Cheating among college students remains rampant. Our institutional and/or course policies aren’t stopping much of it. There are lots of reasons why, which we could debate, but the more profitable conversation is how we get students to realize that cheating hurts them. I don’t think they consider the personal consequences, so that’s the goal of this memo, framed like others that have appeared in the blog. You are welcome to revise it, make the language your own, and share it as you see fit with students. Will it stop cheating? Not likely, but it might make some students realize the consequences go well beyond getting caught.
To: My Students
From: Your Teacher
Re: Cheating
You know the message on cheating: Don’t do it. Yet despite knowing that it’s wrong, many students still cheat. Why? In response to a survey about cheating a student compared it to speeding. Everybody knows you shouldn’t speed, but most of us do. And when the weather is good and the road is clear, the risk of an accident is small. There is the matter of getting caught, but that risk is also low, so, the student reasoned, cheating is like speeding.
No, it’s not! Here are seven reasons why you shouldn’t cheat, and getting caught isn’t one of them.
- When you cheat on an exam, it looks like you know the content, which means whenever you’re confronted with that material, you’ve got to fake it. Moreover, it looks to me like you understand, so I move on, assuming you know what you got right on the exam. What you didn’t learn in one course can be required knowledge in the next course. Knowledge in most fields is cumulative. It builds on previous knowledge. If you don’t understand the prerequisite content, you can’t learn the new stuff—so later you’ll either need to do double-duty learning or what you don’t know widens from a gap to gulf.
- When you cheat, important skillsets, those things employers assume college graduates possess, remain undeveloped or underdeveloped. You learn problem-solving skills by solving problems, not by copying answers. Your writing improves when you write, not when you recycle someone else’s paper. Your abilities to think critically, analyze arguments, and speak persuasively all develop when you do them, not when you parrot the thinking, arguments, and persuasive ploys of others. Just as standing around exercise equipment does not build muscle mass, borrowing the work of others does not build mental muscle.
- Don’t kid yourself, a small cheating problem seldom stays that size. Think more along the lines of a malignant tumor that starts tiny and quietly grows into something big and ugly. You may start by peeking for answers in a required course that you don’t want to take. In that first course in the major, you decide to copy homework answers—you’re busy and all that content will be covered again in later courses anyway. You cheat in the special topics course because you won’t use the content in the area where you plan to work. You end up fudging data in your senior research project because it isn’t a “real” study anyway. The research is clear. Students who cheat don’t do it just one time or in just one course.
- Cheating in college sets you up for cheating in life. Maybe you’re telling yourself you’ll stop when you graduate. The research says otherwise. Those who cheated in college are more likely to cheat their employers or employees, fudge on their taxes, and use unethical business practices. It becomes a lifetime habit right along with the lying that covers it up.
- Cheating puts your personal integrity at risk. What kind of person do you want to be? The actions taken now are defining who you are and will likely become. How does it make you feel when someone you care about lies or cheats on you? Do you hold those who cheat in high esteem? Your personal integrity is something you wear every day of your life. You can wear it with pride or you can slink around trying to hide the holes and cover the rips.
- You can accomplish what you need to without cheating. Some students cheat because it’s easier than working for the grades—the reasons outlined above illustrate why that’s a cavalier, short-sighted rationale with serious consequences. Then there are the students who cheat because they don’t think they have the smarts to get the good grades they need. Success in college is much more a function of your study habits than your brain size. Good study habits are so not rocket science. And don’t say they don’t make a difference unless you’ve tried them. Start with one course and see if short, regular study times alone and with a buddy, regular class attendance, and keeping up with the homework make a difference. Bottom line: most students are way smarter than they think they are.
- Cheating prevents you from being the person you want to be. Grades that you’ve earned provide a sense of accomplishment. They’re a source of pride. They say you’re a person to be reckoned with. Grades you haven’t earned also make you a person to be reckoned with but not for the reasons you’d wish.
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So, my first question is, “How do you get the students to read the memo?” Seriously.
Exactly. If the students do not even see us as teachers, why would they respond to a memo from one of us insisting that we are fulfilling that role by trying to mentor them with ethical advice.
We just ended a faculty meeting where we repeatedly discussed ‘plagiarism’. We have seen an increase in plagiarism cases at our University. We are asking various questions on how we can help students see the seriousness of getting involved in such practice. I have shared this article with my dean and hopefully, we can start from here. We know this is not the only solutions but it helps if the students know why they should get involved. Thank you!
Last week Tom Tobin visited our campus to present a wonderfully engaging workshop, “Three Paths to Academic Integrity on Campus.” Tom spoke about building a culture of academic integrity among students across all disciplines and cultures that included definitions, strategies, and examples of best practices. Participants left the workshop with ways both they and their students can foster a culture of academic integrity across campus. Tom is personable and very knowledgeable about academic integrity and copyright as well as accessibility/universal design and evaluation of teaching practice.
Well written – but a bigger problem is one of a conflict of incentives. Yes, students have the incentive to “pass” (and so get that “piece of paper”) – but institutions have even a greater incentive to have students pass (so retention and graduation rates are not impacted and impacting the revenue stream) (One sure way to minimize cheating is to give open book, open notes, open everything exams – but that would require faculty to write exams that are challenging and to which solutions are not readily found by googling)
yes, incentives are everything. Faculty are empowered to serve the financial interests of their institution. We are more like student agents than teachers. Yet teaching and student learning are the stated core values. Student cheating is the inevitable outcome of a model driven by economics. We should expect nothing else after the examples we’ve set institutionally.
If we want cheating to stop, first, we do away with faculty accountability measures that students can use to damage our reputations and falsely accuse us. Then, we assemble an administration that does away with the “customer service” approach to higher education. Then, we enable professors to impose ethical standards of behavior on their students, even assessing student behavior and attitude in the classroom as part of course grades. Finally, faculty need to create assessments that require them to interact with students on a personal level, to spend more time grading instead of standing next to a scantron machine, and to monitor student progress over the long term.
Will any of these things happen? Probably not. The money is too important.
But the system has become too democratic, and the students are in charge now. What else can we expect as long as we follow the current model?
We have (not yet) reached a tipping point – to many having a piece of paper is the end-all – in part because it may be their ticket to a job – What happens when they are in a job is a different issue and the university can always claim that they did what they could and if the student fails, it is the fault of the students. On the aggregate, the impact of student cheating and the “customer service” approach to students has not had as big as an impact as to be obvious (yet). But the signs are there – sooner or later, the people who pay the bills to sustain the unsustainable model of “higher education” will wake up and examine what they have gotten for their resources. Bryan Caplan’s recent book titled “A Case Against Education” reminds us all on why education (as we know it, as practiced) is indeed a waste of time, money, resources for all but a small percentage
Really great list! I’m including a link in all my course-management forms!
Are there citations for points #3 and #4?
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The number one reason why students cheat is trust. Students do not trust the teacher to get the students where the student wants to go. If the student wants an A, he or she doesn’t feel the teacher can help him or her. If the students wants to write well, the student may feel that the teacher can not get the student to write well enough to earn an A. If the student felt the teacher can fulfill the expectations of the student, then there will be no cheating as the impetus is removed.
ericpollock@yahoo.com
Great point! The article gives some excellent reasons as to why students cheat and lack of trust should be on that list too. Yes, some students cheat out of habit or expedience, but even honest students will justify cheating if they feel that the system, the class, or the teacher is unfair. They will rationalize that by cheating, they are leveling an already uneven playing field.
I am a huge fan of open book and open notes (not open internet) tests. Why not give a test that reflects the real world? In the real world — books exist and should be used as references! The challenge in making an open book/open notes test is on the teacher — to create higher order critical thinking skills questions.
I also find that plagiarism is reduced when students have some guidance in their writing assignments. Leaving aside the benefits of rubrics, giving students feedback on an outline or some kind of pre-writing assignment(s) builds trust and confident. Admittedly, giving students feedback before the final written assignment is due does take time. I have my students turn in less written assignments than other teachers, but their work tends to be more interesting and of higher quality. Maybe it is just me, but I always prefer quality to quantity, even if quality takes longer.
I would say that trust, or lack of trust, is the number one issue. You mentioned other points which are interesting, and I would add that an honest person even if the class or system was unfair would not cheat if he or she trusted the teacher to get him or her to either an A in the class, or an A on a paper. I tell my students all the time, “I will help you get an A in the class and om every paper, trust me to do my job”, and I van’t remember the last time someone cheated. Honest or dishonest students, when they realize I can get them to where they want to be, have no incentive to cheat any more.
It would be funny if students were given this choice: cheat and get an A-, or let me help them to get an A.
ericpollock@yahoo.com
As a sociologist I do give open-note and open-book exams. But I think we should be careful when we reference the “real world” as though all real-world situations allow people to go back and look things up. I want the EMTs, surgeons, nurses, pilots, truck drivers, and lots of other people to have some knowledge completely memorized and it may be that the real world for many people we are helping to train does require knowing certain rules, acronyms, signs, symptoms, policies, and such like. While it is not the type of career I myself prep students for, I want to honor the value of this type of preparation and this type of teaching and learning as entirely appropriate for many students preparing for careers different from my career.