As I've been dealing with pervasive academic dishonesty (cheating) this past spring semester 2021, I'm now reflecting on what more I can do to prevent cheating. I've written on this in the past, in regard to designing cheat-resistant assessments (and subsequently here), and I will write yet another new post on the same topic in the near future. However, I think some prophylactic measures are also in order. Armed with the knowledge of how academic dishonesty accusations are handled at my university, and having now read the related policies, I'm planning for how to convince students to stick to the straight and narrow.
Although details will different from school to school, definitions of academic dishonesty, and the potential punishments, are often the same. My new strategy is simple: provide direct instruction about academic dishonesty policies and practices at the start of the academic term. Have you, as an instructor, ever done that before? I always assumed that, by the time students were upper-division undergraduates, they would have learned what not to do…but it turns out, I was wrong!
Definitions
My university's Academic Policy Manual defines academic dishonesty in a number of ways, including, "Seeking Unfair Advantage to Oneself" and "Giving Unfair Advantage to Others," and that policy's appendices contain great examples of various forms of cheating. In particular, I was intrigued that academic dishonesty, which includes plagiarism as a broad category of cheating, also involves practices that students are not usually aware will get them into serious trouble, like "Including references in the Bibliography that were not examined by the student."
Punishments
As I read our policy on academic dishonesty, I was expecting to find punishments like earning zero points on the assessment, or failing the course. Indeed, our policy allows the instructor, on their own, to lowering a grade, assigning a zero or F grade for the assignment, or assigning an F for the entire course. However, one other possible punishment really caught my eye as an opportunity to share with students how their carelessness with honesty could ruin their academic lives.
Not only can an instructor also recommend (through our formal process of reporting academic dishonesty to the Dean of Students) that a student be suspended or expelled for cheating, but they can suggest that the student not be allowed to repeat the course for credit. Depending on the course, that could be a really impactful punishment.
For example, the course I'm dealing with now is typically a junior-level biology class that is both required for the major and also a prerequisite for other required classes in the major. So, I certainly plan to make this clearly known to my students in the future: if they're caught committing academic dishonesty, then, after having spent two or three years in the major, they might not be able to continue because they can't earn the degree without passing this class.
Normally, our students take solace in our university policy that a small number of units can be repeated for grade substitution (students who earn a D or worse can repeat a class, and if they earn a better letter grade then it will replace the original grade on their transcript). However, following the discovery of cheating, and then assignment of an F grade for the class, that grade substitution process can also be removed. In my course, a student would have wasted years of time and money and be left with no option for completing the biology major requirements. They might still be able to earn a bachelor's degree, but they would have to change majors, which would incur more time and expense.
I'm hoping that posing such scenarios to students at the start of the term will help deter potential cheaters from following through.
Summary
Please don't assume that your students know all of the various forms of academic dishonesty and all of the potential consequences. In the past, on the first day of instruction, I merely pointed out to students all of the required university policies contained in the syllabus that they are required to read. However, I will be integrating active discussion of academic dishonesty into my classes to make expectations (and especially the potential consequences) more clear!
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