Cheating

Academic misconduct involving cheating has re-appeared in recent research studies. There in lies the questions, is this display of misconduct intentional or unintentional, are there differences between individual and team cheating and what factors come into play in academic misconduct that surrounds cheating.

Cheating is defined as an act of lying, deception, trickery, fraud, imposture or imposition. Cheating is considered immoral by most and those participating should be punished. The academic honor code is a guide for students and although it appears to reduce cheating, it remains quite common among students.

In any academic institution there is structured orientation classes required to educate one on the policies, rules and regulations as well as make preparation for a successful academic experience. During orientation the facilitator may make reference to what is know as an honor code and specifically the ethics that are required for both the traditional and online testing process. The traditional class setting is an atmosphere that thrives on student to student interaction. That interaction can lead to a comfort level that breeds opportunities for misconduct. In areas such as sharing test answers and using what is know as crib notes. These are two of the most common areas of cheating. “Sharing test answers is done quite frequently” says, Ms.

Dela Garza. This interview revealed that students believe that most exercises are pointless and cheating is a way to get through the classes with a decent grade. Students are confident and not at all remorseful for this illicit act. On the other hand, the online learning environment creates an entirely different probability for academic misconduct. In the online learning environment technology has provided an opportunity for academic misconduct in ways such as using information or data that has been taken from someone else’s work and not giving them credit, better known as plagiarism. With this being said, the use of electronic devices for cheating such as PDAs or cell phones, is a common way of getting test data or answers to present falsely or with the intention to gain credit for the work.

Bases on research completed by Damast, there have only been a handful of cases that speak to ethical violations involving cheating. The University of Virginia, Duke and the University of Chicago, the examples given are were that 25 out of 35 students have been sanctioned for cheating or other ethical violations in the past 10 years. (Damast).

At the University of Chicago, for instance, they have report that only 25 disciplinary hearings in the past 13 years have resulted in 11 academic sanctions. These results are specific to business schools that have provided data and classed as B-Schools according