Hello
I think that cheating is cheating no matter if students are in the traditional classroom or taking an online course. My personal observation on this point is that it occurs the same way behind closed doors. A student who has already taken a test, quiz, or written a paper hands over their information to the student who is presently taking the course. Concerning papers, we have the technology of Turnitin and other like kind technology to catch these types of issues. However, I think it would be hard to teach math and give an assessment online because how would the teacher catch this type of hand down of previously taken test and quizzes. If I were in the shoes of the math teacher, I would change my test for every session I taught.
Bob ,
The bottom line is just what you sad......bad and wrong!
Shelly Crider
Cheating in any form is bad.Just because we use a computer doe not give the right to cheat. Thats the issue with are learning , you dont under stand ok you pass. Wrong!
Rudolph,
Nice point on the financial aid and cheating!
Shelly Crider
Angela ,
This is a good point for discussions that are active. This way you can tell the student writing and will know who did what!
Shelly Crider
Cheating is the same whether in the traditional classroom or online. On line cheating is made worse by the fact the government regulatory bodies are demanding we make certain classes paid for by federal and state financial aid are not wasted on people who refuse to play by the rules.
I think cheating is cheating. I have had students try to pass other students work off as their own on a discussion board. The student copied another students post almost word for word. I think if this was ignored, it would teach the student that it is ok to use other peoples work and it is ok to not think for your self. Students need to be accountable for their actions and I do not believe they would get the most out of a class if they are not thinking for themselves.
Jason,
We do need to teach the fact that cheating is an ethical issue.
Shelly Crider
Have to disagree of course :)
What a person does when un-watched can sometimes be more important in their progression than what they will do when watched.
Any action that supports the practice of "business ethics" (lower, unethical standards than regular when doing business/education dealings) should be discouraged, whether by active, passive or peer pressures.
Ever failing commerce in all countries is the direct result of a failure in ethics and the teaching thereof. More and more of the masses want something for nothing...
Edwin,
Creditibility is indeed essential. We as instructors need emphazise to students workforce standards which does not include cheating.
Shelly Crider
David,
Bottom line is we want cheating to stop....traditional or online classrooms!
Shelly Crider
I disagree while I am concerned about cheating whether traditional or online. It was one of the questions that I asked when we decided to go online with our degree course.How do we monitor the assessment. I then realized that students can only cheat a test if they have the direct answers to the questions beforehand. If a student in our classroom failed the final test they were allowed to retake it open book for a minimum score if they scored 90 percent or above.
They did no better using the book than they did without it. I am less concerned that they may try to look up answers during an online test. They either know the material or they don't.In the end the credibility of the course is at stake if the student who makes it through cannot demonstrate his knowledge to those who would employ him.
The abundance of cheating in both the online and traditional setting is not a reason to ignore either. It is certainly more difficult to catch and prove in the online environment but does need to be handled just the same. While platforms have been developed to assist with detecting written work issues the systems are not adequate for detecting plagiarism in number based courses.
Teresa,
Integrity is a must in every setting. Schools, online or traditional classroom, and work environment.
Shelly Crider
Cynthia,
Excellent post. Explaining to students what cheating is defined as is very important.
Shelly Crider
Lisa,
We do tend to forget about the "good" students. We send notes out to students who are not doing well, but we need to touch base with students who are doing a great job as well.
Shelly Crider
As long as there is education...students will always find ways to cheat. The internet makes it much easier for students to communicate and causes cheating to become more rampant. Online learning is especially prone to cheating because of the nature of the students ability to be more technology savvy.
David Pittman
In regard to cheating, it seems to me that instructors have the same responsibility to monitor integrity in their students as part of any course - in a classroom or online.
Q - Is there any research available that gives us data on the comparison of classroom vs online cheating?
Thank you.
I think every instructor should be concerned about cheating in any environment of teaching. In an online environment cheating is definitely a possibility.Because of the online environment cheating on tests and quizzes might not happen as much, but plagiarism might happen more.
I disagree with the statement that, “We should not be concerned about students cheating in an online environment; they may cheat in traditional classes as well.†We should be concerned about cheating as cheating is a strategy of employing unethical methods to obtain a goal or reward, and if not addressed can be a strategy carried out in many other aspects of a student’s life including work situations, personal relationships, or other areas of life that can impact other individuals negatively.
According to a list provided on Wiki, academic dishonesty can be in the form of plagiarism, fabrication, deception, cheating, bribery, sabotage, professional misconduct, or personation (see definitions below.) I believe cheating occurs in any learning environment, from elementary to graduate education, and not only with students, but teachers also.
Verified cheating is about the individual, what triggers their decision making, what level of consciousness they have about cheating, peer pressure, and the mechanisms available to them that facilitate an environment of cheating. This can happen either in-person or online, and I believe will occur regardless of the monitoring or punishments inflicted.
With that said, I think it is very important to instill a sense of duty and responsibility on students to maintain a high moral standard, to give direct guidance on expectations as well as to provide immediate feedback if cheating is detected.
I also feel that it is important from an organizational standpoint that guidance and regular communications should be disseminated if trends in cheating are discovered. For example, if students in a particular course are found to be sharing or distributing answers to tests this should be identified so other instructors are aware, and to monitor for this going forward if the students are allowed to be retained in the program.
I think that there is an appropriate place for assessing the level of cheating; for example if it is discovered that a student was unaware of the cheating (unintentional plagiarism) I believe the appropriate level of guidance, retraining, and a formal commitment by the student to avoid any future cheating should be expected.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dishonesty
• “Plagiarism: The adoption or reproduction of original creations of another author (person, collective, organization, community or other type of author, including anonymous authors) without due acknowledgment.
• Fabrication: The falsification of data, information, or citations in any formal academic exercise.
• Deception: Providing false information to an instructor concerning a formal academic exercise—e.g., giving a false excuse for missing a deadline or falsely claiming to have submitted work.
• Cheating: Any attempt to give or obtain assistance in a formal academic exercise (like an examination) without due acknowledgment.
• Bribery: or paid services. Giving assignment answers or test answers for money.
• Sabotage: Acting to prevent others from completing their work. This includes cutting pages out of library books or willfully disrupting the experiments of others.
• Professorial misconduct: Professorial acts that are academically fraudulent equate to academic fraud and/or grade fraud.
• Personation: assuming a student's identity with intent to provide an advantage for the student.â€
