2022 EDSIG Proceedings: Abstract Presentation

Exploring the Concept of Cheating as Influenced by a Global Pandemic

Shawn Lough
James Madison University

Leigh Mutchler
James Madison University

Personal integrity is intimately related to intellectual learning, and most universities today publish an honor code statement that emphasizes their commitment to this ideal (Yavorski, 2019). But even when students are regularly reminded of their duty to comply with the honor code, instances of cheating continue. In the Spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused us to change how we live, work, and learn. Most faculty were forced to move their courses from face-to-face to an online delivery mode, and the capacities for some course sections were also increased temporarily for practical reasons. These changes caused faculty concerns about student cheating to increase (Daniels et al., 2021), and rightly so because many students admit they cheat in online courses, and others report that the pandemic-induced changes to their lives pushed them to cheat in class for the first time (Jenkins et al., 2022). Was it just the pandemic that caused this increase in cheating, or was the move to an online environment, potentially exacerbated by an increase in class size, to blame? Or the blame may lie with the lack of a common definition of cheating and the inconsistent understandings held by students and by faculty (Burrus et al., 2007; Deale et al., 2020). The purpose of this study is to explore these questions and provide faculty with an updated understanding of cheating as we move forward with both face-to-face and online courses.

Thursday at 11:35 am