Academic Dishonesty and Student Cheating: Causes and Solutions

Introduction: The Rise of Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty has existed as long as organized schooling, whether in the form of glancing at a neighboring student's examination, copying a classmate's homework, or plagiarizing source material in written assignments. According to many reports, academic dishonesty has increased dramatically over the last several years, and three factors in particular have been implicated as contributing causes.

The widespread availability of internet sources represents a convenient opportunity to plagiarize online material, especially where instructors are less familiar with the internet medium than their students. Similarly, recent technological advances in communication technology — and the miniaturization thereof — have enabled students to devise clever new strategies to facilitate cheating during in-class examinations.

The Internet as a Tool for Plagiarism

The recent explosion in the availability of information online via the World Wide Web represents an invaluable academic research tool. On the other hand, the sheer convenience of so much information lends itself to academic dishonesty: the abundance of sources and the ease with which material can be copied directly and presented as a student's own work — rather than documented appropriately — make plagiarism a constant temptation.

Instructors have recently begun addressing the problem by using internet services such as Turnitin.com, a subscription service that compares submitted portions of student papers against online material and alerts instructors to any suspected instances of inappropriate similarity (Slobogin). Professor Donald M. McCabe of Duke University is a leading expert on academic dishonesty and the founder of the Center for Academic Integrity, a consortium of two hundred colleges and universities dedicated to preserving academic integrity.

According to McCabe, one of the most important tools in the fight against academic dishonesty — and plagiarism in particular — is a well-informed instructor who is equally adept with the internet medium as his or her students. Among McCabe's suggestions for combating the problem is for instructors to discuss the issue openly and define plagiarism clearly, in addition to assigning unique topics for research that are less likely to appear in usable form online. McCabe also suggests that teachers require outlines and synopses of all submitted papers to be turned in at periodic intervals prior to the final version (Innerst). Still, there is comparatively little that teachers can do to combat other similar forms of academic dishonesty, such as the growing online industry of "custom research," whereby students pay a premium for professional writers to complete their assignments and furnish them for submission as their own work.

Technology-Enabled Cheating During Examinations

Another avenue readily exploited by students is wireless communication technology in the form of PDAs and cellular telephones. Students have become adept at text-messaging exam answers among themselves during tests, communicating via cell phone screens. This method of cheating takes several forms beyond simple collaboration between students sitting in the same room. For example, a student taking an exam can now transmit questions to friends waiting in a library, who then provide answers in real time. Internet-capable cell phones allow students to browse the web from their seats, particularly in large auditoriums where they can do so with relatively little risk of being discovered (Batista).

In response, some institutions have banned cell phones and PDAs from exam rooms, but even this measure is easily circumvented by determined cheaters. Typically, where phones are banned, students are merely prohibited from using them during the exam; they are not searched for possession of communication devices, provided they do not attempt to use them openly. There is relatively little an instructor can do to prevent students from taking their cell phones to a restroom, where they can access the internet for several minutes at a time.

Even banning communication-capable devices is insufficient in highly technical courses such as engineering, which must permit the use of calculators. Such courses remain highly vulnerable to student ingenuity: students have learned to preprogram formulas and other information into their calculators for immediate display at the touch of a button during exams.

Conclusion: Addressing the Root Causes

Ultimately, academic dishonesty must be addressed in principle, through discussions of moral values and the importance of honesty and integrity, particularly given that students are already aware of striking counterexamples such as the Enron scandal. In this regard, academic dishonesty is unlikely to be effectively redressed as long as it is viewed merely as a matter of technology and availability. What is more likely to be effective is an approach that combines realistic awareness of current cheating methods with a concurrent focus on the underlying issues of academic honesty and personal integrity.

References

Boon, Miriam (2003). Student Cheating Rises at Stanford: Educational Outreach, Overhaul of Disciplinary System May be Contributing Factors. Palo Alto Weekly Online. Embarcadero Publishing Company. Accessed June 12, 2004.

Innerst, Carol (1998). Universities Retreat in War on Cheating. Washington Times, January 29. National Center for Policy Analysis Website. Accessed June 12, 2004.

Slobogin, Kathy (2002). Survey: Many Students Say Cheating "OK." CNN.com. Accessed June 12, 2004.