Student Academic Integrity Analysis

Today, in the era of technology, there has been a huge decrease in students academic integrity. With easier access to the internet through cell phone and computers, it has become as easy as a click of a couple buttons to copy someone else’s work of look up the answers for the homework that is assigned. With this increase in technology and internet access, it has become easier for college students to cheat and plagiarise in their online courses, and harder for instructors to regulate academic dishonesty. Online courses tend to be more challenging than regular, physical classes. In her article, Visara Ekahitanond states that, “Online learning enables students to work anywhere, with anybody, so teachers have a hard time detecting, identifying,

This type of learning may lead to an increase in academic dishonesty due to the lack of an instructor to physically guide them through the course. This lack of physically being in the classroom makes it harder for students to absorb the information being given to them and ask questions. Michael Spaulding states, “It is important to create an environment that not only teaches the content of the course, but also accomplishes this in a manner that is as personal as a traditional course.(p. 183).” What Spaulding means by this is that online courses need to be able to maintain the stronger connection with instructor as a traditional, face- to- face course. Often times in an online course, the student may feel distance and separated from the instructor. Students do not have as easy access to the professor in order to get help or ask questions like they would in a traditional course, which may lead them to turn to cheating off of someone or even copy someone else’s work; therefore making them academically dishonest and less appealable as a

Farisi then goes on to explain the meaning if each of these categories. The first category, plagiarism and piracy, means that the student is using another person’s work without giving credit where it is do. The student does not cite or acknowledge the person whom they took the information from. The second category, which is fabrication and forgery, is simply making up information. The third category, which consists of falsification, fraud, invent, massage, and fudge, is defined as accurately portraying information. The fourth category, misrepresentation, honest errors, and deception, Farisi describes as falsely representing oneself. The next category is misbehavior, cooking, or trimming, which is defined as acting in ways that counteract expectations. Finally, the sixth category, which is cheating or bribery, is defined as giving or obtaining assistance in a formal academic exercise. By explaining the different categories and definitions of academic dishonesty, Farisi offers information on the subject in order to persuade students to stray away from academic