© Copyright 2000 by Anne Marchant. The right to make additional exact copies, including this notice, for personal and classroom use, is hereby granted. All other forms of distribution and copying require permission of the author.

Beating Cheating

Just as the same person who might politely hold a door for you becomes a road rage killer behind the wheel of a car, so a student who might ordinarily do his or her work honestly is tempted to cheat in a large class. A student who feels anonymous in the classroom also feels less accountable and may be subject to a greater temptation to cheat. As colleges and universities begin to employ distance education models, it will become important to find ways to keep students from feeling isolated through the use of chat sessions, two-way audio and video, and group-oriented learning exercises.

Academic integrity is an essential component of a productive learning environment. Unfortunately, as has been widely reported in the media, cheating is a problem at institutions of higher learning worldwide. (While improvements in technology and communication certainly make cheating easier, this same technology helps make instructors more aware of the problem!) Sadly, I am finding that a lot of my time is being devoted to making multiple versions of tests, outwitting Scantron (™) scams, and hunting for materials plagiarized from the web.

I have found that there are basically two types of cheaters:

• those who are essentially serious students who have made an error in judgment that needs correcting
• hard-bitten unregenerates who need to be expelled.

Fortunately, most fall into the first category. They are young people who are experimenting with many behaviors at this stage of life and will learn from their mistakes. They usually confess when confronted with cheating and express genuine remorse. Those in the second group are more likely to engage in more serious forms of pre-meditated cheating and therefore comprise a more serious threat to the integrity of the class. I'll never forget interrogating a young woman who stole an exam. When I asked her why she did it, she looked me squarely in the eye and said brazenly, "I saw my chance, and I took it."

Side Effects

Alleviating the Pressure