What this story covers:
The coronavirus pandemic forced colleges this spring to resort to online learning. That meant professors had little time to adjust their assignments and tests. Some took extra measures of precaution to prevent academic dishonesty, while others didn’t feel they had to change much.
Why it matters:
Professors are used to taking steps to reduce the likelihood of cheating in the classroom. But in the wild west of online education, it’s difficult to monitor who’s doing the work and whether students are collaborating when they shouldn’t be.
By Tyana Campbell, Owen DiDonna & Jill Gattens
In his first semester teaching an in-person class at Arizona State University, Jacob Nelson, an assistant professor of journalism, only got a few weeks in the classroom before he was back teaching in a familiar setting. Like professors across the country, Nelson had to transform his class, the business and future of journalism, into an online class in a matter of days thanks to the novel coronavirus.
Nelson started teaching at Arizona State University in 2018, and until this semester had taught exclusively online. The transition midway through the semester back to fully online classes brought new challenges: synchronized classes, re-thinking exams and projects, and staying in contact with students.
Another challenge that Nelson and professors in all fields faced: figuring out how to stop online cheating. Professors who had planned in-person exams and in-class presentations had to abruptly rethink their plans. What kind of assignments could they give where students couldn’t just look up the answer online or discuss them with classmates? Would they need to monitor them during tests?
Academic cheating has been a problem for as long as school has been around, but advances in technology have only increased the ways that students can break the rules. Students can listen to answers through AirPods, read them off their smartphones and smartwatches, and outsource paper writing to paid professionals. It’s forced professors to be continuously mindful of academic cheating in ways they never thought possible even a few years ago.
During in-class meetings, Nelson used weekly quizzes to make sure that students were doing the readings and keeping up in class. But with the fully online classes, it was something he did not want to continue.
“I did not want to keep doing them online because I couldn’t watch the students taking them and they had their computers open already,” Nelson said. “There are opportunities to look stuff up and it just seemed like a bad idea based on different circumstances.”
The quizzes turned into discussion posts, which were the only assignments altered for the switch to online.
“I don’t see any other any other opportunities for students to like cheat or do anything academically dishonest,” Nelson said.
Taking the easy way out
Students these days have many more ways to cheat. But the reasons for cheating have largely remained the same.
Listen to this podcast on why students are compelled to cheat .
Thomas Tobin, the program area director of the learning design, development and innovation team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said students often cheat when they are unprepared, and have upcoming deadlines and feel pressure to succeed.
“You’re going to feel the pressure and say, ‘Okay, I need to get the grade no matter what,’ and then you’ll be more tempted to act dishonestly,” Tobin said. “You’re going to try and find a shortcut by turning to a paper mill, or to somebody to write your paper for you.”
Paper mills, such as EssayPro and MyAssignmentHelp, are companies that offer to write students’ papers for a fee. There’s also the recurring problem of plagiarism. Pallavi Guha, an assistant professor of journalism at Towson, is one of many professors to use SafeAssign, a plagiarism prevention tool. Professors used that program long before COVID-19 hit, but now it has become even more useful as students are doing all their work from home.
Then there is grade-related pressure. When students adopt a mindset that grades are the most important thing, they may feel pressure to cut corners.
“We’re in an educational system that says, ‘Get it right the first time,’ because that’s when it counts,” Tobin said. “Or it’s going to go into a permanent record someplace and we’re going to say you’re less than skilled.”
It seems logical to assume that the cheating rate would increase with the development of smartphones and the rise of online education. Students can now find other people to write their papers within minutes on social media. However, despite recent technological developments, the rate of cheating has been steady for decades.
Approximately 68% of undergraduates admit to cheating on tests or papers, according to a study by the International Center for Academic Integrity and researcher Donald McCabe. The studies, conducted from 2002 to 2015, polled more than 71,000 students.
“[The amount of] people who are academically dishonest has remained remarkably steady over the decades,” Tobin said. “There really isn’t an uptick of the numbers of the instances over time.”
Across the United States, colleges and universities have enacted no-tolerance policies regarding cheating. At Towson University, violations on assignments can result in failing a course. Violations on more high-stakes assessments, such as exams, can lead to severe punishments like expulsion. Even when students aren’t caught, there are consequences.
“Even if you’re caught, and you’re not deterred from it, the cheating tends to continue [after college],” said Donna Stuber, a researcher and psychology professor at Friends University.
Cheating can leave students ill-equipped to function in the professional world. And dishonesty often continues after graduation. According to CareerBuilder, a job search website, 75% of hiring managers have caught a lie on a resume.
“[Cheating] creates an environment of incompetence,” Stuber said. “You don’t want to be working with someone that’s incompetent.”
Teaching online doesn’t always mean an overhaul
In early March, when in-person classes were canceled before spring break, professors began preparing for the possibility that the rest of the semester would be online. Shortly thereafter, they learned that would be the reality.
Diane Meyers, a lecturer in the mass communication department at Towson, didn’t have to make too many adjustments. The exams she gave to her public relations students were already open book.
“I feel like it’s more about knowing, at least in these particular courses,” Meyers said. “If you need to know how to do certain things, I feel like you can look up the information. Once you’re working in a communications or public relations role, you can look it up, so you don’t have to have it memorized.”
Similarly, Sandra George, an adjunct professor at Alvernia University, didn’t have to change much because she allows students to use all of their resources for quizzes and tests.
“I usually let them use their notes or reference materials for a test anyway,” George said. “So, I don’t have to worry about cheating on tests. I have more of a concern when they’re writing their papers and cheating that way.”
In her two classes, freshman composition and Research, George tries to teach students the writing process and “that all the steps along the way are actually worth more than their final product.”
“I’m not as concerned about what their final research paper looks like, I’m more concerned about what does their outline look like and what does their prewriting plan look like,” George said. “That makes it a little easier because I just focus on those portions, which is not really something you can cheat about. You either have an outline or you don’t.”
Still, teaching online meant re-evaluating how to teach certain courses. Meyers’ public relations courses couldn’t just to moved online with no changes.
“My classes are really set up to be in-person classes,” Meyers said. “Especially with my campaigns class, the second half of the semester, teams work in the classroom on their campaigns plans.”
Meyers had to eliminate some part of the campaign plan, such as the collection of primary research and the oral presentations on final exam day. Another change has Meyers relying on Blackboard discussion boards, something she had not used much when she taught classes in-person.
In the beginning, George thought it would be difficult to follow the same structure as in the classroom. Originally, she had suggested posting PowerPoints to Blackboard and then conducting a meeting once a week to answer any questions about them or assignment requirements.
“I was kind of surprised because overwhelmingly, [students] said they wanted to continue having classes three times a week,” George said. “It gave them some sense that they were still in college, which I hadn’t thought about before.”
When George transferred quizzes to online, there was the ability to lockdown the quiz so students can’t go to other webpages. Technology allows instructors to even track eve movements, but George said that felt “a little bit too big brother.”
“At some point, you just have to trust students that they’re not going to cheat,” George said.
Placing trust in students
Tobin said that students are less likely to cheat when professors trust them.
“Start with what you can trust your students to do, like having a quiz on the readings every week, and make it worth little or no points,” Tobin said.
This gives students the idea that their assignments are intended to aid their academic growth, instead of just earning a grade.
Another method to reduce cheating is seeking verification. For instance, on tests, providing the conditions of the test and asking students to sign pledges ensures that students have at least thought about their academic integrity before they take a test. Making students conscious of their responsibility helps to reduce cheating incidents.
Finally, Tobin says professors can resort to monitor students during tests. Because this is typically the most invasive, it is reserved for the biggest assignments of the course, such as final exams or projects. Although this is the method that gives the most concrete results, it can also harm the trusting relationship between students and professors.
“The challenge is that it works, but it puts students in a distrusted position right off the bat,” Tobin said. “That’s a horrible place to be as a learner.”
Although observation can be effective, it is harder to implement and infringes on the rights of students, according to Tobin. In online classes, observation might look like having students turn on their web cameras during a test or providing proof that they do not have any notes or books out near them.
Instead, it may be easier to design assignments that are harder to cheat on. Beth Haller, a mass communication professor at Towson, suggests creating assignments that require students to analyze material rather than memorize.
“It’s very difficult for students to complete discussion posts about materials that they’ve never seen,” Haller said.
Requiring students to provide specific details pushes students to look at the source materials. Furthermore, having students provide their thoughts and opinions encourages them to put thought into the information they learn about. Basing assignments more on these values and less on objective answers can be effective in online settings.
“I can tell you’re trying to write about something that you haven’t watched or read, it becomes very obvious,” Haller said. “I don’t know how you could cheat about somebody else’s thoughts.”
Students’ perspectives
Both Towson University senior Marisa Schilling and Gettysburg College senior Bethany Wiczalkowski said they have not found that their professors talked more about cheating or distrusted them after the move online.
At Gettysburg College, students like Wiczalkowski sign an honor code when they first arrive on campus, and they pledge that they will not plagiarize or cheat. Whenever they hand in assignments, they have to put the honor code on that assignment.
Wiczalkowski described it as the honor code “puts the power of cheating and stuff in your hands.”
“When you put your name to that honor code, you are adhering to it,” Wiczalkowski said. “So, you don’t really think about cheating, even with technology. Then, like with the shift to technology, a lot of professors are trying to find ways to make their exams more technology friendly where it’s like open notes.”
Schilling found that her online classes were following the same standards that were set at the beginning of the semester.
“When we had our midterm, [the professor] was very clear, this is an independent assignment, like you can’t cheat, etc.,” Schilling said. “But I haven’t really had anything be like if you get caught like this is what happens, but then again my classes aren’t really set up in a way where that could potentially be like a really big problem.”
Schilling, a gerontology major, said it would be obvious if plagiarism occurred.
“It would be hard to use someone else’s work since my major is so small and the courses, I’ve taken are so small, it will be kind of be obvious if it was plagiarized from someone else’s work,” Schilling said.
For now, it is uncertain if schools will be able to re-open for fall semester. If not, administrators and students will at least have a better idea of how an all-online semester will play out.