Academic Dishonesty?

·         Faculty members are faced with ensuring that students maintain the integrity and professional behaviors of the nursing profession.

·         Academic dishonesty is not a new phenomenon and nursing education is certainly not immune to student cheating.

 

 

What is It? Why is it important regarding Distance Learning?

·         Academic dishonesty is not just limited to eye roaming during a test but also includes, plagiarism, collaborating on an assignment when asked for individual work, purchasing papers online or test bank questions (McCabe, 2009)

·         It is also noted that academic dishonesty is seen differently in today's generation from the past.

o   According to the Josephson Institute 2008 survey, 64% of High school students admitted to have cheated on a test, with 60% of them stating that successful individuals feel that they must do whatever is necessary to succeed in the workforce and that 90% of them perceived themselves as holding high ethical and moral standards (Conway-Klaassen & Keil, 2010).

·         It has appeared that panic cheating (such as sneaking a peek from a neighbors test) has progressed into planned cheating.  This behavior is now part of high school and college behavior. 

·         Student's views of cheating have also changed.  For example, students believe that everyone does it, therefore, it is not seen as an evil.  For example, students do not feel that copying a couple of sentences is not considered as cheating. 

·         In a traditional setting, an instructor or education aide is there to monitor and proctor the exam and or project. 

·         In a distance learning program, the instructor has little control when monitoring who completes the assignment, exam or project. 

·         Students whom participated in one study (Compton, Davis & Correia, 2010), did not see how collaboration with others is considered to be cheating.  Students felt that as long as they learn, it helps them.  In reality, academic dishonesty does not lead to learning but students do not see it in that sense. 

·         Students feel that cheating in a distance learning setting is easier and it is harder for the instructor to detect (Compton, Davis & Correia, 2010). 

·         To support this notion Chisel (2007) found that 64% of university professors perceived it would be easier to cheat online and 57% of students stated that it was easier to cheat via an online course. 

·         The three popular ways of academic dishonesty via online course are (Compton, Davis& Correia, 2010). 

·         1)  getting someone else to complete the assignment/test

·         2)  collaborating with someone to complete the test even though it is an individual project.

·         3)  downloading and saving the test questions and submitting the answers after receiving help from resources (which can include other students, text books, and online web pages). 

 

 The Implications for Distance Learning

 

·         Nursing as a career has been viewed as a highly ethical one and the standards are set high

·         As a career option, those attracted to nursing should have a strong moral compass and a high standard when it comes to personal ethics (Fontana, 2009)

·         Nursing professionals, educators, and employers are sensitive to academic dishonesty because it  has been linked to both unethical behavior in the classroom and the clinical environment (Fontana, 2009).

·         Research suggests that students whom participate in academic dishonesty may go on to endanger the profession of nursing through poor patient care and safety. 

·         With Nursing being an integrity based profession, academic dishonesty damages the highly regarded image of the profession. 

 

 

·         The common thought is that distance learning and web based education provides more opportunities for the student to engage in the practice of academic dishonesty versus face to face traditional settings (Baron& Crooks, 2005)

·         The boom and popularity of distance learning has now opened up the need to look at how education will need to reduce dishonesty of web-base/distance learning courses with nursing education looking at online delivery as it's future.

·         Distance learning allows the student to access the course 24/7 and this is appealing for many which leads to the problems associated with academic dishonesty with this format of teaching. 

·         This is a major problem for distance learning due to the fact that students are not monitored during class time or during the completion of the projects that might be assigned as an individual project. 

·         A nursing educator would be unable to verify who completed the assignment or if the assignment was completed through the proper process. 

·         For example:  If the assignment is to interview a Nursing Professional as part of a leadership paper, the instructor might not be able to control who the student interviews even though clear instructions were given. 

 

 

·         The next issue regarding academic dishonesty is the concept of learning.

·         The main purpose why instructors educate is to ensure that the concept of learning occurs with our students.  We work as instructors to ensure that the students meet the objectives of the course but the long term goal is to ensure that the students become an active professional member of our profession. 

·         Distance learning is to allow individuals to access education via a more convenient manner but, it does not mean that the work involved should be subpar in any manner. 

·         Many students felt that ambitions for high marks, the pressure of time constraints, and the excitement of violating rules were what motivated them to cheat (Kecei et al. 2011).

·         Black, Grease & Dawson (2008) showed in their research that students whom thought cheating was appropriate did not see that learning was important. 

·         Academic dishonesty does not lead to learning and the nursing profession is a science where learning is needed to provide safe and prudent care.

 

·         Academic dishonesty hurt the profession of nursing overall, it also dampens the integrity of the concept of distance learning.

·         With academic dishonesty being seen as easier to commit via distance learning, hurting the reputation of the methodology.

·         Baron & Crooks (2005) mentioned that correspondence schools earned a bad reputation due to fraudulent practices.

·         Cheating claims can not only threaten the reputations of the academic institutions but can diminish the legitimacy of the degree/credits earned. 

·         It also discredits the hard work and time that is needed for completing a distance oriented class. 

·         For an example, if two individuals or vying for the same employment position, and the two individuals are equal in all areas including GPA, the decision maker could choose the one candidate whom completed their education in a traditional delivery because of the bias towards  distance programs and not the candidates themselves. 

What can we do to deter Academic Dishonesty?

 Be Honest with the Students and share!

·         Develop academic integrity policies: provide a frank discussion with specific examples of what is considered to be academic dishonesty.  A forum question could be used to discuss this subject with the students.  At the end of the discussion the students would be given an integrity contract to sign.  Conway-Klaassen & Keil (2010) mentioned that in an exit survey that students either did not have a clear understanding of what academic dishonesty was until the discussion in the forum.  

·         An example of this was what Duke University conducted in 1990 through 1999:  The university addressed academic integrity via catalogs, student handbooks, and orientation.  At the end of the review the students signed a "no cheat" contract upon course registration.  In a survey that involved 12,000+ students, the honor code system decreased cheating by 25-50% (Baron & Cooks, 2005).  Professors should warn students that there are strict penalties for academic dishonesty. 

"Boy was I off base I mean I guess I just never thought about all the fallout from

Helping someone with their work.  In something like CLS and medicine

 if they cannot do their work then they can hurt someone" (Baron & Cooks, 2005 pg. 197)

 

Changing Platforms for Test/Quiz Delivery

 

·         When it comes to online quizzes and tests, format changes could be put in place to help deter cheating: such as shortening the time allowed to answer each question, randomization of the questions, not providing rationales or answers until all students in the class has completed the test and finally using short answer questions.  Also using a pool of questions could help deter cheating (Chisel, 2007)

Proctored exams using webcams could be used as an option. A testing center with webcam capability could be used to monitor students. This concept could be broadened out, with students online having to log in and use their webcam during the completion of a test. The webcam could record their face during the completion of the test. The picture that the webcam delivers could then be compared to the picture of the student. This provides live streaming, if need be of the student. Though time consuming, it can deter cheating (Baron & Crooks, 2005)

Teacher Student Relationship

 ·         Increase the interaction between students.  The key to catching students cheating is to knowing your students.  This is challenging in a distance learning setting to say the least.  One way to address this issue is via bulletin posts.  In these post, the instructor can see the progression of the students thought process and writing style (Baron & Crooks, 2005).   It was also found that students who have more interactions with their instructors were less complied to cheat during their online course (Black, Greaser & Dawson, 2008)

—Know your students

—The more communication there is, challenges the student to take on more accountability.

—Be a mentor for these students

 

• It is naïve to believe that all students will have the ethical and moral duty to do good.

—Ongoing in-services need to be given to all instructors especially those who are new to the distance learning platform.

 

·         Providing education for the Educator about academic dishonesty is a must.  Involve the instructors in discussions of what is deemed to be academic dishonesty and provide them instruction on how to decrease the student ability to cheat and how to spot it.  This could also mean in-services on technology that could be used to deter cheating (Baron & Crooks, 2005). 

 

 

Reference

      Baron, J., & Crooks, S. M. (2005). Academic Integrity in Web Based Distance Education. Techtrends Linking Research

      And Practice To Improve Learning, 49(2), 40-45.

Black, E. W., Greaser, J., & Dawson, K. (2008). Academic Dishonesty in Traditional and Online Classrooms: Does the

     "Media Equation" Hold True?. Journal Of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 12(3-4), 23-30.

 
      Chiesl, N. (2007). Pragmatic Methods to Reduce Dishonesty in Web-Based Courses. Quarterly Review Of Distance

     Education, 8(3), 203-211.

Compton, L., Davis, N., & Correia, A. (2010). Pre-Service Teachers' Preconceptions, Misconceptions, and Concerns

    about Virtual Schooling. Distance Education, 31(1), 37-54.

Conway-Klaassen, J., & Keil, D. (2010). Discouraging academic dishonesty in online courses. Clinical Laboratory

     Science, 23(4), 194-200

Fontana, J. (2009). Nursing faculty experiences of students' academic dishonesty. Journal Of Nursing Education,

     48(4), 181-185.

Keçeci, A., Bulduk, S., Oruç, D., & Çelik, S. (2011). Academic dishonesty among nursing students: A descriptive

     study. Nursing ethics, 18(5), 725-733.

McCabe, D. (2009). Academic dishonesty in nursing schools: an empirical investigation. Journal Of Nursing Education,

     48(11), 614-623.