Abstract
The prevalence and surge in academic cheating indicate that students are finding innovative techniques to cheat during examinations. This problem has left invigilators and academic stakeholders wondering how students manage to cheat during exams. With a qualitative approach, this study sought to explore the techniques used by students during examinations. Data were gathered from students of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. The findings revealed that the innovative techniques used by students were sitting arrangements, use of body parts, entry of foreign materials, and the use of technology. Students devised these techniques due to their perception of cheating and also poor institutional mechanism, which provided a favourable ground for cheating. We, therefore, argue that, to curtail academic cheating, not only should educational authorities and academic stakeholders improve institutional mechanism to prevent cheating, as it is the case, but also, a conscious effort should be made to alter student’s perception of cheating.
Highlights
Examinations in schools, at the tertiary level, have been deemed necessary for assessing students’ performance in terms of their understanding content and its application [1]
A study by Open Education Database [20] revealed that 68 percent of college students disclosed they have engaged in academic cheating, with undergraduate freshmen students being the most likely to engage in the act
There has been a surge in academic cheating in recent times [9]. is is evident in a study undertaken by [25] that, in 1998, 49 percent of undergraduate marketing students cheated in exams as against 100 percent of undergraduate marketing students in 2008
Summary
Examinations in schools, at the tertiary level, have been deemed necessary for assessing students’ performance in terms of their understanding content and its application [1]. In the process of performance assessment, cheating becomes inevitable [2, 3]; [4]. Cheating has become prevalent in most tertiary institutions [2]. Is problem downplays the goal of assessing the understanding and application of taught courses to students [2, 3]. The real understanding and level of knowledge of the student cannot be objectively assessed. Academic cheating has both individual and institutional repercussions. To the individual, cheating dents the integrity of the individual, making him/her unworthy of trust [2, 5]
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