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Liars, fraudsters and cheats: Dealing with the growth of academic dishonesty

Cheating in the classroom—or "academic dishonesty" as it currently known—has been an issue in our schools as long as schools have existed. But over the past decade, researchers and teachers have reported a dramatic climb in the occurrence of academic dishonesty among students in high schools and post-secondary institutions—one seemingly sparked by the rise of the internet.

Researchers have pinpointed various reasons why students cheat: primarily to get better grades and avoid failure, but also because they hold different perceptions about what qualifies as cheating than their teachers.

Thankfully there are a number of proven strategies that have been shown to be effective in reducing academic dishonesty, including the use of verification software and thoughtful assignment and assessment practices.

The prevalence of academic dishonesty in Canada

Academic dishonesty—which can include cheating, fabrication, plagiarism or forgery (see sidebar)—is a growing phenomenon in Canada's schools and post-secondary institutions.

Forms of Academic Dishonesty Cheating is defined as any dishonest means of obtaining answers to test, exam or assignment questions. It can include: copying from another student's exam or assignment; obtaining unauthorized information about an exam; consulting crib notes during an exam; submitting an assignment completed (or partially completed) by someone else; submitting the same work for different courses without prior permission, or obtaining a deadline extension or makeup exam under false pretences. Fabrication involves falsifying or making up data or bibliographic information. Plagiarism is defined as copying another person's work or ideas without proper attribution.

According to a 2006 study, nearly three-quarters of first-year university or college students in Canada admitted to committing one or more serious acts of academic dishonesty while attending high school.[1] The study, which was carried out by the University of Guelph and Rutgers University between January 2002 and March 2003, surveyed nearly 20,000 students and faculty at 11 post-secondary institutions (10 universities and one college) across Canada about academic dishonesty in high school, college and university.

First-year PSE students were asked about their experiences in high school, with 73% admitting to at least one instance of serious cheating on written work in high school (and 58% admitting to at least one act of serious cheating on a test (see sidebar for definitions). Reported rates of academic dishonesty at the university level (undergraduate and graduate) were lower but still substantial.

Among undergraduate students, 53% admitted to serious cheating on written work and 18% admitted to serious test cheating. Among graduate students, 35% admitted to serious cheating on written work while only 9% admitted to serious test cheating.

Definitions of cheating “Serious test cheating” was defined as: copying from another student’s test, helping another student to cheat on a test, or using crib notes. “Serious cheating on written work” was defined as: copying material from a written source or from the internet without adequate paraphrasing or without acknowledging the source, turning in work done by someone else or copying and turning in large sections of another’s work and, fabricating or falsifying a bibliography; turning in a paper obtained from a “paper mill”. Fabrication involves falsifying or making up data or bibliographic information. Plagiarism is defined as copying another person's work or ideas without proper attribution.

While large-scale data on trends in Canada are unavailable, the University of Waterloo reports that instances of cheating and plagiarism in their institution increased by 81% between the 2002-2003 and 2005-2006 school years.[2] Over this period, reported instances of internet-based plagiarism in the university nearly tripled from 54 in 2002-2003 to 153 in 2005-2006. While in the United States, researchers report that self-admitted rates of serious test cheating among college students increased dramatically from 39% in 1963 to 64% in 1993. [3]

Reasons for cheating

Research shows that on the surface, the reasons for engaging in academic dishonesty are straight-forward: most students are looking to get higher grades or avoid failing outright.[4] But studies have shown that students tend to cheat under certain circumstances, such as being graded on a curve where there are always winners and losers.[5] As well, the risk of being caught cheating is often low (or is perceived as being low) which can encourage misconduct by students.[6] Further, behavioural psychologists suggest that students cheat when there are opportunities to engage and succeed in such behaviours and the chances of getting caught and punished are low.[7]

Some researchers have suggested that students are not fully aware of the rules concerning academic dishonesty and may break those rules inadvertently.[8] In fact, survey data suggests that students often have differing perceptions about what constitutes academic dishonesty than their teachers. For example, the 2006 University of Guelph and Rutgers University survey revealed that students saw many acts of academic dishonesty as "not cheating" or "trivial cheating," while faculty perceived these same acts as moderate or serious cheating.

Figure 1: Student and faculty beliefs about acts of academic dishonesty, Canada (2006)

	Percentage who rated a behaviour as "not cheating" or "trivial cheating"
	High-school students	University undergraduates	Faculty
Working on an assignment with others when the instructor asked for individual work	80	79	27
Receiving unpermitted help on assignments	72	70	27
Hiding library or course materials	54	49	22
Fabricating or falsifying lab data	51	36	3
Using false excuses to obtain extension	50	46	24
Getting questions/answers from someone who has already taken test	47	50	12

From: Hughes, J.M.C. & McCabe, D.L. (2006). Academic misconduct within higher education in Canada . Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 36(2), 1-21.

An environment in which academic dishonesty is tolerated (or seen to be tolerated) can foment cheating among students. In surveys of post-secondary institutions in the United States and Canada, 41% of faculty of admitted to ignoring incidents of suspected academic dishonesty. [9] Researchers argue that a failure to act in such instances can lead to higher levels of dishonesty as some students conclude that their dishonest actions will not be punished, and other students conclude they must cheat to remain competitive with students who are already doing so.

Parents' lack of awareness of their children's behaviour can also make it easier for some students to cheat. While most parents are aware that academic dishonesty occurs at their children's schools, few parents are quick to acknowledge their own children's infractions. For example, though 79% of parents surveyed reported that students at their child's school download essays from the internet and submit them as their own work, only 7% of them reported that their own child had done so (compared to 21% of students who admit doing so).[10] This lack of awareness can prevent parents from addressing issues of academic dishonesty with their children.

The role of technology in cheating

The majority of students today qualify as "digital natives," meaning that they have grown up around computers, cell phones and other mobile devices and are comfortable using the technology.[11] In fact, this "technological literacy" appears to help students engage in certain forms of academic dishonesty.

The easy availability of high-speed internet access allows students to find and retrieve information easily and quickly, and the chances of getting caught are often low.[12] In a recent national survey of U.S. students in Grade 7 through Grade 12, more than half (52%) admitted to some form of internet-enabled cheating. Nearly 38% had "cut and pasted" material from websites and submitted it as their own work, 32% had searched the internet for teacher manuals to find solutions to problems in their textbooks, and 21% had downloaded papers from the internet and submitted them as their own work.[13]

The widespread use of cell phones or other mobile devices has also played a role in cheating. The same study showed that 35% of high-school students admitted to cheating at least once with a cell phone: 26% of this group had stored notes on their cell phones to consult during exams, 25% had texted friends for answers, 20% had searched the internet for answers and 17% had taken pictures of exam questions to send them to friends. 

Computer technologies that eliminate time and geographical limits have enabled the recent rapid expansion of online learning in the K-12 and post-secondary systems.[14] In Canada, there are universities and even grade schools that exist entirely online, such as the Canadian Virtual University and the Alberta Distance Learning Centre.

The absence of direct interaction and monitoring in online courses can increase the temptation to engage in academic dishonesty and create additional challenges in the prevention and detection of cheating and plagiarism.[15]

Lessons in Learning: Addressing Academic Dishonesty

Just as technology has aided in the rise of academic dishonesty, it has also helped to address the trend. In recent years, verification software has come on the market that compares students' assignments with a database that contains thousands of papers and essays to search for identical paragraphs or phrases. Such software, which includes Turnitin and iThenticate, can help faculty identify plagiarism and help deter students from engaging in academic dishonesty by sensitizing them to the issue and increasing the perceived threat of detection.[16] But detection tools are only finitely reliable. While they are proven to be effective in detecting cases when students plagiarize text from electronic sources, there are ineffective in identifying cases when students copy from books or translate from another language. As well, students can learn to tweak their writing so that it appears acceptable to the software but is nonetheless plagiarized.

Attempts to raise student awareness about the types of behaviour that qualify as academic dishonesty can also be an effective approach to prevention. Research shows that students who receive specific instruction on academic dishonesty are less likely to cheat[17] as are students at schools who have established "honour codes."[18] The combination of these two things—honour codes and active discussions of academic dishonesty—has been shown to facilitate moral reasoning and discourage unethical behaviour.[19]

Literature about academic honour codes provides a series of guidelines for developing and effective policy:[20]

• develop clear, specific definitions of dishonesty and apply them uniformly;
• appeal to students' personal integrity;
• reduce the temptation to cheat;
• encourage active student participation and critical thinking;
• impose reasonable but strict penalties; and
• eliminate excess procedure when resolving cases of suspected dishonesty.

Thoughtful assignment and assessment procedures can also reduce the incidence of academic dishonesty.[21] These procedures can include breaking large assignments into smaller ones, requiring students to report on their progress and asking students to submit drafts of their work.[22] Helping students to focus on learning and knowledge generation and devising creative assignments can also be effective.[23]

Reducing academic dishonesty in the context of online learning relies to some extent on ensuring sufficient contact and communication between students and their instructors. Providing clear guidelines regarding the appropriate use of resources is also important. In addition, researchers and practitioners offer the following guidelines:[24]

• give supervised on-site or interactive video finals that make up a large percentage of students' final grades;
• change assignments and tests each semester;
• give personalized assignments;
• use verification software; and
• give open-book exams that require the practical application of knowledge.

Conclusion

Recent data on academic dishonesty indicate that a large majority of students engage in dishonest practices on occasion and that their instructors often choose to ignore these behaviours. While many strategies are available to help instructors reduce cheating in their courses, the widespread nature of the problem suggests system-wide efforts may be required to address academic dishonesty.

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