Cheating, plagiarism, and unauthorised help seeking can be some of the unethical academic behaviours that teachers can experience from their students. In fact, such things are prevalent not only in higher education, but across the education spectrum. This phenomenon has triggered a plethora of research into various aspects of academic dishonesty to understand the reasons and preventive measures. But as individual teachers, how can we tackle this issue?
With the abrupt shift to remote learning amid COVID-19 pandemic, questions related to academic integrity appeared to be asked more frequently. Therefore, I am suggesting a few strategies that teachers can consider addressing this serious issue.
Increase awareness
One of the most, perhaps the most important thing to prevent issues related to academic misconduct can be increasing student awareness. Discuss the issue with your students. Provide students with adequate information about university policies related to academic integrity. Include a snapshot of the policy in your subject outline (and provide related resource links), and clearly spell out the expectations. In addition, keep reminding students about the consequences of cheating. You may already be doing these things. However, in my experience, many students fall into this trap, because of lack of awareness and limited knowledge about proper learning skills. Therefore, be proactive, especially with the first-year students. It will make a difference and will likely make your job easier over time.
Be prepared, Play advance
As expounded previously, educating students can perhaps be the best approach for prevention. In the beginning of the semester, share the relevant policies and information with the students. In the first few weeks, then you can give a “course readiness quiz” based on the related policies. Secondly, make sure that you change assessment tasks every semester and no similar assignments are given in back-to-back years. Third, always compare the ‘voice’ on student written assignments with their other work such as online discussion forums. It will give you a good impression about your students’ own work. Fourth, always use similarity checking software, such as Turnitin. Fifth, persistently remind students about the university’s student support facilities. Academic misconduct often occurs when a student feels that they have no other alternative. So, encourage students to get proper support through the university. A wise woman once told me, “prevention is better than cure”.
Take firm actions
Being prepared may not always guarantee prevention of academic misconduct. Therefore, it is vital to take firm actions every time you encounter an issue related academic integrity. Make sure that adequate disciplinary actions are taken against those who violate the academic integrity standards of the university. Complete record keeping procedures and let students know and feel that academic dishonesty is a serious matter that won’t be tolerated by any means. When students learn that the system does not have a place for cheating, they would think twice before engaging any misconduct in relation to academic integrity.
Handling issues related to academic dishonesty may not be an easy task for a teacher. However, with proper mechanisms in the system, we can teach our students to achieve what they desire in the right way, and can minimise the occurrence of issues related academic misconduct.