Cheating is rampant on college campuses. You should be prepared. Assume the best in your students, but be prepared for the worst in students. Fortunately good class design can help minimize the instances of cheating and clear cheating policies make it easy to deal with students when you find a student dabbling on the dark side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWrite a 2 page summary of Marx\u2019s Communist Manifesto<\/em>,\u201d is a terrible question in the Internet age. Ask this question and you should expect lots of copy\/pasting. Smart questions today are specific, complex, and if possible related to something discussed in class.<\/p>\n Specificity is your friend. I often ask students questions like, \u201cHow does Prudence Carter define non-dominant cultural capital in Keepin\u2019 It Real<\/em>\u201d There are very few correct answers to this question and if students Google \u201cNon-Dominant Cultural Capital\u201d they are very likely going to get an answer that does not sound like Carters which means they will either raise my suspicion and get caught or at the very least get a bad grade for an incorrect answer.<\/p>\n \u201cHow does Shapiro define institutional discrimination in The Hidden Cost Of Being African American<\/em>? In your answer use examples from the video The House We Live In<\/em> we watched in class.\u201d This is a question I\u2019ve asked my students to answer in the past. This is a good question because it asks students to apply a concept to something else. I could have asked the students to define Institutional Discrimination, but there are over 8 million webpages<\/a> that students could copy\/paste a definition from. By asking students to apply, compare, contrast, etc. multiple things, students are less likely to be able to find a ready made answer online and thus less likely to cheat. <\/p>\n Almost every time I catch a student quoting without attribution *cough* copy\/pasting off of the net *cough, cough* the first thing the student says to me is, \u201cI had no idea I could cite a source for this paper!\u201d. Many of my students seem surprised when I tell them they could\u2019ve just cited the website or article they quoted and they wouldn\u2019t evaded receiving an F. While I wouldn\u2019t give a good grade to a paper that cites Wikipedia, I wouldn\u2019t call judicial affairs if they cited the Wikipedia article they quoted.<\/p>\n At the beginning of the semester I spend 15 minutes talking about what constitutes plagiarism and how it can be avoided. I provide my students with resources on campus and tell them, \u201cIf you are worried that what you\u2019re doing may be plagiarism, come talk to me\u201d 1<\/a> After we read the Academic Integrity section of the syllabus I say to my students, <\/p>\n \u201cI became a professor because I wanted to help students reach their dreams, not because I wanted to possibly get them removed from school. It bums me out when I report students to judicial affairs, but I will. Last semester when I told cheating students I had reported them to Judicial Affairs they looked at me with astonishment. Don\u2019t make their mistake. If you cheat, I\u2019ll likely catch you and the consequences will be severe. Please don\u2019t make me do this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s not enough to tell you students once. Before any major assignment or test I remind my students what constitutes plagiarism or cheating and the severity of the consequences if they are caught. You don\u2019t want your students to become paranoid, but you also don\u2019t want them to become complacent.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a great idea to explore cheating as a social problem in your classes. When discussing deviance I\u2019ve had students read Situational Ethics and College Student Cheating<\/em> (1990 LaBeff, Clark, Haines, and Diekhoff)2<\/a> which describes how students use neutralization to maintain a positive sense of self despite engaging in behavior they know is wrong. My students love this article and they really love having an open class discussion about cheating. Of course they precede every statements with, \u201cWell one of my friends told me\u2026\u201d I typically end this class discussion by asking students how prevalent they think cheating is on campus and what they think the consequences should be for cheating. At the end of the discussion I remind them of what the consequences are for academic dishonesty in this class.<\/p>\n In your syllabus you need to define what academic integrity is, why it\u2019s important, and what the consequences are for a student\u2019s lapsed academic morals. I provide students with a link to the student handbook where they can see examples of what constitutes academic dishonesty and what consequences I am contractually bound to enforce.<\/p>\n2. Set clear expectations<\/h2>\n
\n
3. Frequently reinforce your commitment to academic honesty<\/h2>\n
4. Write a clear academic integrity statement<\/h2>\n