Promoting Academic Integrity

Promoting Academic Integrity

Don McCabe - Rutgers UniversityAugust 2011

An overview inthree parts

• Part 1

What is academic integrity, why the growing interest, ICAI, implications for all of us.

• Part 2

Survey overview and fruitful directions.

• Part 3

Look at faculty issues and some Alaska ‘numbers’.

Definition• Academic Integrity - has

something to do with establishing a set of moral values in an institution of higher learning

• Some issues

–Whose values? (easier in some cultures than others)

–How do we get broad acceptance [esp. intergenerational agreement]?

Academic Integrity as defined by ICAI

Academic Integrity is a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. From these values flow principles of behavior that enable academic communities to translate ideals into action.

Source: The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity

Published by the Center for Academic Integrity

Issues that can getin the way

• Administrators – often ‘run for cover’ when an issue arises – for the ‘good’ of the institution.

• Faculty – many more worried about publishing, etc. to invest much time in a system whose value they often question – “There’s nothing in it for me!”

• Students – have to get that grade and often they justify cheating by the example they see set by others – including administrators and faculty.

Bottom line• It seems many institutions give

academic integrity only limited attention. “We’re better off not knowing.”

• Some institutions have systems that have deteriorated into legal morasses – meant primarily to protect the institution, not to educate students.

• Students view cheating differently today than a generation ago and feel we are ‘out of touch’ with reality – e.g., the Internet.

ICAI

ICAI was established in 1992 to allow colleges and universities, initially in North America, to join together in a common effort to provide “a forum to identify, affirm, and promote the values of academic integrity among students, faculty, teachers and administrators.” 1 We have over 300 institutional members currently (global distribution); located at Clemson; will celebrate our 20th anniversary in 2012.

1. Source: CAI Website, Home Page

ICAI• Located for many years at Duke University.

Now at Clemson University and affiliated with the Rutland Center for Ethics at Clemson.

• A membership organization with over 300 institutional members currently.

• Global membership centered in US & Canada. Advisory Board consists of members from the US, Canada, Egypt (Professor Abou-Zeid), the UAE, and Australia.

What ICAI does• Serves as a clearinghouse for both the

media and the membership.

• Conducts an ongoing assessment project for schools to assess state of integrity.

• Holds annual conference at which members have an opportunity to ‘trade’ techniques and hear speakers on relevant topics. Toronto in October 2011 and Princeton in 2012.

Growing interest in academic integrity

• The media may be be ‘forcing’ schools to look harder at academic integrity issues as articles tracking major incidents of cheating and plagiarism are ‘hot’ news. No one wants that headline that says their university has a major problem – especially if they can’t point to valid efforts to prevent incidents of cheating [to promote integrity]. But, this fear of media exposure often keeps campuses from actively, and openly, addressing the issue. Introduction of a program may suggest school has a problem.

Growing interest in academic integrity

• But, this fear of media exposure often keeps some campuses from actively, and openly, addressing the issue. The media often assume such efforts suggest the school feels it has a problem and the media wants ‘answers’. If they can’t get them from campus leaders, they go to students or faculty. Finding ‘disgruntled’ students or faculty is usually not very hard. And then the ‘fun’ begins…

A worldwide issue

• The issue is a worldwide one as a quick scan of Google news alert will attest.

• In a recent thirty day period, Google News Alert has covered stories about academic dishonesty, and efforts to prevent it, in Canada, China, India, Ireland, the Philippines, the United States, and Viet Nam.

A worldwide issue• I have done or been involved in

surveys in Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, Greece, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and, of course, the United States.

• Bottom line, no country or school has a monopoly on academic dishonesty although we see different standards across cultures. In fact, the example students see in their own culture/society seems to be critical.

A worldwide issue• One concern I have is that this frame of

reference is expanding from local to global.

• Whether real or perceived, for example, students in the US see China and India taking stronger positions in the global economy - and more of the ‘better’ jobs. US student reaction – they sense the need for better grades to secure their spot in this shrinking opportunity structure = increasing pressure (also rationalization) to cheat.

• Although the actual data I have collected most recently suggests otherwise, I think cheating continues to rise on our campuses (at least in the US and probably worldwide). One ‘issue’ is that students are finding it easier to justify, neutralize, or rationalize cheating. For them it’s not cheating – it’s just doing what they ‘have’ to, or emulating the larger society – esp. business people.

• To some degree, hopefully still not large, grades and class rank reflect one’s ability to deceive rather than true learning. In the US at least, they also reflect the fact that many faculty have ‘surrendered’ and many students can negotiate/argue their way to better grades (including general grade inflation). When research is what you’re being rewarded for, it’s a lot easier for faculty this way.

Implications

• On essays and papers, although turnitin.com and other plagiarism detection methods help, you can rarely be sure where an essay came from – a previous submission, the internet, a friend, a paid service, etc. (Important article on this issue in the 11/19 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Ed.)

• Again, many faculty have given up, although many have also redoubled their efforts to promote integrity. What seems to be possible and how institutions can & should support such efforts will be discussed later.

Implications

Longer term

implications• Are we producing a generation of under-informed

students who are willing to cheat whenever they feel the ‘need’?

• If cheating in school is OK, why not business, medicine, law, all professions? Do students see a natural progression here?

• What happens as world economy gets more competitive?

• Where does it stop?

My view• Everyone needs to be involved. But most

of us in a supporting role (which will be difficult, especially for parents) as we help the rising generation address the issues. It may be OK that they may come up with different answers than we would.

• We must be supportive, but firm in our conviction that something needs to be done. And certain responses are not acceptable.

• Our window of opportunity may be limited!

Part 2

What I’ve Been Finding in My Surveys

Roadmap – Part 2

• Brief summary of survey results over last 20 years.

• Discussion of motivations for/possible responses to student cheating – but no “magic bullet”.

• Faculty perspectives on addressing the issue.

Academic Integrity inHigher Education

Knowledge, Challenge, and Practical Advice for Faculty and Administrators

• Working title: Johns Hopkins Press; McCabe, Trevino & Butterfield

• Finished – under review.

• Probable Publication – Spring/Fall 2012

Research Chronology

– Have surveyed 210,000+ students at >245 schools in U.S. & Canada, including 1,972 at UAA.

– Have surveyed 22,000+ faculty at >150 schools including 158 at UAA this spring.

–Will focus on U.S. web surveys – 2002 to 2011 @ 136 schools and >77,500 UGs (excluding first year students, missing data for class, and students in two year schools). ~18,650 faculty at four year schools.

Methodological issues

• Self-report data

• Anonymity concerns with web-based surveys – lower response rates & lower self-reported cheating?

• Changing definition of cheating???

• ‘Cheaters’ seem to have lower response rates on survey. Bigger problem at graduate level?

The ‘bottom line’ upfront

• Students are very adept at rationalizing cheating and ‘blaming’ it on others.

• US students identify athletes, fraternity & sorority members, and business students as the most frequent cheaters.

• Faculty report high levels of cheating among students but many don’t take any ‘special’ steps to address the issue.

Before we start• The range of possible violations is almost endless,

limited only by student ingenuity. We need to decide what to track.

• Although I now have 26 different behaviors on my survey (from copying homework to copying on a test), many years ago (using student ratings of seriousness), I created two indices of four items each to assess test cheating and cheating on written assignments. Since then, I have added two items (to capture Internet related copying and plagiarism).

Cheating indices• Test cheating:– Copy from another on a test w/ their knowledge.– Copy from another on a test w/o their knowledge.– Use unpermitted crib/cheat notes on a test.– Help another cheat on a test.

• Written cheating– Plagiarism – ‘cut & paste’ and large scale.– Internet plagiarism – ‘cut & paste’ and mill.– Fabricating/falsifying bibliography.– Submit work for credit done by someone else.

Self reported cheating - Undergrads

U.S. Large 2002-11 ‘Publics’

UAA

Test Cheating 38% 34% 25% Written Cheating 62% 56% 45% All Serious Cheating 67% 62% 50%

N 77,683 4,153 1,293

*Excluding first year students and two year schools.

Institutional factors associated with greater cheating on college campuses

• Cheating is campus norm (a ‘cheating culture’).

• School has no honor code.

• Students feel faculty don’t support integrity policies, little chance of getting caught and penalties not seen as significant.

Students reporting greater cheating

• Males historically reported more test cheating, but females have closed the gap; females report roughly equal cheating on written work - except the most explicit forms.

• Communications & Business majors. Dental and Pharmacy students are also problematic (but my sample size is small.)

• Those with significant time commitments – e.g., a job. Athletes are a ‘special’ issue.

Motivations for cheating

• Pressure to succeed/excel.

• Fairness. (“Others do it.”)

• Material is trivial/irrelevant.

• Courses too hard/faculty unreasonable.

• Sense of “entitlement” seems important.

• Emulating business practice. (Business majors)

Motivations for cheating - Grades

• I believe the fundamental values motivating cheating consist in placing excessive value in GPA or test scores. These are almost exclusively due to Primary and Secondary school contexts, in which (due to Federal funding reliance upon their often irrelevant mandated tests) comprehension and the ability to explain and demonstrate principles are held as less important than test scores.

• You are worrying about something that cannot be controlled. The pressure to succeed with the high GPA's will always produce cheating.

• …given the stress and pressure of our current education system, passing and a higher GPA are higher priorities than learning subjects, so enterprising students will always find a way to obtain the GPA and pass.

• The whole university system is based on ranking students, with a lot of pressure and expectation tied to grades. Opportunities for scholarship and financial aid are tied to grades, making some students desperate to succeed at any cost.

Motivations for cheating - Easy

• In my current Physics class we are packed in like sardines and if someone was to cheat on test I think it would be easier in this classroom setting. In my opinion larger classrooms would help reduce the temptation of cheating because of the distance between students.

• All in all, UAA is akin to a 'degree mill' due to how easily they allow cheating. It is rather pathetic.

• It seems that electronic devices make cheating much easier than it used to be.

Motivations for cheating - Society

• The prevalence of cheating is more symptomatic of the culture we live in than the policies and procedures of UAA or any other institution.

• Our society values getting ahead more than it values education. Period. Education is seen as a means to an end, and that is why things are the way they are.

• [A]merican society and human nature play an active part in instilling the belief that dishonesty, though deplorable is an accepted reality.

• Academic integrity, or the lack of it, on the part of students, are in fact the products of Elementary and Secondary school education. They are also profoundly interwoven into our contemporary American culture. Sadly, since Ethics and Civics are apparently no longer taught in pre-college schools, the general values seem to be twofold: first, that having a great deal of money is the purpose of life, and secondly that it matters only whether or not one is caught, and not whether or not a person engages in unethical or immoral or illegal actions

Motivations for cheating - Other

• Cheating is the highest form of laziness. These classes are not hard as long as one puts forth the effort to succeed (w/ the exception of some higher math classes of course).

• I didn’t think it was a big deal but now that i am in college i don’t know how to do a lot of things and classes are hard, but cheating is easier than studying.

• I have been attending college on and off for the past 11 years and have seen the standards for grading drastically decrease and coincidentally the number of graduates drastically increase. It is a disservice to everyone to dumb down course curriculum to boost grades and graduates. This I believe is as much cheating as the types mentioned in this survey and needs to be addressed by administrators and faculty alike.

• Cheating takes place all the time, and little is done to dissuade students from doing it.

Motivations for not cheating

• The peer environment on campus… “because students are most affected by the social environment around them.”

• Self respect. Upbringing (values & morals).

• The consequences for cheating or dishonesty.

Some faculty dissatisfied with

handling of suspected cases• I have referred cases to the Dean of students on several

occasions. Response was very slow and the punishment for cases where cheating has clearly happened is relatively trivial.

• I was satisfied to the extent that the rules were followed in disciplining the student. However, I believe that the penalties at UAA are not severe enough.

• Quit blocking safeaccess and turnitin.

• The most maddening thing about it is that it takes so much time to document and deal with plagiarism. I devote more time to one dishonest student than on all the rest of the class.

Some faculty feel better education would help

• Academic integrity should be emphasized by faculty and administrators at this university before students from day one of a student's career. The standards should be stated publicly before parents at Freshman Convocation.

• Mandatory orientation on "honesty" for all students when entering UAA.

• Creating an one-page handout about what constitutes plagiarism and what are the consequences for faculty to discuss with and distribute to students.

• Don't know if there is an orientation to academic integrity for Freshmen or new students, but at least talking about it in the beginning of their education they can not use the excuse "I didn't know".

Faculty role in promoting integrity

• It is the faculty member's responsibility to make students understand the seriousness of cheating and the repercussions.

• A very active role in assisting students to develop values that go beyond the very narrow area of cheating in courses and emphasize integrity, honesty, and professionalism.

• Discuss academic integrity at the beginning of a course and occasionally throughout. Display academic integrity yourself…

• Faculty have a major role. I had a student who plagiarized a paper tell me that no faculty member had ever called her on the behavior before even though she had done it on every previous writing assignment in other courses.

Faculty suggestions for classroom management

• For written work, widespread access to electronic plagiarism detection is absolutely critical in today's technological environment.

• One size does not fit all. Disciplines need to formulate guidelines appropriate to their own fields and make them clear to students at all levels.

• [Faculty] can set the standards for acceptable behavior in the syllabus and in classroom discussions of plagiarism, etc. More importantly, they can also design their assignments and testing procedures to minimize the opportunity for students to cheat.

Miscellaneous faculty comments

• We are scholars first. Faculty members should try to get their students excited intellectually in learning the subject. We are not policeman. We should try to set an example and nurture the creativity of the students.

• My faculty does not have a consistent philosophy about cheating, and how to control it. We need to be consistent, or we will face continual problems with students.

• Provide more orientation and periodic training for professors in how to deal with these issues. Clarify the steps in dealing with issues of academic integrity.

Faculty suggestions for institutional level deterrence

• There are no real penalties imposed by administrators. They just ask the student to write an essay on honesty! Suspension or expulsion is never imposed. …I have been told by a student that reporting her behavior to the Dean was laughable, as she would just have to write another essay on honesty.

• Have a standard Department or University response to cheating. The plan should be stated, yet leave room for faculty to make their own judgments of how to proceed.

• I think we need straightforward policies with clear consequences for the student. I also believe that punishment should be a learning opportunity at the first level - a course on plagiarism, volunteer hours at the library, etc.

Faculty suggestions on how institution can promote integrity

• Adopt a code of honor and involve the entire campus community (students, faculty and staff) in safeguarding academic honesty.

• Develop an honor code & require students to sign it.

• We need to address the culture of academic integrity on campus. Right now, it seems like our policies and actions are mainly about detection and punishment.

• Students need to take personal responsibility to enforce an honor code among themselves.

Part 3

University of Alaska - Anchorage

Self reported cheating - Undergrads

U.S. Large 2002-11 ‘Publics’

UAA

Test Cheating 38% 34% 25% Written Cheating 62% 56% 45% All Serious Cheating 67% 62% 50%

N 77,683 4,153 1,293

*Excluding first year students and two year schools.

Paradox? UAA web vs. paper surveys are reverse of normal

Paper Web

Total test cheating 42% 20%

Total paper cheating 57% 41%

Total cheating 66% 45%

N 304 989

I have no reasonable explanation.

Plagiarism – UAA vs. Others 2002/11* ‘Publics’ UAA

Written ‘cut & paste’ 40% 37% 26% Written plagiarism 16% 6% 7%

Internet ‘cut & paste’ 10% 37% 29%

Internet plagiarism 5% 3% 5% (e.g., paper mills)

* U.S. excluding first year students and two year schools.

Student views on seriousness of cheating (% serious)

UAA US

Copy on test with other’s knowledge 99% 92%

Copy on test w/o other’s knowledge 92% 94%

Net cut & paste plagiarism 67% 61%

Written cut & paste plagiarism 67% 60%

‘Helping’ is an issue• Cheating happens. It will always happen one way or another. Sometimes a

student seriously needs help and unfortunately cheating is the only option.

• Everybody in the major knows each other, so we want to help each other out by sharing the information. The professors know about this cheating but do little to stop it. I think the problem is so out of control, they do not know how to stop it. I believe this is a campus wide problem. UAA talks tough about academic integrity but in reality, they do little to stop it.

• Something that I do not perceive as a problem, however, could be perceived as cheating, is the simple act of getting help from someone who has a better understanding of the subject than you do. I often help English-as-a-second-language students with their papers…

• I see no harm in asking for help from or providing help to other students. As a student I recognize that one of my greatest resources is the people around me

But, UAA doing a good job• UAA seems to be doing a good job supporting academic integrity . .

• UAA already strongly supports academic integrity. Faculty should keep up the good work, and students should maintain honest work.

• Cheating at UAA is much less of a problem from what I have seen compared to my first undergraduate experience in the lower 48.

• Doesn't happen much, from my observations. For the most part, students realize that the risk of cheating on a test, for example, is simply not worth the marginal increase in grade they may receive. UAA is effective in discouraging academic dishonesty.

• I believe that the integrity level in the Kenai River Campus is very high. All instructors emphasize how serious cheating is.

Some feel cheating is prevalent

• Cheating in my major is everywhere... Everybody cheats. It is difficult not to cheat, that’s how bad it is. Everybody has copies of the old exams and they rarely, if ever, change.

• You are worrying about something that cannot be controlled. The pressure to succeed with the high GPA's will always produce cheating. It is inevitable.

• For the most part I think the kids coming right out of high school are more inclined to cheat, simply because they are not held to such exacting standards. They also are not likely to be paying for their own education…

• I am more likely to cheat if I dislike the class or think the requirements are unreasonable…

• I believe that cheating is a major issue in courses that contain 30+ students.

Comments aboutreporting others

• Do not think student should be made to report student negative academic integrity behaviors, puts it in a he said/she said and that doesn’t really work...

• have some way that a student can report another student cheating without giving their identity.

• I am uncomfortable with the idea of encouraging students to report cheating by their peers if it comes to their knowledge. It seems to me that this would create a culture of increased competition and mistrust, and should be avoided.

• I feel that some students are scared or simply just don't care to report it and do what's right because they do not want to be a snitch.

• If I had witnessed cheating I wouldn’t report it because I don't know the person's name and would hate to get the wrong person in trouble.

Reporting requirements• Should reporting be required or

suggested? Or should we avoid a reporting expectation completely?

• If expectation is not enforced, does it weaken code?

• I prefer ‘confrontation’. It’s important that we get students to accept some community responsibility here.

Rationales for Not Cheating

• From my experience we're doing just fine in terms of not cheating or plagiarizing and preventing the same.

• Students should protect their own character & not cheat.

• Students that want an education will not cheat.

• When the professor said that he/she would report us to the dean was only threatening to me personally because I heard that the dean will kick you out of the program if your grades are consistently low. Knowing the ramifications of my actions is also important for me to not cheat.

Student suggested solutions

They should stress to themselves and others that when a person cheats they really cheat themselves.

Training sessions would help a lot.

Undergraduate students should be made more aware of UAA's anti-plagiarism policy.

we should have a cheating awareness day.

When a student gets caught cheating they should be expelled for at least one year and it should go on their transcript; I've seen no penalty for teachers' pets and stiff penalties for students who don't socialize with teachers outside of school. Not fair.

More suggested solutions

• Students should at least be required to take a 1-credit course in formatting and academic integrity early on in their major so they could learn to format correctly and be aware of the University's standards on plagiarism, collaboration and cheating.

• As stated previously, a positive approach is a better way to resolve cheating problems than to deny a student of an education.

• Well, I'm sure a lot of cheating could be cut if teachers allowed students to retake tests until they got the grade they desired. This would not only eliminate cheating, but it would also ensure that students have learned the necessary material.

• Classes should go over this idea more and teachers should look out better for cheaters.

Students vs. faculty Moderate & serious cheating

Students Faculty

Copy on exam/crib notes 93% 98% Plagiarism 92% 99% Paper from mill 91%

99% Collaboration 37% 85%

Written ‘cut & paste’ 61% 86% Internet ‘cut & paste’ 60% 87% N 77,763

15,309

Key faculty suggestionsfor change (my synthesis)

• Make SafeAssign and/or turnitin.com available.

• Streamline process/support faculty.

• More education for students and faculty.

• Better classroom management.

• ??? – An honor code of some sort. - ***

Faculty safeguards:Lost opportunity?

U.S. UAA

Change exams regularly 69% 69%

Monitor students closely on tests 69% 60%

Discuss views on integrity 64% 67%

Info in syllabus about cheating 66% 76%

Internet to confirm plagiarism 26% 27%

Faculty ignore cheatingon occasion

• 40% (46%) acknowledge they have ignored cheating ‘on occasion’.

– Primary reason:

- Lack proof – 35% (34%)

• 55% (48%) have never referred incident of cheating to anyone.

Many faculty don’t want to deal with cheating

• I'm there to teach not police students or instill moral principles.

• Conducting research at [my school] is a far more important role then worrying about academic integrity in the class room, i.e., the time and effort it takes to pursue academic integrity is not worth it. Bottom line is that at… there are no "brownie points" for academic integrity only downsides, e.g., loss of time, energy and possibly reputation.

• Faculty feels they have no support from the Administration.

Some faculty feel others ignore cheating

• We often pretend not to see cheating on tests/exams because we simply don't want to deal with the time commitment that the Due Process legal requirements would entail. We have all been lazy in preventing cheating of all kinds on this campus, and we rarely penalize those we catch.

• [We need to] (a)ctively deter cheating with a zero-tolerance policy and better share instances of cheating to create awareness of the problem. Right now, we implicitly seem to follow a "don't tell" policy.

Faculty suggestions - institutional deterrence

• More education of faculty… Older faculty do not pay attention to policy changes, while younger ones may be overwhelmed during orientation.

• Quit treating this like some sort of legal deal in which the instructor has to prove that the student cheated. By making it harder on the teacher than on the student, the university creates an incentive to ignore cheating. When was a faculty member ever rewarded for reporting a cheater…

• Increase visibility for and streamline access to resources like turnitin.com & reporting to the Dean of Students office.

Faculty ideas for promoting integrity at institutional level

(My bias) • I think the culture of having students

sign an honor code and using a student driven judicial hearing with Dean of Students as an advisor will improve climate.

• Use an honor code pledge like [School X] with continual reminders in all syllabi and exam cover sheets of the student's responsibility to maintain academic integrity.

Common elements in any system?

• Some aspects of a school’s plan are likely to be unique to that school depending on the larger college/university context as well as other factors (e.g., size, religious affiliation if any, campus honor code, mix of majors, etc.).

• But are there elements that might be common to all/most schools that we can discuss?

• Can we tie academic integrity in any way to the development of a code for the business profession? (The absence of such a code is not lost on students.)

• What about country differences? Country rivalry?

Student role (My view)• Students should have, and sense, some

degree of ownership vs. having a system imposed on them.

• Orientation – peer to peer. Most students expect administrators to support the ‘party’ line. Hearing it from their peers can have a stronger impact.

• I believe students should have the majority vote on judicial boards.

• Let students build a ‘new’ tradition on campus – vs. simply building on ‘older’ ones (few exceptions).

Work on school culture• Peer culture seems to be a key.

• While increased student involvement may well be the best first step, faculty probably need to stay involved at least initially and maybe longer. We need some institutional memory.

• Can schools develop systems that build on or rely on ‘local’ values/beliefs? Might this make the code more credible to local students? There is evidence in some student comments that this could help. International implications.

My bottom line on faculty

• Many (at least some) faculty contribute to the problem by their lack of action – either developmental or punitive.

• In spite of this inaction, faculty still want to be in ‘control’.

• I believe we (faculty like me and administrators such as yourselves) need to let students have a bigger role. A worthwhile risk? It beats what we’re doing (not doing) now.

Your view?Your questions?