Involvement of Students in Cheating - Coursework Example

MANAGERIAL REPORT

One of the most common features of examinations is involvement of students in cheating. Such acts are mainly caused by unpreparedness which resorts to cheating. Cheating in examinations has become a common occurrence. From elementary schools way up to the higher learning institutions. Despite students being encouraged to avoid such a practice as it isn't beneficial to them, they still do not heed the call. It is a shame to know that our institutions of higher learning are at the forefront of this cheating in exam menace. People who reportedly never cheated in their elementary education find themselves finally getting into this heinous act. Not that it is their fault but because the environment fosters it, to some extent, other factors kept constant. Cheating seems to delight the students but he/she ignores the fact that he/she is simply cheating ones conscience. In addition there is mass copying at times which should be dealt with severely. Exams does evaluates students’ knowledge and understanding of whatever is taught. Therefore cheating has become a concern of the deans of colleges. There is a need to curb exam cheating for a better society. Despite students getting caught, some still view themselves as experts and that they can't get caught. Cheating in exams has a negative impact on the social, economic and even religion in the society. Talking in economic terms, development and productivity is lowered. This is because the students, despite succeeding in their examinations, cannot apply or even remember what they learnt back at school.Socially, cheating lower their trust of other people in the society hence reduce their credibility and trust. Since cheating became a great concern to Rocky University some students from the school of business were summoned to conduct a study on the topic in order to provide a substantial overview on the issue. As part of this study an anonymous exit assessment was administered to a sample of 90, 48 male students and 42 female students, from this year’s graduating class. The report below contains analyzed data, findings and a hypothesis.

Forty seven students, representing 52.22222%, copied work from the internet and represented as their own. Fifty students, representing 55.55556% copied on exams. 52.22222% of the students collaborated on individual projects.

Twenty four female students representing 57.14286% of female students that were involved in the survey copied work from the internet and presented as their own while 47.91667% of male students involved in the survey participated in this kind of stealing.

Twenty five male students, representing 54.16667% of male students involved in the survey copied on exam while 57.14286 of the female students involved participated in this kind of stealing.

Twenty six male students involved in the survey collaborated on individual projects representing 54.16667% of the total number of male students who participated in the survey. Twenty one female students participated in this kind of cheating representing 50% of female students involved in the survey.

The developed 95% confidence interval is as follows:

Male students who collaborated on individual project-0.235325

Male students who copied on exam-0.235325

Male students who presented work copied from the internet-0.226274

Female students who collaborated on individual project-0.213193

Female students who copied on exam-0.232221

Female students who presented work copied from the internet-0.232221

Hypothesis test:

Null hypothesis: the proportion of students from Rocky University who didn’t cheat in exams is less than those who participated in cheating.

Alternative hypothesis: the proportion of students from Rocky University who didn’t cheat in exams is greater than those who participated in cheating.

t= (0.9-0.1)/ (90) ^0.5= 0.08433

This is greater than 0.05, thus the null hypothesis is true therefore we fail to reject the null hypothesis.

The survey shows that most students are involved in cheating of exams. The statistics shows that only nine students were not involved in any kind cheating which represents ten percent of the total number of students who were involved in the survey. These are worrying statistics that requires a bold action to at least reduce the rate of cheating in exams.

Among the things that can be done to reduce cheating are:

Student identification where each student should be asked to carry with them proper identification. This is because cheating can be in form of impersonation Installation of CCTV cameras in examination rooms. Installing such high tech equipment may be costly but in the long run will do a better job in reducing and even eventually eliminating the cases if cheating. It has already been done in some institutions, partially though, but all in all, it can be done.

Lectures should take some time on explaining what cheating is. If this kind of explanation is done, students will get to know that their teachers do care about the integrity of the examinations and the results that come thereafter. Furthermore, it will eliminate the ambiguity on what is considered cheating. Not setting predictable questions. Examiners should do their best in ensuring they set questions which cannot be easily predicted. The increasing probability to which students can predict questions has resulted to them thoroughly revising only for questions and even carrying small written papers for ‘’confirmation’’.Strict punishment to offenders. Punishment among offenders should be in such a way to make students fear cheating in exams, for a lack of a better explanation. The consequences should be clearly stated so that students make the right decision. Strictness in invigilation. The current situation seen in our institutions is that some invigilators don't take their jobs seriously. They "sleep" on their job. This should not be the case however and the job should be taken seriously to combat the act of cheating. Report all cheating incidents. Students fear that if they report their colleagues who are cheating, they may be viewed as betrayers or so. Let it be but we should know that such a person is concerned about the well-being of both the offender and the institution at large. We should not keep quiet and let such behaviors continue but speak out and improve on the education of our institution.

Since cheating has become a great menace in Rocky University, sample students together with the dean of college school contributed in various ways of curbing cheating. The above discussed means when followed closely and implemented with due effect can greatly influence cheating negatively. Lecturers must therefore be in the frontline to shape students minds appropriately so that they can avoid exam cheating. Cheating is of course undesirable and unacceptable because it always usurps the rights of others and inflicts injustice upon others. Happiness should be earned through fair and honest means.

Any form of Cheating should thus be condemned and appropriate penalties taken against frauds. Business students in Rocky fraternity should then be ready to face the strains put aside by the dean to completely deal with exam cheating in the university and as well the society. This report was successfully completed by the commissioned students under the deans’ surveillance, it will therefore be of great impact to the higher learning institutions like rocky university as well as other learning centers.

From the above report, I would recommend that students should be encouraged to take their studies seriously to ensure complete preparedness during exam. Lecturers should also be encouraged to ensure that all subjects being taught are complete in time to ensure that students do not feel unprepared for exams. There should also be strict punishments for those who are caught cheating to discourage cheating.