Abstract
This chapter argues that good practice in (online) teaching such as discussed in this book should recognise that cheating by students, for example, plagiarism, essay mills, impersonation, etc., has become more common and that it should be addressed with greater determination. This assertion is based on the experience, enquiries and views of an academic practitioner. The chapter considers what academic cheating is, the digital age’s impact on it and some of the moral justifications raised for and against cheating. It explains some of the ways in which online opportunities aid cheating, offers some ideas about how such cheating can be detected and concludes by arguing that much more could and should be done to prevent and respond to it.
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Notes
- 1.
This was not typical of the overall rate for the modules which was informally estimated to be 10–15%. Explanations for this are likely to include the probability that I had more foreign students than some colleagues and that there will also have been some differences in how we each set about the detection of cheating. Both of these factors are discussed further in this chapter.
- 2.
These include USA, Australia, UK, Europe, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, China, Japan, The Gulf, Egypt, Nigeria and Columbia / Latin America.
- 3.
Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation.
- 4.
Such investigations and reports rarely present cases as percentages of all students at the given universities and it is likely that these would make for considerably less dramatic headlines than the absolute figures.
- 5.
Even where the university does not allow students to have access to a plagiarism checking system this can be purchased for example ‘Writecheck’ (2016). This business will check a student’s paper for plagiarism and grammar for less than $8 and undertakes not to sell the submitted paper which it claims other checkers do.
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Pell, D.J. (2018). That’s Cheating: The (Online) Academic Cheating ‘Epidemic’ and What We Should Do About It. In: Baxter, J., Callaghan, G., McAvoy, J. (eds) Creativity and Critique in Online Learning. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78298-0_7
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