Why do we even bother?

I was talking with a few of my collegues the other day about cheating and why we should not be complacent in this activity. One of them, a long time teacher, threw his hands up in the air and said "why do we even bother?" I've heard these comments before, and the stereotypical answer isn't the best -- that, of course, being "cheating is bad."

After a few seconds of thinking, I responded. "If we don't hold them in check, if we don't try and keep them as honest as possible, what service are we doing for our students? What's going to happen when they get on the job and asked to do what we've supposedly trained them to do? Not only does it make the student look bad, but it reflects poorly upon us and our school. I work too hard to have a cheater succeed and ruin any of those reputations.

"I also feel that we need to be diligent in our roles as learners; we have to show our students that learning is a life-long pursuit. If they don't learn how to learn now, when they get out in the real world, how are they going to know how to learn then? Too many of these kids think that once they're done with us, they'll never have to study again. Do we really want them to go out and think that they can cheat through that as well?

"Sure, it's easy to cheat. Sure, it's easy for them to find papers on the Internet. Sure, it's easy for them to make excuses for not taking the tests when they're scheduled or handing in work that's not their own. It's easy for us to look the other way, too. And like most things in life, just because it's easy, doesn't make it right.

"I hate having to bust students. It makes me physically ill. I'd much rather talk to a student about what he or she is doing right. I'd even rather force myself to read a poorly written paper than read a paper that is exceptionally written by someone that isn't my student."

*****

I'm giving a presentation next week on Academic Dishonesty, and yesterday, I did a Google search on the term "How to Cheat". Boy, talk about some interesting finds out there. One page, titled How to Cheat in School lists all sorts of reasons as to why students should cheat their way through school as well as numerous methods on how to cheat. Very creative methods on the page, lemme tell ya. And if you really want some interesting methods, check out the reader submitted pages. One young lady states how she uses the protection of sexual harassment laws to protect her in her unethical behavior. Yeah, I'll want to hire her when she gets out of school.

*****

So, why do we bother? I don't know about others, but I do it because our students, especially the ones that don't cheat, deserve it from us. In research conducted by McCabe, Trevino, and Butterfield (2001) and Whitley and Keith-Seigel (2002), one of the findings they found was that honest students often become discouraged because their teachers don't do anything about students that cheat. This actually causes more students to become cheaters. Not only that, but, word gets around within the subpopulace of cheaters about which teachers are easy on cheaters.

Right now, in the academic world, there are numerous examples of researchers that have published articles based upon faulty data. I'll be posting about them in a future entry after I've gathered a bit more information.

Why do we bother? Because, in the end, our students deserve nothing less.

References
McCabe, D. L., Trevino, L. K., & Butterfield, K. D. (2001). Cheating in academic institutions: A decade of research. Ethics & Behavior, 11 3), 233-247.

RajuAbju.com (2005). How to Cheat in School (and not get caught). http://www.rajuabju.com/literature/how_to_cheat.htm . Date accessed, Feb. 18, 2006.

Whitley, B. E, Jr., & Keith-Spiegel, P., (2002). Academic Dishonesty: An Educator’s Guide. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

"I know this paper sucks, but..."

In my intro to psych class, I assign a portfolio. It's basically a series of research term papers where the students pick a topic from the chapters we're covering at the time, and then, depending on which assignment it is, there are different goals to be met. For the first paper, it's just to show me how well the student writes, the second is to start using data beyond just using the Web as a resource and to get a bit more familiar with APA format. The third is to look at more than a few sources, with nothing from a commercial web site (or Wikipedia), and the final portfolio is to rewrite all entries to make them the best they can. After the first two rounds, I have the students meet with me to review what they've written and my comments -- it helps them understand what is going on. It's a process that has worked since I first implimented it over a year ago, and I continue to tweak it as I go along.

Now, I have don't use a true APA format. For the most part, I follow the guidelines; for example, the citation/reference procedure is the same with the exception of electronic sources. Below, I'll explain why I do this a little bit further down here....

I started requiring my students to turn in an electronic version of their papers this past semester. For my own mental health as a teacher, I purchased a software program that will check documents for plagiarism. It's not the best of programs as it only searches material on the Web; it doesn't check academic journals online that require subscriptions. Still, doing a check of just Web sources is fairly productive. It helps me identify what I tend to think of as the cheap and lazy cheaters.

I passed back the first portfolio last week. Out of 20 papers read, five had elevated scores (25% or higher). Not a bad ratio. I have had MUCH higher in the past.

So, this morning, I had a few students scheduled to discuss their portfolios. The first one was a young lady who had a paper that scored 66% on the plagiarism checker. Typically, when I meet with a student about this type of stuff, they know that the paper they've written is not what it should be, and that they should listen to the advice I want to offer. Why would I meet with the, after all, if I didn't want to make their writing better?

The student walked into my office, not even knocking or anything, just walked in and fell heavily and dramatically into the chair we have in our office for student meetings. "I know that this paper sucks," she started, "but, I just didn't have the time to do it right the first time, and my cousin told me that you're easy the first time..."

I know the cousin of whom she spoke -- a cousin that did the same thing this young lady had done. She also turned in papers that were cut and paste jobs straight from web sites. Her cousin is also the first student that I had proof that she purchased a paper off the Internet from a papermill. (It was funny, too...I overheard her telling a friend that it was the best $120 she had ever spent; I'd already found the paper online, asked for a quote, and was cautioned that a student at my institution had already purchased that paper for a psych class that semester and that I should be careful. This is why I've modified the APA format for my classes; it'll at least cost them more to cheat.

I shot her a look that stopped her in midsentence. "First off, the fact that you ran out of time has me concerned, especially since you've known about this assignment since the first day of the semester.

"Second, 2/3rds of this paper is plagiarized." I handed her the print-out from my program, showing all the places information came from and indicating in the paper what had been borrowed. "This indicates to me that you don't believe this assignment has any value.

"Finally, in case no one has ever told you, I want you to understand right here and now that this IS CHEATING; clear and simple."

I let that sink in, then continued.

"So, here's what you're going to do. You're going to take this paper, you're going to rewrite it properly, and you'll turn it in again. You will also turn in a new electronic copy. If, when I score the new one, the score is above 25%, you will fail the entire portfolio project; not just this part of it.

"Let me ask you this; are you a good enough student that you can basically give up ONE COMPLETE TEST and still pass the course? Because that's what you lose by failing this."

I turned, looked at the calender, and then gave her a rewrite deadline. Wrote it on the coverpage, and then said, "I want you to think about this, and if you have questions, come see me Friday. We'll talk then." (I am only on my campus MWF's this semester). With that, I looked at her and said, "I won't be the one failing you if this happens again. You'll be failing yourself."

With that, she nodded, and tears started to squeak out of the corner of her eyes and left my office without saying a word.

Helluva way to start a Wednesday.

Goals of this blog

I've been thinking what the goals of this blog should be, and I've decided that they are:

1. Identify the ways students are currently using to cheat. They come up with new ways all the time, and I'd like to keep a running log of what is being seen.

2. Investigate why students feel like they need to cheat. We know about many of those reasons, but, again, they come up with new ones all the time.

3. Understand the feelings involved with dealing with cheaters from the standpoint of faculty and administration.

4. Developing ways to work with students that cheat; some of us have to spend way too much of our time working with those students at the loss of spending time working with other students that need our help as well. I also hope to make these methods as positive as possible for for everyone involved.

5. To share war stories with other teaching professionals.

If it weren't so late tonight, I'd even include a story. Perhaps tomorrow.

I didn't think you'd catch me...

I remember the first student I confronted about a case of plagiarism. He sat in my office, leaned back in the chair, looking at me with a smirk. I was sick to my stomach, hands were sweaty, and I couldn't catch my breath or slow my heart. Finally, I told him, "I know this isn't your work."

"Prove it."

I took a deep breath, reached down and opened one of the drawers in my desk, rustled through a few folders, then pulled out the paper I'd written four years before when I was in the same class. I dropped it down on the desk next to his copy and said, "you'll find that they're word-for-word the same, including the mispellings and the same citation problems. I know, because I wrote it."

He took in a deep breath, then, sort of deflated.

"Oh."

As he sat there, I tried to figure out how he got a copy of my paper. Suddenly, it came to me. There was a guy in my class who was "having problems" writing his paper, so he wondered if he could see a copy of my paper to use as a model. He took it, and brought it back the next class. "Ryan," the guy having problems with papers, was in a frat on campus, and a number of our Greek system houses had extensive files on assignments and tests. And, they have fairly good records of how profs graded -- did they grade the papers they assigned or was it done by a GTA, how often did they assign a particular paper, etc.

My student, "Kyle," was in the same house as Ryan, though a few years removed. The place where their files fell through was they didn't keep a list of who actually wrote the paper. Kyle had gone to the files, found the "A" paper, checked to make sure it was a GTA who graded (because what are the chances the same GTA would be working that course for that professor?), made a new cover sheet and then retyped it (an most likely at that time, making it an electronic copy), then turned it in to me.

I've had students turn in papers that were unpublished but in the review process; papers bought off the Internet; papers written by mothers, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends -- though I have yet to get one from a father; and I've had papers that were nothing more than pure cut-and-paste jobs from material straight from the Internet.

I looked at Kyle, told him that we needed to go see the professor, and he nodded. "Yeah, I know."

When I talk with students that plagiarize, I always ask why they did it. I get some interesting answers:

1. I didn't have time.
2. I didn't know how to do this.
3. I don't write good. (To which I always want to say "you don't write well, either.")
4. I can't do this. And...
5. I didn't think you'd catch me.

That was what Kyle told me. Actually, he said "I didn't think I'd get caught," which is just a variation, right? I'd already spoken with the professor about this, and he was ready for us.

The three of us sat down, and discussed the situation. I had advocated for failing the kid, but, the professor had a much better solution. To give him a second chance. If he wanted to, that is. If he wanted to take that route, he would need to bring his research material to the department's computer lab and write his paper there while I watched. It made a lot of work for me, but, what the hell, I was jsut the GTA, right? he also had to coordinate the times with me, he would save his paper to a disk which I'd keep in my office, and he had a week to finish.

He chose that route, but, he immediately started having problems with making it to the department at the times he set up with me. In the end, he just quit coming to class and failed the course.

I learned a few valuable lessons from all that;

1. Change the assignments from time to time;
2. Change how they're evaluated and who evaluates them;
3. Be aware that there is, on many college campuses, a blackmarket of papers and tests and that these are typically held by a college-sanctioned student organization;
4. Be proactive in the confrontation -- or, remember, you're not the one that did something wrong; and
5. Give 'em enough rope, and they'll either pull out or hang themselves.

I still find it interesting how many students think they can get away with it because "yeah, my teacher, he don't know anything."

Heh.

Let 'em think that. Once they get busted, they'll learn different. Or so we hope.

Your cheatin' heart...

Hank Williams had a great song there, didn't he? This blog isn't about that type of cheating. Instead, I'm interested in why students cheat, how teachers deal with it, and what the long-term effects of academic dishonesty (AD) are.

This blog is dedicated to exposing new methods of cheating, understanding why students feel the need to cheat, and methods teachers can use to confront and work with students they find have been practing these dreadful behaviors. I'll also talk about classic and current research into AD, as currently, I'm doing a great deal of archival research into this topic.

And, if you as a teacher or student would like to comment, feel free to do so.