Problem of Academic Dishonesty - Essay Example

? Honesty and Trust Academic dishonesty has grown exponentially over the years. The rise of technology has actually added fuel to the problem. The students in the modern days are more focused on the attainment of the extrinsic goals rather than the intrinsic ones. Hence, the role of the institutions along with the parents have become critical than ever to combat the problem of academic dishonesty. Introduction Academic integrity is quite essential for the success of the educator as well as the students. Academic integrity provides the much required foundation for the responsible conduct in the lives of the students. However, transferring values into action can be quite difficult. This is applicable for the most widely shared values also. However, action is something which is badly needed to promote the concept of academic integrity. Researchers have agreed over the fact cheating among American colleges and high school kids are quite high and the rate is also increasing. Increasing competitiveness among the students as well as the high stakes associated with the results of the exams is treated as the two most important reasons for the boost in the academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty is not new and has been present in the education system for many decades. However, the rise of the digital medium in the form of internet has changed the way in which the students look to adopt unfair means to go ahead academically. The present study has been conducted in lieu to analyze the ever rising problem of academic dishonesty. During the course of the study, various recent research studies related to academic dishonesty has been analyzed to find out the root cause of the problem. Also some probable measures to solve the problem of the academic dishonesty have also been discussed (Strom & Strom, 2007). Discussion Academic dishonesty can be described as a situation in which the students tend to adopt unfair practices to complete certain academic assignments in a relatively easier way. This includes cheating during tests or exams, sharing information, reusing previous reports, copying assignments, unauthorized collaboration with other students, unauthorized assistance from other students and off course plagiarism which happens to be an effect of copying, cheating or reusing. The practices of academic dishonesty have increased steadily since studies revealed as many as eighty to ninety percent of the students admitted of cheating during exams or assignments. Students have admitted the main reason for cheating is the increasing pressure to keep up with other peers. One of the academic professionals were found saying that pressure to attain high scores is extremely high. Therefore, the administrators and the teachers have made the standard tests untrustworthy. Students usually cheat on regular basis when the objective of the students is lot more concentrated on grades and performance rather than learning and gaining knowledge. One must demonstrate that the students are more inclined towards cheating while answering questions. Some of the academic professionals actually believe there is a fundamental error within the mindset of the students. At this point of time the students are more extrinsically focused on ego rather than mastery or learning; both of which happen to be intrinsic factors. Also another major reason could be the fact that the students do not believe when they do not feel confident about their own abilities. Also is the cost of getting caught while cheating is small, cheating becomes a lot more appealing. Going back to the factor related to intrinsic, it has been found through research that students who are more focused on learning are less likely to cheat. College students said that they are less likely to cheat when the classes are quite interesting. Sometimes students also cheat due to the pressure to get higher grades to enter into a certain college. This extra pressure also sometimes leads the students towards cheating. Such pressure can come from teachers, friends as well as family members (Underwood & Szabo, 2003). Most of the times the students tend to have different attitudes regarding cheating. According to various articles regarding academic dishonesty, students claimed that there are various times when the students need a little bit of help. Another student also added that if cheating helps in getting grades then that would be the way to go. Other students said that lack of access to free tuitions and not enough time to do the required works are the main drivers behind cheating. The article clearly shows that more and more students are feeling the pressure to cheat. This actually matches with the above information which spoke about the conflict faced by the students regarding extrinsic and intrinsic values. There is very little doubt over the fact that technology has brought new opportunities for the students to explore avenues to upgrade knowledge as well as skills. However, there is a dark side to it also when it comes to the practice of cheating. It is quite certain that technology has provided the overlap of opportunity and motivation. In this way it has probably increased the problem of academic dishonesty. Internet is used by the students to download readymade materials and then the computer is used to cut and paste the work to prepare the assignments quickly through unethical means. Also the large volume of information provided by technology may actually reduce the risk of the students being caught for cheating. There are various articles and other resources that are exposed to the students through the usage of internet than the good old days, when the students had library only. Also the recycling or the reuse of the papers among the students is also hard to catch as the plagiarism software finds it hard to catch this type of cheating. Apart from plagiarism, by using internet sources and other unethical behaviors need the use of information technology. According to the article called the origins of the academic dishonesty; Ethical personality factors and orientation related to the attitudes of the students regarding cheating is closely related to the use of information technology. In this article various behaviors had been listed by the authors as unethical usage of information technology; attaching an assignment to any e-mail when the student did not have any additional time to complete the work; moving on a message or conversation while taking computerized exams; sending mails to some friends to let the friends know about the question in an exam that the student himself have just finished; using a website as a source or reference that the student have not used and at last but not the least, use of online chat rooms to get information related the homework or assignments which were supposed to be an individual assignment (Conlin, 2007). Technological devices like mobile phones have actually aggravated the problem. To be more specific students have been caught of sending SMS to other students to leak answers. The rise of smart phones or tablets has taken the problem of academic dishonesty to new heights. Student can actually watch word documents and PDF files through the smart phones. Also these devices can actually be used to download files quite quickly. Probable Solutions to the Problem Teachers may check the papers for plagiarism by using plagiarism software such as turnitin.com or Plagiserve. Also the students should be advised to submit the assignments electronically. In this way the teachers would be able to use these types of service. Also the instructor should reexamine the paper to find out whether the information has been intentionally miscited or an intentional attempt or a simple mistake made by the students. Teachers need to understand that mistrust and suspicion do not produce the ideal environment for learning. It is also the duty of the instructors to make the students understand on the way the citations should be used and what exactly plagiarism is. One of the major concerns has been the sharing of papers amongst the students. Therefore, one of the probable measures to reduce the problem would be to maintain a database of the papers submitted by the students in each and every semester. Also this should be conveyed to the students as this may help in reducing the problem of reuse of the papers as the students would be less inclined to indulge in recycling of the papers, if the students are aware of the fact about the database. At the end of the day the main objective is not to punish the students but to make them carry out tasks in a more ethical fashion. Many researchers have stressed on the importance of educating the students regarding cheating and the consequence of it. Therefore the educators should clearly state the costs or the consequences of cheating to the students. Many academic professionals have said that they happen to be a firm supporter of engaging the students in a dialogue regarding cheating. Various researches have also shown that the so called honor code has often acted in a positive fashion leading to the decline of cheating whenever, this has been practiced. It has also been mentioned that concentrating on the positive aspects regarding learning while addressing issue related to cheating should include responsibilities, integrity and values rather than just the negative consequences of cheating. It is important for the academic institutions to teach students as to why the practice of cheating is not acceptable and how cheating cannot add any value or contribution to the learning of the students. Along with the colleges, the schools should also focus on providing such workshops for the students as well as the parents as it is more likely that in doing so such discussions would continue at home also (McGabe, 1999). . There is also a need for the instructor to ask the students to show learning in a rather non conventional format. This would usually make the students to think critically and solve the problems. Asking the students to be critical and analytical would mean that the students may not be confined to mere copying and pasting from the internet. A student can cheat when the students are being judged based on answers to certain question which is actually a combination of facts. But things tend to become a lot more critical when the students are asked to defend a certain position through an essay. Teachers who have focused on mastery than mere performance can be of great help in reducing the problems of academic dishonesty. Teachers can actually help the students understand that the evaluation would be based on the mastery rather than demonstration of the relative knowledge. Teachers should concentrate on the individual progress and effort of the students rather than just mere comparison of the students to each other. Also urging the students to concentrate on the short terms goal which happen to be more satisfying as compared to goal oriented students may actually reduce the felling of a student who feels that it is absolutely essential to cheat to be at par with the friends. Also, making the students submit research documents and notes while writing a paper long with other learning information to help a long way in reducing the problem of cheating. Also this would actually increase the level of transparency, among the teacher and the student. Some of the other ideas would include allowing the students to improve the end product would be through peer revision. This would not only reduce cheating, but also deter the ever growing competition among the peers. Also cheating is likely to reduce, if the students have to orally defend the papers by having conversation with the teachers. In this paper there has been a lot of talk about the curse of the technology in the context of the academic integrity. But there are a lot of positive sides to. Various schools and colleges are using the modern technology in the form of the use of the audio visual devices to make the process of learning a lot more interactive and interesting. This would be related to the findings of the study which showed that the students are less likely to cheat, if the classes are perceived to be a lot more interesting. There is also of the parents to reduce the problem of academic integrity. Quite often it has been seen that parents actually compare the performance of the kids with that of the others. This makes the kids more inclined towards cheating. Therefore such comparison should be avoided. The parents should understand the fact that the ultimate objective of education is to defeat the peers, but to gain knowledge and enhance the skills along with character building (Warn, 2006). Conclusion In conclusion it can be said that the world has become a lot more connected and hence, the gap between collaboration and cheating has become quite fuzzy. In an era of Facebook and Twitter, people tend to be in constant touch with each other making the battle against academic dishonesty a lot more difficult. Therefore the academic institutions as well as the parents have a critical role to play to reduce cheating. Interactive learning sessions, engaging the students in discussion about the consequences of cheating ca play a major role in reducing cheating. Also the parents should stay away from comparison of the kids with the peers as this tends to increase the pressure to perform. All in all both the institutions and the parents should encourage the kids to focus a lot more on the intrinsic rewards of education which happens to be learning, improvement of knowledge, skills and character building, because at this point of time majority of the kids seemed to be focusing a lot more on the extrinsic rewards. References Conlin, M. (2007). Cheating or postmodern learning? Business Week, n. 4034, p.42. McGabe, D.L. (1999). Academic dishonesty among high school students. Adolescence, vol. 34, n.136, p.p.681 – 688. Strom, P. & Strom, R.D. (2007). Curbing cheating, raising integrity. Education Digest, vol. 72, n.8, p. 42-50. Underwood, J. & Szabo, A. (2003). Academic offences and e-learning: individual propensities in cheating. British Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 34, n.4, p.467-477. Warn, J. (2006). Plagiarism software: no magic bullet! Higher Educational Research & Development, vol. 25, n.2, p.p.195-208. Read More