Do Morals go Offline When Students Go Online?

A discussion of relevant research and what to do with it.

70% of students feel prepared to make ethical decisions in the workplace.

39% of students feel that it is sometimes necessary to break rules in order to succeed.

JA/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey (2008)

Students ranked themselves below Professional Athletes and Business leaders on Ethics.

The only group that students ranked lower was Politicians.

JA/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey(2008)

Disconnect between digital and normal life

More than 57% said that it was unfair for employers to make decisions based on students’ MySpace or FaceBook pages.

47% said that it is ok on some level to download music, but only 5% are ok to steal from a store.

JA/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey(2008)

Nearly 25% of the students who admitted to lying to their parents say that lying is never acceptable.

Nearly 25% of students who cheated on a test or plagiarized say that they know that it is not ok.

JA/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey (2008)

Students are more perceptive than teachers when cheating happens in their classrooms.

Students and teachers often have different thresholds for cheating.

Craig and Evans (1990)

Who Cheats and Why?

Student Perceptions of Cheating

Recommendations… not yet

Teacher Effects

Who Cheats and Why?

Is there a difference between cheating in Secular and Religious schools?

Short answer… No.

Students are likely to cheat whenever they can get away with it, and have little regard for consequences.

Bruggeman & Hart (2001)

Is there a difference between cheating in Secular and Religious schools?

Students who describe their home as religious are less likely to cheat.

Bruggeman & Hart (2001)

Cheating is lower in the middle school.

Cheating increases during the Freshman year and throughout high school.

Cheating reduces during college years.

Anderman and Midgley (2004)

High School students are more likely than Middle school students attribute cheating to personal responsibility.

Middle School students are more likely to attribute cheating to external, uncontrollable circumstances.

Evans and Craig (1990)

Students who think cheating is serious cheat less often.

Students who think that cheating is not serious cheat more often.

Stephens, Young, and Calabrese

Most students mix digital and conventional forms of cheating.

More students reported using ‘cut and paste’ plagiarism online, than from conventional sources.

More students reported using digital cheat sheets than paper cheat sheets during tests and consider it less serious.

Stephens, Young, and Calabrese (2007)

Students are more likely to cheat when they: Work part time Have low academic self-concept Have friends that cheat Have poor time-management skills Fear failure Avoid work

Evans and Craig (1990)

Overwhelmed to Succeed

JA/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey (2008)

Personal Desire to Succeed justifies…

Total “Overwhelmed” Students

Cheating 54% 66%

Plagiarism 37% 51%

Pressures on Students Peers –exclusion from ‘Smart’ group,

competition for grades Parents – awareness of college pressures,

scholarships, unreal expectations Teachers – mostly unaware of their

influence, students don’t want to disappoint.

Time – balancing activities, social life, work and school, not enough hours

Taylor, Pogrebin and Dodge

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Student Feelings about Cheating

Cheating on exams is seen as the most serious type of cheating.

Copying homework is often justified. In a ‘teaching’ setting, with one student helping the other understand, it is not considered cheating.

While there is a perception that students with low GPA’s frequently cheat, but there is frequent cheating among students with High GPA’s.

Taylor, Pogrebin and Dodge

Success is defined by the A, not by what was learned or mastered.

Students generally know that cheating is wrong.

Cheating is seen as sometimes necessary, due to the pressure to perform.

Among AP/IB students, cheating students rarely develop a pattern of dishonesty.

Taylor, Pogrebin and Dodge

Rational For PlagiarizingNot enough time to do the assignment 49%

Personal desire to succeed in school 37%

Pressure from parents to succeed in school 25%

Everyone else does it 18%

Thrill of possibly not getting caught plagiarizing 8%

Peer pressure 6%

Some other reason 16%

I don’t know 13%

JA/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey(2008)

I felt I had no time to do my own paper. 28.1%

I felt unprepared to write the paper on my own.

26.3%

I was not interested in the subject of my paper.

21.1%

If I wasn’t allowed to do it, the teacher should have explicitly said so.

14.0%

I knew I would not get caught. 12.3%

Sisti (2007)

How do students justify Internet plagiarism?

I think it is okay to use papers from the Internet.

8.8%

If I wasn’t allowed to do it, someone should make it impossible to do.

7.0%

I think it’s fun to beat the system. 7.0%

I felt like my teacher would not care. 7.0%

Some of my friends or classmates do it. 5.3%

Sisti (2007)

How do students justify Internet plagiarism?

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How do teacher effect their classroom?

A high performance goal structure lead to more cheating.

A high mastery goal structure lead to less cheating.

Anderman and Midgley (2004)

Students are more likely to cheat when the teacher:

Is a tough grader Is unfriendly, boring or dull Has high expectations of student

performance Cover a lot of material Is disorganized

Evans and Craig (1990)

Teachers fall into one of 4 groups, based on what they feel about plagiarism

Given up – it is impossible to tell who did what

In retreat – use traditional methods to assure academic honesty

Needed guidance – are looking for solutions that incorporate Internet resources

Teachers who have developed a strategy

Williams (2001)

Teacher developed strategies incorporate the following

A Culture of honesty Observation of Students’ continual work Review of intermediate drafts Ongoing Discussion with the students

CORD

Williams (2001)

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Recommendations

Teachers who use CORD reduce the amount of cheating and plagiarism in their classes.

A Culture of honesty

Observation of Students’ continual work

Review of intermediate drafts

Ongoing Discussion with the students

Williams (2001)

Examination of your own teaching practices to avoid unwittingly encouraging cheating behaviors.

Take a stand against cheating early.

Objectively discuss cheating with the goal of reconciling differing opinions about cheating, may reduce cheating in classrooms.

Evens and Craig (1990)

Technology and the Internet enable cheating, they are not the cause of cheating.

So far teachers have been reactive, not proactive.

◦ Doccop, Turnitin, and other text checking websites don’t prevent plagiarism only catch it after the fact

Stephens, Young, and Calabrese

We should seek to prevent plagiarism.

◦ Create interesting assignments

◦ Require drafts, and intermediate products

◦ Discuss throughout school the importance values such as honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility

Stephens, Young, and Calabrese

NETS∙T