembke 03/12/10
I think cheating is always a concern no matter how the instruction is delivered. The question is how to deter students from cheating when they are using an on-line delivery. I'd like to believe that everyone has an innate sense of right and wrong and recognizes that if they cheat, they are only cheating themselves out of education, but I'm not that naive.
Cheating is cheating no matter where it is happening. I just read a study that 67% of all students polled have cheated in a college class. One quote,"They felt they could not get the assignment finished in the time frame given." The other comment, in the study that suprised me was that it OK because look at how much it happens in business.
Shelley,
I agree - its only a short term benefit for the student.
Jon
How would you propose stopping this? I have taken online courses where students are required to take their exams online by a certain time. I know fellow students have gotten together and taken them. How would an instructor keep them from doing so? I mean, they even went as far as to change one or two answers so that their answers didn't match identically. I understand that it is an issue, but it is in a classroom as well. With technology ever changeing, I have seen text cheating in the classroom with auditory alerts that is set so only certain age groops can hear. This allows for different tones to be played in the classroom that the professor cannot hear, but that the much younger students can. They are cheating right out in the open IN the classroom. I agree that it jeopardizes the integrity of the institution, but at what point do you say, there is simply nothing that can be done here with online cheating?
Students will always find a way to cheat, whether it is in the classroom or online. Giving open-ended questions that allows for thoughtful answers is a great way to see what knowledge the student actually has. Also, it is easier to cheat on a multiple choice exam that on an essay exam.
Oh no. We must be very very concerned with cheating in an online environment. It's very easy for students to cheat in online learning situations. We must be vigilant because cheating jeopardizes the integrity of the degrees issued by the learning institution.
I think that we should be concerned about cheating regardless of the forum. It compromises everyones integrity, as another responer commented: "Cheating is cheating period." Not only is the "proper understanding of the topic" compromised, but fulfilling ones life or employment objectives hampered. The longer range consequences are immeasurable.
Cheating is cheating period. Things such as plagiarism sacrifices the intergrity of the learning process.
If you did not do the work you cheat yourself out of the proper understanding of the topic, not to mention the unethical predicament that you put yourself and others into.
Great points - thanks, Jon
I think that learning the ways in which students cheat online is very important. There are varieties of cheating that you do not find in a physical classroom. Since this is the case being ware and on the "look-out" for such behaviors is very important.
I also find places when students engage in passive plagiarism. By this I mean that they do not realize that doing certain things (lifting a thought form another and not citing it, turning in work for more than one class, etc) is cheating. There are many teachable moments on this front and understanding your environment is critical.
Just because cheating will occur in face to face as well as online, does not mean as educators we should not be concerned. In addition, we should be concerned with the new ways students are using technology to cheat. Once these ways are identified and understood, steps can be taken to maintain academic integrity.
Great points - thanks for sharing! - Jon
Robin,
Good points, integrity is critical here.
Jon
I disagree that we should not be concerned about students cheating in an an online environment. I feel that there are steps that can be taken to minimize the occurances. First, I feel that the educational institution should establish a policy that will define plagiarism as well as other forms of academic dishonesty. Once that policy is in place, all--students and instructors--need to be aware of the expectations and consequences of not adherring to the policy. Some students don't realize that specific actions are cheating; others do, but choose to continue anyway. If nothing is done to identify and penalize academic dishonesty, it will continue.
I disagree. It is the instructor’s responsibility to maintain a high level of academic integrity, regardless of whether the class is taught online or in a classroom. With an online class, instructors may need to develop new strategies and use new tools to determine if a student has cheated since the environment is different than a traditional class.
I appreciated your comments. It is much like an open book test in on-the-ground teaching. Your approach takes some of the pressure off of the students so they can focus on the content and not the anxiety of failing.
