Education Law

Students less likely to cheat online?

BoardBuzz came across this interesting post on Ars Technica about a new study that reveals students seem less willing (or able) to cheat when taking part in online classes:

Anyone who has ever taught knows that students sometimes cheat. With the increasing prevalence of online classes, there has been some fear that cheating would shoot through the roof?it’s a lot harder to spot answer-sharing on tests when it’s all online, after all. A new study, however, suggests that cheating is actually less common among students in virtual classrooms, though limitations in this study mean that further research is needed before declaring a winner between online and traditional classes.

The study Point, Click, and Cheat: Frequency and Type of Academic Dishonesty in the Virtual Classroom acknowledges the previously reported  factor that a close student-teacher relationship tends to yield more honesty in the classroom. This concept would then lead some to believe that virtual classrooms invite more cheating. “Both students and faculty perceive that cheating occurs more frequently in virtual classrooms because online students are often believed to be more savvy at utilizing online resources than their on ground counterparts, or are less likely to be caught by faculty who are unfamiliar with online detection techniques,” wrote the researchers. And it would definitely seem more difficult to have a close relationship with a teacher you rarely if ever see in-person.

However, the study’s results show that students seem to be much more willing to cheat in traditonal classes versus a virtual classroom. Of course, there are many caveats to the study including the self-reporting nature of students who were surveyed. Just how many might have cheated but would not want to own up to it? Nevertheless, the researchers believe their findings to be a good starting point for further studies on cheating in a virtual environment. We suggest you check out Ars’ full post to learn more.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on September 18, 2009 (boomark / email).