Academic Integrity Violations Research Articles

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.

Distinction Between an Immoral Offence and a Violation of Academic Integrity: Legal Problems

Distinction Between an Immoral Offence and a Violation of Academic Integrity: Legal Problems

Graduate students’ experiences of plagiarism by their professors

AbstractThis study expands the inquiry about an egregious form of academic misconduct. Participants consist of graduate students who reported a violation of academic integrity because a professor plagiarised their academic work. Based on data collected through interviews and documents, interpretative phenomenological analysis is used to examine participants’ experiences. A key research finding of relevance to Higher Education policy is: individuals in positions of authority failed to resolve the reports. This study calls for more education about authorship. Equally important, universities need clear reporting procedures and protections for students when they report academic violations.

International Students Reported for Academic Integrity Violations: Demographics, Retention, and Graduation

How many international students are reported for academic integrity violations (AIV), what are their demographics, and how do AIV sanctions affect their retention and/or graduation? Descriptive statistical analyses showed that the number of internationals reported for AIVs at an American West Coast public university increased almost six-fold between academic years 2009–10 and 2013–14. However, that number represented less than 7.5% of these students’ total enrollment. Among reported ones, undergraduates outnumbered graduate students, males outnumbered females, Chinese outnumbered other nationalities, Economics majors outnumbered other majors, and the most common AIV was exam misconduct. More than half who were reported and suspended for AIVs graduated and/or were retained. These findings’ administrative, policy, and theoretical implications are discussed.

A Review of the Factors behind Academic Integrity Violations: Comparing the United States and Ukraine

A Review of the Factors behind Academic Integrity Violations: Comparing the United States and Ukraine

Elevating Learner Achievement Using Formative Electronic Lab Assessments in the Engineering Laboratory: A Viable Alternative to Weekly Lab Reports

A laboratory pedagogy interweaving weekly student portfolios with onsite formative electronic laboratory assessments (ELAs) is developed and assessed within the laboratory component of a required core course of the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) undergraduate curriculum. The approach acts to promote student outcomes, and neutralize academic integrity violations, while refocusing instructor and teaching assistant roles toward high-gain instructional activities, such as personalized student tutoring. A mixed-method study evaluated the learning effectiveness and student satisfaction using biweekly ELAs versus traditional laboratory reports in a large-enrollment ( ${N}=68$ ) undergraduate computer engineering laboratory course. The results of the evaluation indicate statistically significant effects on both learning outcomes and student satisfaction from the use of formative assessments in laboratory delivery, which were corroborated by the instructor’s reflections. Students in the ELA with tutoring enabled delivery cohort performed better on the post-test and were more satisfied with the laboratory assessment design and assistance received in laboratory than those in the control cohort. The findings offer a promising alternative for ECE and engineering laboratory instruction that fosters gains in practical skills and content mastery.

Take concrete steps to prevent academic integrity violations involving tutors

When a part‐time tutor of student‐athletes recently posted on social media her offer to sell evidence of academic fraud committed at a particular university, it surely made every higher education administrator cringe.

The Preceptions of students and Teachers about The Level of The Sanctions for academic Integrity Violans: An Explanatory Sequential Design Study in a Nursing Education Program

Background: Professional Behavior is a reflection of the professionalism, which includes academic integrity. Some of student’s behavioral violations related to academic integrity are influenced by perception. However, students and lecturers tend to interpret these violations differently associated with severity of academic integrity, for example, the sanction against violations of academic integrity. Thus, these differences may contribute to the number of occurrences of academic integrity violations. This study aims to identify the perception of nursing students and lecturers about the level of sanctions for violations of academic integrity.Method: This study used a mixed method using a sequential explanatory design. This was also a quantitative research survey using a questioner to 101 nursing students, followed by focus group discussion done by the students and in-depth interviews to four lecturers.Results: The behavior deemed not to be in violation was 1% -5.9%. Most students chose sanction level 2 (21.8% - 66.35%), sanction level 3 (23.8% - 28.7%) and the highest sanction level or level 10 (19.8%)Conclusion: The perception of students to the sanction level out of 22 items, 15 items nursing students chose sanction level 2 “verbal warning” (21.8% - 66.35%), 2 items students chose sanction level 3 “written warning” (23.8% -28.7%). The highest sanction level chosen was level 10 “reported to the professional regulatory body” (19.8%). The lecturers assumed that mild sanction first given was in the form of verbal warning and the toughest was being suspended.

Using a Modified Bookmark Procedure to Help Identify Reasonable Consequences for Academic Integrity Violations.

It is recommended that institutions develop academic conduct policies to help preserve academic integrity, enforce compliance, and aid in legal defensibility. These policies should also articulate reasonable consequences for persons found in violation. The problem, however, is that all academic misconduct offenses are not created equal, and determining reasonable consequences for these violations can be particularly challenging due to their subjective nature. Thus, the purpose of this study was to introduce a novel method for more objectively determining reasonable sanctions for several academic misconduct offenses of varying degrees of severity. We utilized a variation of the Bookmark procedure, a popular standard-setting technique used primarily by psychometricians in high-stakes testing environments, to investigate empirical survey data and develop policy recommendations. We encourage others to use this procedure, where appropriate, to identify appropriate cut scores and ranges to aid in policy development across a variety of contexts.

Academic Doping: Institutional Policies Regarding Nonmedical use of Prescription Stimulants in U.S. Higher Education

Academic integrity policies at 200 institutions of higher education (IHE’s) were examined for the presence of academic prohibitions against the nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NMUPS) or any other cognitive enhancing drug (CED). Researchers used online search tools to locate policy handbooks in a stratified random sample of IHE’s drawn from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) database, searching for NMUPS/CED use as violations of either academic integrity or alcohol and other drug (AOD) policies. Of 191 academic integrity policies found online, NMUPS/CED prohibitions were present in only one. However, NMUPS was addressed in all but two of the 200 IHE AOD policies, often with language referencing IHE adherence to federal or state law. NMUPS/CED prohibitions are predominantly absent in IHE academic integrity policies, raising questions about whether colleges and universities are concerned about the use of enhancement drugs as a form of cheating. Implications for fairness, health promotion, and future research are discussed.

Take concrete steps to prevent academic integrity violations involving tutors

When a part‐time tutor of student‐athletes recently posted on social media her offer to sell evidence of academic fraud committed at a particular university, it surely made every higher education administrator cringe.

Take concrete steps to prevent academic integrity violations involving tutors

When a part‐time tutor recently posted on social media her offer to sell evidence of academic fraud committed at a particular university, it surely made every athletics director cringe.

International Students Reported for Academic Integrity Violations: Demographics, Retention, and Graduation

International Students Reported for Academic Integrity Violations: Demographics, Retention, and Graduation

Helping to realize “computer science for all”: Student outcomes of self-pacing in introductory programming courses

Sparked by a series of national campaigns to increase interest in computer science, computer science departments are inundated with students who are interested in learning how to program. Despite the interest, introductory computer science course have relatively low completion rates (approximately 55% at Mason) and high rates of academic integrity violations. In response to this environment, the Computer Science department at Mason received an external grant to redesign their introductory programming courses to a self-paced, flipped format. Implementation began in Fall 2015 with a quasi-experimental methodology that tracks students from an experimental course and a control group (those who took more traditional introductory CS courses) over the course of the semester. Data collected includes grades on assignments, self-report surveys, and classroom observations. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a self-paced, flipped curricular design in an introductory experiential computer science course on the immediate (in course) completion. In this short lightning talk, we will present data from student surveys and classroom observations identifying any difference across the control and experimental groups. Preliminary results identify a significant increase in student completion upwards of a 20% difference across the groups. In addition to increasing knowledge of the impact of self-paced courses on student retention and success in computer science, we offer an alternative method to collect data on classroom observations via the Real-time Observation Classroom Application (ROCA). ROCA allows for efficient data collection and comparison of specific pedagogies to student engagement measures.

Cheating and Feeling Honest: Committing and Punishing Analog versus Digital Academic Dishonesty Behaviors in Higher Education

This study examined the phenomenon of academic dishonesty among university students. It was based on Pavela’s (1997) framework of types of academic dishonesty (cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, and facilitation) and distinguished between digital and “traditional”- analog dishonesty. The study analyzed cases of academic dishonesty offenses committed by students, as well as the reasons for academic dishonesty behaviors, and the severity of penalties for violations of academic integrity. The motivational framework for committing an act of academic dishonesty (Murdock & Anderman, 2006) and the Self-Concept Maintenance model (Mazar, Amir, & Ariely, 2008) were employed to analyze the reasons for students’ dishonest behaviors. We analyzed 315 protocols of the Disciplinary Committee, at The Open University of Israel, from 2012-2013 that represent all of the offenses examined by the Committee during one and a half years. The findings showed that analog dishonesty was more prevalent than digital dishonesty. According to the students, the most prevalent reason for their academic dishonesty was the need to maintain a positive view of self as an honest person despite violating ethical codes. Interestingly, penalties for analog dishonesty were found to be more severe than those imposed for digital dishonesty. Surprisingly, women were penalized more severely than men, despite no significant gender differences in dishonesty types or in any other parameter explored in the study. Findings of this study shed light on the scope and roots of academic dishonesty and may assist institutions in coping effectively with this phenomenon.

Further Understanding Factors that Explain Freshman Business Students’ Academic Integrity Intention and Behavior: Plagiarism and Sharing Homework

Academic integrity (AI) violations on college campuses continue to be a significant concern that draws public attention. Even though AI has been the subject of numerous studies offering explanations and recommendations, academic dishonesty persists. Consequently, this has rekindled interest in understanding AI behavior and its influencers. This paper focuses on the AI violations of plagiarism and sharing homework for freshman business students, examining the factors that influence a student’s intention to plagiarize or share homework with others. Using a sample of more than 1300 freshman business students over 2 years, we modeled intent to plagiarize and intent to share homework using factors in the Theory of Planned Behavior in addition to past violation behavior and moral obligation (feelings of guilt). Based on the results of this study, attitude, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, and in addition past behavior and moral obligation, were found to significantly influence an individual’s intention to violate academic integrity (for plagiarism and sharing homework when asked not to do so), explaining 33 and 35 % of the variance in intention to commit an AI violation for sharing homework and plagiarism, respectively. These results contribute to a better understanding of individuals’ motivations for plagiarizing and sharing homework, which is a necessary step toward reducing academic integrity violations.

Responding to plagiarism using reflective means

Abstract Academic integrity violations have become widespread and pervasive in the university. The manner in which we respond to such violations is important. The prevalent approaches based on procedures, policies, appeals, and sanctions are seen as inadequate and may often be viewed as punitive or disciplinary. Even if they may bring about desired changes in behavior, it is not clear whether the behavioral changes are based on fear of punishment or due to transformative inner learning. Drawing upon reflective learning theories, this paper reports and reflects on the exploratory use of reflective means in two courses over four semesters to deal with students who had plagiarized on their class assignments. As there is little prior work in terms of methodology or research or practice addressing reflective approaches dealing with plagiarism, the goal of this study is to explore the feasibility and promise of integrally combining two reflective practices – an initial dialogue between instructor and student and a reflective essay subsequently written by the student. (Anti-plagiarism software was used to help detect plagiarism.) The main finding of this study is that such an approach is sensible, feasible, and promising. The reflective approach calls for mindfulness, empathy, and skillful dialogue on the part of the instructor and appears to encourage critical self-reflection in the student. Innovative reflective approaches warrant further research for inclusion as significant elements of a wise and holistic institutional response to academic integrity violations. Self-reflection may not only reduce the incidence of plagiarism and other academic integrity violations but may also be conducive to the growth of practical wisdom and inner change that spills over into other dimensions of integrity. Implications for institutional practices and further research are discussed.

Psychology Graduate Students Weigh In: Qualitative Analysis of Academic Dishonesty and Suggestion Prevention Strategies

The current qualitative study investigated prevalence and types of academic integrity violations in psychology graduate students (N = 201) and solicited student recommendations for how academic institutions, professors, and peers may act to discourage or prevent its occurrence. Students were recruited through email lists and asked to participate in an online study with a series of open-ended questions assessing integrity violations and prevention recommendations. Results revealed academic integrity violations were relatively infrequent (8 % of the sample) and most (75 % of reported incidents) were of relatively low severity (e.g., unauthorized use of notes during an assignment). Common antecedents to integrity violations included inadequate preparation, task difficulty, and external stressors such as health ailments that interfered with preparation. Most (53 %) violators reported engaging in a rational decision making process, weighing the pros and cons of cheating, and most (60 %) did not reveal the violation to anyone. The majority of violations (81 %) resulted in no negative consequences to the student and 44 % reported they would do it again. Students recommended better dissemination of integrity policies, greater oversight of graduate students, harsher punishments for violations, and consistent reporting of violations as prevention strategies. Results highlight how academic dishonesty in psychology graduate students may be a product of multiple time and resource demands, coupled with low self-efficacy to meet or negotiate these demands. Despite reports of external pressures being the top reason for academic integrity violations, few recommendations focused on decreasing external pressures as a mechanism to curb cheating.

Academic integrity and community ties at a small, religious-affiliated liberal arts college

While the increased incidence of academic integrity violations in university classrooms has been well documented over the past several decades, inconsistent attention has been given to small liberal arts colleges in terms of both cheating practices and attitudes towards cheating. This study aims to address this disparity by focusing on academic integrity at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota; a small undergraduate institution with a strong church affiliation. We hypothesise that institutional practices and the small-college culture that are unique to smaller colleges like Concordia act to limit the incidence of academic integrity violations. Our case study makes use of data collected from two student surveys - one conducted in 2008, and a follow-up survey conducted in 2010. Variables representing a range of internal and external factors that contribute to cheating were incorporated into a regression model designed to measure the impact of contextual influences that are potentially unique to students at a small, church-affiliated liberal arts college. Given our findings, we conclude that the college would be wise to consider adopting a traditional honour code system.

Making our Measures Match Perceptions: Do Severity and Type Matter When Assessing Academic Misconduct Offenses?

Traditional approaches to measurement of violations of academic integrity may overestimate the magnitude and severity of cheating and confound panic with planned cheating. Differences in the severity and level of premeditation of academic integrity violations have largely been unexamined. Results of a study based on a combined sample of business students showed that students are more likely to commit minor cheating offenses and engage in panic-based cheating as compared to serious and planned cheating offenses. Results also indicated there is a significant interaction between severity and type (planned vs. panic) of cheating. We hypothesized serious and planned cheating offenses would be related to justifications and found the largest differences were between panic and planned. Finally, panic and minor cheating were associated with two self-control-related personality traits. Implications for cheating research are discussed.