Proceedings of the 2003 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Nashville, TN
Abstract
Extensive research indicates that cheating among undergraduate students
is a serious problem, and we have initiated a long-term investigation to
identify and validate concrete approaches for reducing the frequency of
cheating. We have previously presented results from that study and have
(among other things) described factors that influence the frequency and
definitions of cheating among engineering undergraduates and presented
student opinions on what actions might prevent cheating. However, we
have not reported our findings regarding the relationship between the
level of assessment and various consequences of cheating on a student's
decision to cheat. In this paper, results from 695 student surveys will
be presented to describe our findings.
In the survey, students are presented with three scenarios representing
distinct opportunities for cheating (cheating on a final examination,
copying solutions from another student's homework, and adding false
references to a term paper). Each of these scenarios represents a
different level of assessment. For each separate scenario, there are
questions about three possible consequences to cheating - shame, loss of
colleague's respect (i.e., embarrassment), and being caught (i.e., the
threat of formal sanctions). For each of the three possible
consequences, the student is asked for level of agreement with two
statements: 1) a statement about being personally affected by the
consequence and 2) a statement that the consequence would prevent the
student from cheating.
Responses to these scenario-specific questions will be compared and
related to other questions from the 139-item survey, especially (1) the
student's self-reported frequency of engagement in that specific
behavior during college, (2) the student's categorization of the
behavior as cheating, unethical, or neither, and (3) the student's
self-reported frequency of high school cheating.
Our results show that student responses are clustered according to level
of assessment rather than consequence. This may indicate that the type
of consequence has less to do with a student's decision to cheat than
does the level of assessment. Several hypotheses to describe these
findings will be explored, and practical approaches to reduce the level
of cheating based on this work will be proposed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/55261/3/2003 ASEE PACES1.pd
