Promoting Accurate and Honest Assessment
in an
Online Learning Environment
Course management systems and other technologies assist instructors in providing a secure environment for assessment (Spaulding 2009). There may be other approaches to altering the perceptions of cheating and in avoiding cheating in the online environment.
Read the article Perceptions of Academic Honesty in Online vs. Face-to-Face Classrooms http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/8.3.1.pdf
Consider:
Where is academic dishonesty most likely to occur and by whom?
What role do perceptions have in influencing cheating?
How can instructors change the students’ perception regarding academic dishonesty?
What technologies can be used to deter academic dishonesty?
Will cheating be as likely to occur if a course is well designed?
What other methods hold promise for reducing the likelihood that cheating will occur?
By Wednesday, respond to the prompts above, summarizing how instructors, designers, and learners feel academic dishonesty should be addressed.
By Friday, respond to at least two of your cohorts’ postings by identifying common thoughts and making suggestions for how you might address the concerns and proposed methods they have identified in their posting.
By Sunday, return to the postings and respond further to your cohorts.
Use the Discussion Board Rubric to guide your response. You can access the rubric by clicking here.
Additional resources:
Kennedy, K., Nowak, S., Raghuraman, R., Thomas, J., & Davis, S. F. (2000). ACADEMIC DISHONESTY AND DISTANCE LEARNING: STUDENT AND FACULTY VIEWS. College Student Journal, 34(2), 309.
Milliron, V., & Sandoe, K. (2008). The net generation cheating challenge. Innovate, 4(6), 1–7. Retrieved from http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol4_issue6/The__Net_Generation_Cheating_Challenge.pdf
Rowe, N. (2004). Cheating in online student assessment: Beyond plagiarism. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 7(2). Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer72/rowe72.html
Spaulding, M. (2009). Perceptions of Academic Honesty in Online vs. Face-to-Face. In Journal of Interactive Online Learning. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/8.3.1.pdf
According to the article by Spaulding (2009), that undergraduate males in fraternities with low self-esteem are more likely to engage in cheating. It is also interesting that cheating is not more prevalent in online courses as originally thought. Some researchers found academic dishonesty to be happening in online courses to be the same as face-to-face courses (Spaulding, 2009).
ReplyDeletePerceptions are important because they play a role in how students think and feel. It is interesting that the instructors think that students would participate in academic dishonesty when only 42% of students said they would (Spaulding, 2009). One thing that instructor’s can do to change students’ perceptions is to alter their own perceptions about the students. If the student feels the instructor thinks they will cheat they are more likely to do it. Instructors also need to make it clear to the students’ that the institution does have a policy in place and how that policy will be adhered to.
Knowing your students can help in the detection of cheating. If you are able to recognize their writing styles and how they relate to others in the class, you can tell when the writing style is different. I do believe that if a student is found to be in violation it is the job of the instructor to educate them properly before taking any drastic measures.
Academic dishonesty can be prevented by the use of assessment methods that depends on use of knowledge and performance instead of regurgitation of information. When students have to apply what they have learned, the advantage of cheating is done away with. Students want acknowledgement for their own work, and are more inclined to have no reason for using the work of others as their own (Palloff & Pratt, n.d.). It is also a good idea to create assessments that can be done collaboratively and allows for the use of reference material. In the work environment it is never expected that someone work alone on a project or problem. They are expected to know how to work together and to research and use reference materials.
References
Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (n.d.). Plagiarism and Cheating [video]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live/ecollege.com
Spaulding, M. (2009). Perceptions of academic honesty in online vs face-to-face classrooms. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 8(3), 183-198. Retrieved from http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/8.3.1.pdf
Perception is quit an important role when it comes to learning online. Instructors need to think their students would be an excellent work and be honesty. With learning online dishonesty do comes into play. Instructor need to understand a student’s perceptions when it comes to cheating. I do believe an instructor job is to educate their student to lessen violation. One good way is the use of assessments and designing one that works for everyone. I think the perception is, “derived from a process through which the brain organizes and interprets what happens in one’s environment” (Spaulding, 2009, p. 184).
ReplyDeleteKatie
References:
Spaulding, M. (2009). Perceptions of academic honesty in online vs face-to-face classrooms. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 8(3), 183-198. Retrieved from http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/8.3.1.pdf
Katie,
DeleteYou mentioned that you think the instructor's job is to educate the students about cheating. How do you think this should be done?
Annie
Katie,
ReplyDeleteThank you fo rthe comment. I found in teaching high school students that they do not perceive some of their behaviors as cheating. Some of the misconceptions are generated by inconsistencies in the staff expectations. Some teachers allow open note, open book exams while others consider this cheating. Some instructors allow using the Internet as a resource when completing homework, and others do not.
It is important that the staff have an understanding of the potential for students to find confusion in the judgement of their behavior, and that all instructors make the effort to clarify the expectation for the activity they are assigning.
Carol
Annie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the thoughtful comments. One area of concern that I have had in my experience with teaching is in helping learners establish a clear understanding of the differences between collaborating and copying.
I agree that it is very important that instructors teach the differences and practice the process of collaboration before utilizing this with young learners. What a terrific skill to teach, since it will be expected as a skill in the workplace!
Carol