Academic Integrity Violations Research Articles

How Online Business School Instructors Address Academic Integrity Violations

While online learning has dramatically increased over the past few years, so have opportunities for students to cheat, plagiarize, or commit other academic integrity violations in the online learning environment. Some online instructors effectively address these issues, while others do not. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how online business school instructors address academic integrity violations. To examine in what manner academic integrity issues were being addressed in the online classroom, 12 teachers at a university located in Florida were interviewed to obtain their perspectives and instructional practices regarding academic integrity online. Results indicate all participants believe it is their job to prevent academic integrity violations; however, only two instructors have reported it through school administrators, with many participants deciding to address the issue in their own classroom and not report it outside to school leadership for help addressing the issue. The importance of this study shows that most online instructors are doing what they believe is their best to address integrity violations; however, they may be promoting it by not reporting it outside of the classroom to school administration.

Особливості експертизи наукових робіт щодо виявлення академічної недоброчесності

The article deals with the difficult issue of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, falsification and other violations of academic integrity in the research papers, which an expert must identify. The objective of the study is to establish the specifics of scientific texts expertize for detecting academic dishonesty. To achieve this goal, we implemented an comprehensive approach, within which qualitative and quantitative methods were applied. The qualitative methods were used to study state regulatory documents, as well as internal regulations and regulations of the best universities of Ukraine in 2020 (according to the rating of the Center for International Projects “Evroostvita”); the reports of universities’ rectors. In the process of analysing, we used free coding of text segments, which can be identified as a guide/advice/specific to check the works for plagiarism. We used the quantitative methods to confirm the hypothesis about exclusive focus of universities on the percentage of originality (coincidences) of texts, as well as to establish a correlation of mentions of “percentage” and “plagiarism” as analysis units. The main result of the study is a number of tips and specifics that are worth exploring by the specialists involved in scientific texts checking in order to detect academic dishonesty.

ЦІЛІ ТА ЦІННОСТІ СУЧАСНОГО УНІВЕРСИТЕТУ: ВИКЛИКИ АКАДЕМІЧНОЇ ДОБРОЧЕСНОСТІ В УМОВАХ ОНЛАЙН НАВЧАННЯ

The paper presents the results of a study of the moral problems of online learning in higher education. Analysis of the trend of contemporary universities determined positive and negative influence on the participants of educational and scientific activities and society in general. The purpose of a contemporary university is to preserve, produce, and disseminate knowledge and educate independent, critical and responsible citizens. Academic freedom and academic integrity are defined as the core values of today's higher education. The presented results of the survey of students and teachers from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv on certain issues of academic integrity (2020-2021) revealed an asymmetry between the teachers and the students in the attitude to the violation of academic integrity. It was recorded that the level of awareness of ethics among the students is inadequate. Ways to address the moral issues of the educational process and online learning are associated with technical and institutional decisions on the implementation of academic integrity policies and raising the level of ethical awareness of all participants in the educational process, and expanding the role of the humanities. The author believes that philosophy and ethics can develop critical thinking and form a moral consciousness of students, a sense of personal responsibility for their actions.

ACADEMIC PLAGIARISM AND SELF-PLAGIARISM AS ELEMENTS OF VIOLATION OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

KUPRATA Nadia – PhD (Philology), Associate Professor of Language and Psychological & Pedagogical Training Department, Odessa National Economic University, 8 Preobrazhenska Str., Odesa, 65000, Ukraine E-mail address: kupratan@gmail.comORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5829-9701ResearcherID: https://publons.com/researcher/1932759//9 MENSO Iryna – PhD (Law), Senior Lecturer of Civil and Labor Law Department, Odesa National Maritime University, 34 Mechnykova Str., Odesa, 65000, UkraineE-mail address: irinamenso1@icloud.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0211-1567ResearcherID: https://publons.com/researcher/4037760/iryna-menso/To cite this article: Kuprata, N., & Menso, I. (2020). Academic plagiarism and self-plagiarism as elements of violation of academic integrity. Human Studies. Series of Pedagogy, 11/43, 75‒90. doi: https://doi.org/10.24919/2413-2039.11/43.220455Article history Received: September 6, 2019Received in revised form: October 11, 2020 Accepted: November 23, 2020Available online: December 30, 2020Journal homepage:http://lssp.dspu.edu.ua/p-ISSN 2313-2094e-ISSN 2413-2039© 2020 The Authors. Human studies. Series of Pedagogy published by Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University & Open Journal Systems. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). The article examines such violations of academic integrity as “academic plagiarism” and “self-plagiarism”. Since the concept of “academic integrity” etymologically consists of two words “academic” and “integrity”, it makes it an ethical and scientific concept, and such types of violations of academic integrity as academic plagiarism, self-plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, deception, bribery refer it to the legal category. The concept of the “academic integrity” is associated with the scientific integrity, including the teaching integrity, and correlates to some extent with the intellectual ownership. The observance of academic integrity by scholars and educators refers not only to the moral principles and protection of the interests of others, but also to the honor and dignity of a person who adheres to the principles of academic integrity and contributes to the formation of his/her business reputation in science and education.The relationship between the concepts of “plagiarism” and “academic plagiarism” has been elucidated. The understanding of the concept of “plagiarism” contained in the Law of Ukraine “On Copyright and Related Rights” is significantly narrower than the understanding of the academic plagiarism in the laws on education. At the same time, the scope of the concept of “plagiarism” is much wider than the scope of the concept of “academic plagiarism”. Academic plagiarism is limited to objects, a range of subjects and the scope. The characteristic features of the legislative definition of the concept of “academic plagiarism” are highlighted, which together form the legal structure of the academic plagiarism. It has been found that the concept of “self-plagiarism”, reflected in the Law of Ukraine “On Education”, is of English origin and first appeared in the United States as student slang. No regulatory enactment of foreign countries contains the concept of “self-plagiarism”, it is newly introduced in the national legislation and has already caused a lot of discussion among scholars.The necessity of introducing the concept of “self-plagiarism” into the national legislation is substantiated. The need to consolidate the concept of “self-plagiarism” was caused by a deep crisis of academic integrity in the scientific and educational environment. Self-plagiarism reduces the trust in scientific results, misleads scientists who use the work with self-plagiarism and contributes to an unjustified increase in research results, which affects the competitiveness of scientists in obtaining financial support for research, employment, etc. It has been determined that adding information to that in the previous scientific research is not always self-plagiarism. A re-evaluation of previously published data may be justified by technological advancements, new scientific developments, the emergence of new scientific theories, etc. When improving one’s previous work, it is necessary to distinguish between the old and the new data and clearly define the relevance of their use.Funding. The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Problems of Legal Regulation of Academic Integrity Compliance in Ukraine

The current state of legal regulation of academic integrity in Ukraine has been analyzed. It has been found out that the standards of academic integrity are still poorly studied in the scientific field in Ukraine. However, some aspects of the legal regulation of academic integrity have already been considered in the works of national scholars. However, given the relative novelty of the term of “academic charity” in the current legislation, a number of issues of legal regulation of academic integrity in Ukraine remain relevant and unresolved.
 It has been noted that the regulatory requirements for the standards of academic integrity were first enshrined only in 2017in the Art. 42 of the Law of Ukraine “On Education”. It became the legal basis for the protection of the author’s scientific work from its appropriation or unjustified publication by another person. Until now, the “standards” of academic integrity were not enshrined in law, although they were used to some extent in verifying the results of dissertation research. This aspect is still problematic from the point of view of legal regulation, and hence practical application.
 The following problems of the current state of legal regulation of academic integrity in Ukraine have been identified: diversity in the approaches of educational institutions to the criteria used in testing scientific papers for literary piracy; the existence of a legal conflict regarding the regulation of the issue of “self-plagiarism” between the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On Education” and the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 567 dated from July 24, 2013; the need to distinguish between additional and detailed liability for the violation of academic integrity; inconsistency of terminology in the current legislation, etc. Ways to solve existing problems have been suggested.

THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON ONLINE COURSE INTEGRITY: A PILOT STUDY

The March 2020 COVID-19 pandemic caused many universities to move face-to-face and hybrid courses to completely online formats, resulting in increased challenges to academic integrity. Although academic misconduct and academic dishonesty among students is nothing new, the literature is inconclusive as to whether there is more cheating in online classes than in face-to-face classes. However, online education has made it much more difficult for instructors to detect instances of cheating. The purpose of this study is to identify faculty perceptions and attitudes regarding student violations of academic integrity, particularly in online courses. An Internet survey link was sent to all faculty at a southwestern university. Responses revealed that although faculty are aware of the threat of technology to academic integrity, many do not use the available technology safeguards.

Challenges of remote assessment in higher education in the context of COVID-19: a case study of Middle East College.

Due to the unprecedented COVID-19 incident, higher education institutions have faced different challenges in their teaching-learning activities. Particularly conducting assessments remotely during COVID-19 has posed extraordinary challenges for higher education institutions owing to lack of preparation superimposed with the inherent problems of remote assessment. In the current study, the challenges of remote assessment during COVID-19 incident in higher education institutions were investigated taking Middle East College as a case study. For the study, questionnaires were prepared and data from 50 faculties were collected and analyzed. The study focused on the challenges of remote assessment in general and academic dishonesty in particular. The main challenges identified in remote assessment were academic dishonesty, infrastructure, coverage of learning outcomes, and commitment of students to submit assessments. To minimize academic dishonesty, preparing different questions to each student was found to be the best approach. Online presentation was also found to be good option to control academic integrity violations. Combining various assessment methods, for instance report submission with online presentation, helps to minimize academic dishonesty since the examiner would have a chance to confirm whether the submitted work is the work of the student.

Clues to Fostering a Program Culture of Academic Integrity: Findings from a Multidimensional Model

Using zero-inflated negative binomial regression we identified situational, personality and contextual variables correlated with business students’ self-reported rates of academic integrity violations. The most influential predictors of increasing rates were: greater estimates of peers’ violations, increasingly negative perceptions of the program’s academic integrity culture, and rating questionable academic behaviours less seriously. Individual priorities, personal characteristics and social support were less influential. We then analyzed our quantitative results in light of our deep understanding of the broader context to derive richer insights from the interplay of our independent variables. Importantly, our results indicate that program-led proactive messaging designed to foster a culture of academic integrity can effectively buffer tendencies towards academic dishonesty. Absent ongoing messaging, however, increasing academic pressures may erode those initial benefits. Moreover, repercussions of major academic integrity breaches can be long lasting suggesting an even greater need for fostering academic integrity culture a priori. Finally, we recommend a public health practice of identifying positive deviants – individuals who thrive in hostile environments – and then in an effort to change a peer support system that fosters increasing rates of violations into one that does the opposite, engaging with those individuals to understand why and how they resist the status quo.

Violation of digital and analog academic integrity through the eyes of faculty members and students: Do institutional role and technology change ethical perspectives?

This study aimed to address the gap in the literature through a comprehensive comparison of different types of violations of academic integrity (VAI), cheating, plagiarism, fabrication and facilitation (Pavela in J College Univ Law 24(1):1–22, 1997), conducted in analog versus digital settings, as well as students’ and faculty members’ perceptions regarding their severity. The study explored differences in perceptions regarding students’ VAI and penalties for VAI among 1482 students and 42 faculty members. Furthermore, we explored the impact of socio-demographic characteristics (ethnic majority vs. minority students), gender, and academic degree on the perceived severity of VAI. Presented with a battery of scenarios, participants assessed the severity of penalties imposed by a university disciplinary committee. Furthermore, participants selected the penalties they deemed appropriate for violations engaged in by students, including: reprimanding, financial, academic, and accessibility penalties. All participants tended to suggest more severe penalties for VAI conducted in traditional analog environments than for the same offenses in digital settings. Students perceived all four types of penalties imposed by the disciplinary committee to be significantly more severe than faculty members. Moreover, findings demonstrated a significant difference between faculty and students in both perceptions of the severity of VAI and in relation to suggested punishments. Consistent with the Self-Concept Maintenance Model (Mazar et al. in J Mark Res 45(6):633–644, 2008) and Neutralizing Effect (Brimble, in: Bretag (ed) Handbook of academic integrity, SpringerNature, Singapore, pp 365–382, 2016), ethnic minority students estimated cheating, plagiarism, and facilitation violations as more severe than majority students. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

STUDENTS’ BEHAVIOUR PECULIARITIES IN THE SESSION PERIOD AS A FACTOR OF EXAM STRESS

Objective. The objective of the article is to investigate the behaviour of students in the most stressful psychological period of their study — the session, as a factor of exam stress. Methods. The main scientific results are obtained by applying the method of marketing research, including surveys, analysis of data to study student behaviour in the most stressful psychological period — sessions, and identify common ways of academic fraud, academic culture and student honesty. Results. Student age, in terms of psychology, is the most productive period for the development of personality in all areas: biological, intellectual, social. On one hand, such a rapid leap is positive, because it gives the opportunity to learn new skills, use their creative, intellectual and physical capabilities, adapt to new social roles, to form themselves as a fully developed personality. On the other hand, this period is a trial, stressful for a young person, especially for those who enter the free economic zone, because in addition to these changes, the student must keep pace with the pace of learning: properly allocate time for study and rest, timely control measures, not assumed debts, etc. The session is a demonstration period of the young person’s conscious approach to the learning process. When studying the behaviour of students in a stressful situation, it should be kept in mind that it is influenced by various factors: from personal temperament to social conditions. The peculiarities of students’ behaviour in the most stressful psychological period of study — session, as a factor of examination stress are investigated in the work. The research was carried out by applying the method of marketing research, in particular, surveying students of different courses. Acoording to the survey findings the session period is really stressful for most students, so a peculiarity of student behaviour is to actively respond to exam stress. In preparation for the session, students try to use a well-known array of tools to overcome stress, or avoid it. It is also significant that students lose confidence in their knowledge, which leads to violations of academic integrity in the first place, writing cheat sheets. Writing the most important material makes it possible to organize the training material and avoid forgetting something important, and thus reduce the level of excitement. Equally important, this recording is perceived as a visual reproduction, which also improves the memorization process. A significant number of students take a responsible approach to exam preparation, gradually preparing for the crucial moment, but there are also those who rely on a well-developed memory and start preparing at the last minute. It is found that the material factor — receiving a scholarship, as well as social — holding the position of group leader are not key factors in the hierarchy of causes of stress. So, we can conclude that students are quite conscious of learning, but need knowledge about ways to avoid exam stress.

The Paradox of Faculty Attitudes toward Student Violations of Academic Integrity

This study investigated faculty attitudes towards student violations of academic integrity in Canada using a qualitative review of 17 universities’ academic integrity/dishonesty policies combined with a quantitative survey of faculty members’ (N = 412) attitudes and behaviours around academic integrity and dishonesty. Results showed that 53.1% of survey respondents see academic dishonesty as a worsening problem at their institutions. Generally, they believe their respective institutional policies are sound in principle but fail in application. Two of the major factors identified by faculty as contributing to academic dishonesty are administrative. Many faculty members feel unsupported by their administration and are reluctant to formally report academic dishonesty due to the excessive burdens of dealing with paperwork and providing proof. Faculty members also cite unprepared students and international students who struggle with language issues and the Canadian academic context as major contributors to academic dishonesty. This study concludes with recommendations for educators and recommendations for future research.

Building a Culture of Academic Integrity in the Student Environment Case of Vinnytsia National Technical University (Ukraine)

Since Ukraine has declared its intention to reform higher education aligned with the European standards, it has been stated that quality assurance of education in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is one of the main conditions for trust, mobility, motivation, compatibility and attractiveness of higher education. One of the key components for the internal quality assurance system in the higher education institutions (HEI) is the establishment of the system of academic integrity at the institutional level allowing creation of a zero environment of tolerance to violations of academic integrity and ethics of academic relations; this justifies the relevance of the article. The aim of the article is to analyze Vinnytsia National Technical University (VNTU) experience in implementing the project “Building a culture of academic integrity in the student environment”. The project has been implemented within the framework of the Ukraine Higher Education Leadership Development Programme. To achieve this aim, methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison and systematization of a set of actions contributing to the project implementation have been used. The outcomes of the project have been described and it has been established that the implementation of policies and mechanisms to ensure academic integrity in teaching, learning and research needs to be shifted from penalty for violation of academic integrity to planning and implementing explanatory and educational activities. Steps for further development of the culture of academic integrity in VNTU have been outlined.

Materials extrusion-inspired engineering reflection of social pressure-induced environmental impact on academy community well-being.

Existing issues with student mental health are the sources of ongoing violation of academic and educational integrity in learning and instructional dynamics in all educational institutions worldwide. This didactical paper addresses the practical case of educational integrity violations induced by student mental illness. It presents a thought-provoking unified viewpoint of the existence of a non-obvious geometric analogy between the irreversible psycho-social process of mental disorder growth and the irreversible pressure forming-induced deformation process of materials extrusion through an angular domain. This paper uses the method of geometric analogy between the dynamics of social irreversible processes in human society and technical irreversible processes in materials extrusion. The novel analogy between the loss of elliptical shape of an initial circular material element within pressure-extruded material and the development of student mental inadequacy during intensive university education was firstly studied and analyzed in detail. The author-proposed original socio-technical cross-disciplinary analogy improves and broadens student understanding of nonlinear dynamics both in the technical processes of macroscopic rotation formation in pressure-formed material and in the bio-social processes of psycho-neurological pathology development within a learner's mind.

Factors Affecting Academic Integrity in E-Learning of Saudi Arabian Universities. An Investigation Using Delphi and AHP

In the last few years, most of the public universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have adopted electronic learning (e-learning) as an evolutionary educational platform both by choice and by demand. Despite its many advantages, it has increased the ethical and moral challenges faced in the form of the violations of academic integrity that exist in traditional education. Universities all over the world are struggling to overcome these issues. Keeping this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to investigate and priorities the factors of violating academic integrity within Saudi Arabian universities. Based on the previously published literature and using Delphi - based discussions with e-Learning experts, this paper has identified twelve major factors which were related to e-Learning environment, Awareness on Academic Integrity, and e-Learning guiding principles. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to prioritize these factors. It was concluded that inappropriate guidelines provided to students was the most contributing factor while Shortage of feedbacks was least contributing factor among all the identified factors.

АКАДЕМІЧНА ДОБРОЧЕСНІСТЬ В ОСВІТНЬОМУ ПРОЦЕСІ ПЕДАГОГІЧНОГО УНІВЕРСИТЕТУ: УПРАВЛІНСЬКИЙ АСПЕКТ

The article outlines the problem of academic integrity, identifies the main mechanisms, tools of academic integrity, and their compliance with European standards. Academic integrity plays an essential role in ensuring the quality of education. Compliance with its principles in the educational process of a higher education institution affects not only the quality of training, but also the formation of fundamental values of future professionals. Academic integrity within the community of a pedagogical university is based on the understanding by all its members the need to adhere to the principles of academic integrity, which enhance trust between the university and employers, customers of educational and research services, sponsors and other stakeholders. The article describes the experience of implementing principles of academic integrity in Ternopil National Pedagogical University (TNPU) where they have developed normative documents, the strategy and tactics for the participants of the educational process to follow academic integrity. The University promotes academic integrity through the implementation of the policies in the internal quality culture and employs managerial decisions as tools to combat violations of academic integrity. To better understand and update issues of academic integrity in the academic community the process of future professionals training quality management is constantly monitored, and lectures, seminars, and trainings are regularly held in TNPU. Annually students and teachers sign a declaration of academic integrity. TNPU informs the students about control measures; assessment is carried out on the basis of objectivity; standards and procedures for academic integrity are clear and comprehensible; control is implemented through managerial decisions. Introduction of student-centered learning practices, involvement of students in tasks assessment and discussion, end-to-end assessment of courses, reflection on achievements, conducting lectures and seminars of different types, individual work helps prevent academic dishonesty and improve the students’ motivation. Academic integrity has been shown as an essential component in enhancing the quality of educational programs and the internal quality assurance system in general. Adherence to the principles of academic integrity develops confidence in learning outcomes, promotes academic mobility, increases the competitiveness of graduates in the labor market, ensures success in developing careers.

The International Dimension of Academic Integrity: An Integrative Literature Review

Over half a million international students now study in Canada. This rapid increase in international enrollments has intensified focus on academic integrity because the stakes are high for both international students and the institutions that host them. Academic integrity violations involving international students may garner scandalous attention, and the international students who become entangled in incidents of academic misconduct face potentially devastating life consequences, including expulsion from academic studies and dishonor in family life. International students studying in Canada, particularly those whose first language is not English, face several hurdles not experienced by their Canadian counterparts. Overcoming these cultural barriers is a shared interest and a top strategic priority because academic credentials are a signal that assert students have mastered academic norms of the new culture. There remains considerable debate surrounding international students regarding their increased likelihood to commit academic integrity violations, and this integrative literature review explores the intersection of academic integrity and international students. It takes a broad and holistic approach to identify areas of conflict and knowledge gaps, with a focus on successful institutional interventions that proactively reduce the likelihood of academic misconduct. Little research details efficacious methods to reduce incidents of academic integrity violations involving international students, but taking stock of current interventions provides some guidance to institutions welcoming international students, and the faculty who teach them, so that they can both be successful in addressing academic integrity issues.

The impact of gender and academic achievement on the violation of academic integrity for medical faculty students, a descriptive cross-sectional survey study

PurposeThe aim of this study is to determine the characteristics of medical faculty students about violations of academic integrity.MethodFrom the whole population of the 572 students of the Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University Faculty of Medicine, 271 students participated voluntarily in a descriptive cross-sectional survey. Descriptive data were recorded in the survey and a five-point Likert-type instrument, namely the Tendency towards Academic Dishonesty Scale, was used as the data collection tool in the study. The scale included 22 items’ means that are considered to evaluate “Tendency towards academic dishonesty” (TTAD) score. In addition, four subscales, namely “Tendency towards cheating”, “Dishonesty in works such as assignments and projects”, “Tendency towards dishonesty in research and reporting processes” and “Tendency towards citation dishonesty” scores were evaluated separately.ResultsOf the participants, 138 (53.3%) were male. TTAD scores were 2.15 ± 0.61, showing a slight tendency towards academic dishonesty, according to the scale. TTAD scores and standard deviations (SD) were 2.26 ± 0.65 and 2.04 ± 0.55 for men and women, respectively (P = 0.005). There was no difference in the TTAD scores for students whether they had read the ethics code. Significant differences were observed in the TTAD scores for students with gender, different academic achievements and in different academic years. However, when multivariate analysis was performed, the significance shown in the results disappeared.ConclusionIn our study, a slight tendency to academic dishonesty was found for medical faculty students and there were no differences between all of the recorded individual factors of students.

Ethical regulation of students’ using information: The comparative case study of Russian and US universities

The findings of the comparative study of documents representing the process of supporting the academic ethical values in students' information activities are presented. The empirical data were obtained as a result of analysis of 24 ethical codes of Russian universities and documentation of the Harvard University Honor Council. The documents indicating the practice of ethical regulation in the field of students' work with information loaded to the official websites of Russian universities are studied. The procedures of the Harvard Honor Council are discussed, the statistics of violations of academic integrity examined by the Honor Council is analyzed. The author concludes that Russian universities are at the initial stage of implementing full-fledged system of ethical regulation of the university community activities, and their initiatives aimed at approval of their ethical codes are primarily of the declarative nature. Based on the study of documented practice of the Harvard Honor Council, it is demonstrated how a well-developed ethical regulation mechanism provides for efficient control over the observance of the principles of academic integrity that are postulated in Harvard's Code of Honor. The conclusion about the high degree of influence of the “Codes of Honor” on the US university community is made.

Evaluation of a Tutorial Designed to Promote Academic Integrity

Academic integrity violations undermine principles of integrity and the quality of education. Reducing the prevalence of dishonesty in scholarly work requires a multi-faceted approach (Stephens, 2016), which may include the implementation of e-learning tutorials. Tutorials and other brief educational interventions increase students’ perceived knowledge and understanding of academic integrity and related topics (Stoesz & Yudintseva, 2018); however, it is unclear from the literature which students benefit most from completing them. In two studies, secondary (i.e., middle and high) school students were recruited to complete an e-learning tutorial and surveys about academic integrity, approaches to learning, motivation for learning, and personality. 88 students participated in an online study, but only 15 participants completed the tutorial. Knowledge and perceived seriousness of academic integrity violations increased significantly in this small sample; these changes were not evident in the remaining participants. A follow-up study with 90 students tested in face-to-face classroom sessions confirmed the results of the first study. Moreover, the changes in perception were larger for the youngest and oldest participants compared to the middle age group, and were correlated with use of deep learning strategies and agreeableness. Overall, the findings provide evidence for the effectiveness of academic integrity tutorials, and suggest individual difference factors must be considered when designing and implementing brief educational interventions. Examining behaviour change and long-term outcomes for secondary school students, and exploring the influences of learning environment and teacher characteristics on learning the values of academic integrity are important avenues for future research.

Cheating is in the Eye of the Beholder: an Evolving Understanding of Academic Misconduct

Research consistently indicates that academic dishonesty is pervasive on college campuses, including in online courses. For our study we administered a survey to two groups of undergraduate criminal justice students, one group of face-to-face students of traditional college-age and the other a group of distance learners employed full-time in criminal justice professions. The survey was designed to assess prevalence, techniques, and definitions regarding online cheating. Findings indicate that a large percentage of both groups engaged in practices normatively defined as “cheating,” yet they did not consider their behaviors to be violations of academic integrity. In closing, we offer suggestions for best practice techniques for communicating expectations to students and reducing online exam cheating.