As educators, we should always be prepared to find cases of academic honesty in online courses. There is no difference in cheating in a on-ground course and online course. As a tool, the Turnitin database may be utilized to scan student submissions for academic honesty. It should be noted Turnitin is only a tool and academic honesty should be further determined by the professor.
Hi Rebecca,
In my courses, there are no quizzes; only papers assigned to students. Do you think students should be eliminated from taking quizzes in online courses?
Thanks,
Andrea
Daniel,
Proper citing is very important. Make sure your students know what proper citing is. I have had tons of students who simply did not know (or so they say) they had to cite their work!
Shelly Crider
Andrea,
There is cheating in the workplace as well. We should be instilling good moral thoughts in those we teach.
Shelly Crider
Not to be flippant but you can rearrange the letters in cheat to teach. Yes, you do need to worry about students cheating in an online environment. This has been a challenge since the beginning of online learning. However, I do not think there is data that indicates cheating may be more rampant.
I think it is harder to cheat on line because alot of times you don't know anyone in your class when you are on line.
Ron,
Good point....where there is a will there will be a way to cheat. If we can keep students motivated in class, they may want to do their own work.
Shelly Crider
Chatrione,
This is true. Courses can have assessments timed as well. Bottom line is we as instructors will be looking for cheaters online and in the classroom.
Shelly Crider
I disagree. We should be just as concerned with students cheating in an online class as we are in "traditional" classes. It is a major concern for all professors and students and it undermines their ability to learn the material. I think that instructors can use online programs, such as Turnitin, in order to help keep students accountable, in both online and traditional classes.
Shelly:
I feel the degree of cheating is similar between on ground and online. The difference is that it is easier to get caught when plagiarizing papers online.
Prior to student beginning an online degree, I think more emphasis should be placed on the proper citing of information. It has to be known that copy and paste is not acceptable. Learning does not occur when students are copying and pasting research. Furthermore, it is easier to cheat when the students do not have to face the instructor directly. JMH
Jon,
Very good point....hiding behind a screen makes a student a little more invincible!
Shelly Crider
Well, of course, that is why I personally do not like the typical multiple choice-true false tests that seem to be so prevalent in some schools courses. It is difficult to "cheat" if they are given an assignment that requires them to actually provide you with a written, several page response.
Yes, turnitin is a great tool., however it can also be misleading for the novice user. I recommend you get a good handle on the tool before you use it. For example, it will match almost every time to a students reference page, you need to discount this as multiple users have likley sued that same resoruce. Turnitin does have some short, useful videos for both students and instructors.
I feel that there is a greater concern regarding cheating in an online classroom. It's difficult enough to identify whether a student is struggling when you don't have that face-to-face interaction. If a student is cheating online they are cheating themselves out of the knowledge and it's even more difficult to identify a student who is having difficulty.
James,
Exactly....what exactly do multiple choice or true/false questions show?
Shelly Crider
Nancy ,
Cheating is cheating yourself out of knowledge and in the end a career!
Shelly Crider
I fully disagree. Academic dishonesty is totally unacceptable in any form of instruction, either traditional or online. I have zero tolerance for academic dishonesty.
John
I disagree. Sort of a loaded question.
Obviously the temptation is greater in the on-line environment. Years ago we might have commented that it was easier. With programs like Turnitin it is becoming increasingly more difficult to cheat.
However faculty need to be diligent in checking similarity scores so students can learn that simply cutting and pasting is not academic research. I believe that there are many students who simply do not understand the concept of APA and are not purposefully cheating.
John,
I have zero tolerance as well. If a student cheats in class, they will cheat on the job. I do not want my accountant cheating on my finances!!
Shelly Crider
Shelly:
I consider cheating a form of stealing; stealing is a crime.
Thanks for your reply.
John
