Published: October 01, 2008 03:29 pm            

The problem of academic cheating

NEWTON — The 2008-2009 school year is well underway for both high school and college students. Books have been issued or purchased; teachers and students have become acquainted; and assignments, including research papers, have been made.

Now comes the ever-present problem of student plagiarism. The term “plagiarism” simply means that an individual has used material written by someone else and claimed it as his or her own. Credit is not give to the proper source from which the material came.

Acts of plagiarism have become so common and widespread that plagiarism detection sites have now been set up on the internet. If an instructor suspects a student has used material without acknowledging where the information originated, the teacher can have the paper checked by one of these detection sites.

It is now possible for a student to go online and contact agencies which will, for a fee, write the student a complete research paper. The charge is usually around $10 per page. If the semester or the school year is drawing to a close and the student request a “rush job,” the cost increases to $25 per page.

There are a great many online term paper mills, ready to fill the need of any stressed out, procrastinating or just plain lazy student. But if the internet has made it possible for students to engage in effortless cheating, it is also helping high schools and colleges to identify those who have bought an assignment rather than doing the assigned work themselves.

Every day, according to an article which appeared in Time Magazine, on May 17, 2007, and written by Julie Rawe, more than 100,000 research papers are discovered by plagiarism detection sites each year. These sites compare each paper with billions of web pages, tens of thousands of journals and periodicals, and an extensive archive of more than 40 million student papers which the system has stored.

Those of us who teach or have taught are well aware that a certain amount of dishonesty has always existed among students. Students have, since the founding of schools, attempted to have others do their work for them. But submitting work which is done by a fellow student, cheating, copying, and plagiarism have, without question, become much more widespread in recent years. From time to time, articles appear in the press reporting incidents of cheating at even such Ivy League institutions as Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

Now, the question arises, why are students more involved in cheating and plagiarism than in the past? In the first place, more students are enrolled in the nation’s high schools and colleges than ever before. There was a time, and not so long ago, when only the top half of a high school graduating class went on to college.

These students did not find it difficult to complete assignments or to compete with their classmates for grades. In the past, classes were smaller, and teachers had a greater opportunity to closely supervise the work of students. Also, students today are more affluent than in the past. They have more time and money to spend on recreation and entertainment while neglecting their studies.

Then there is the moral issue. Educational institutions once considered it a part of their philosophy to teach either directly or by example the moral values necessary for living a successful life. Because of court decisions, this is no longer true in state-supported schools.

The college catalog issued by East Central Junior College in 1941 makes this statement as a part of the stated institutional goals. “East Central Junior (now Community) College intends to develop Christian character. Its teachers are selected with that purpose in mind. The college administration encourages every agency of the institution—instruction, play, and social activities—to keep this purpose in mind always seeking to improve moral character.”

No longer does the college observe what was known as Religious Emphasis Week. During this week, an assembly was held each day, and ministers from various denominations delivered inspirational talks to the student body.

Studies have shown that cheating can be greatly reduced by following a few guidelines. If the members of a faculty know they will be supported by the administration when they find a student cheating, they are more likely to report the infraction. Increased proctoring, the use of multiple versions of examinations, not using old tests and employing stronger sanctions against those who cheat can greatly reduce classroom cheating.

When a student understands that cheating does not harm the teacher or the school but does great harm to him or her, cheating becomes less attractive. If a student realizes that success in life is determined by hard work, self motivation, and the acquiring of useful knowledge, the age-old problem of cheating can be reduced.



Ovid Vickers, a retired East Central Community College professor, writes a weekly column for The Newton Record.

        

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