Education on Academic Integrity Violations

Academic integrity in higher education can be challenging for faculty and administrators due to ever increasing technological advances and societal attitudes toward cheating (Kitahara & Westfall, 2007). Academic integrity has been part of life as long as I have been teaching, but I can attest to the challenges presented in online courses. The online environment adds new elements to the array of factors that contribute to a willingness to cheat, including decreased personal connection with other students in the class as well as the professor. (Stuber-McEwen, Wiseley, & Hoggatt, 2014). Not knowing the basics of what a violation of academic integrity entails also impacts how students may violate academic integrity, and many students are under stress to do well in their courses in order to keep funding or employment.

Cheating in the online environment can be difficult to detect, depending in part on the way a course is set up. Often cheating can be caught, such as when students answer quizzes and test together. Another common way that cheating has been caught is in essay assignments, when the instructor notes a dramatic (positive) change in writing style; this may reflect a purchased paper or cut-and-paste from a website.

Several of my colleagues and I created a module on academic integrity for our online students, to go over basic information about cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, and facilitation, as well as, several short scenarios, on cheating and plagiarism. What students reported about the video and the scenarios was interesting. Several students commented, that it was often difficult to determine what plagiarism was and was not, due to the content and information on websites. Students also had difficulty determining that ideas and thoughts that were not their own, but were common knowledge, would be considered plagiarism if copied. Some students had learned theories in their field of study and applied those theories in their careers, and when quoting those theories realized that citing the theorist was important; otherwise, the information was plagiarized. In other words, information that has been learned, integrated into memory, and applied, is often difficult to think about in terms of plagiarism and the need for citation.

For many students, being reminded about the basics of academic integrity and the importance of determining when a citation is appropriate is important when completing academic work. Plagiarism can often be unintentional in such a technological age, which of course does not make it right, but education on the issue can help reduce this type of academic integrity violation. It is important for higher education institutions to ensure that appropriate education is provided before students engage in any course of study, either in online or face-to-face classes. This can be conducted by taking online modules in academic integrity either university wide or by program. It is also important to make sure that the design of coursework ensures connection between students and the professor via virtual class meetings and other software that connect students and the professor.

References:

Kithara, R.T., & Westfall, F. (2007). Promoting academic integrity in online distance learning courses. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3, 265-276.

Stuber-McEwen, D., Wiseley, P., & Hoggatt, S. (2014). Point, click, and cheat: Frequency and type of academic dishonesty in the virtual classroom. http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall123/stuber123.html