Search Page

Following the rapid transition to digital delivery that many institutions have had to navigate, there has been an increase in online services that help students cheat. A simple Google search for the term ‘assignment help’ returned 279 million results in mid-June 2020 and 302 million in early 2021. In Australia to help combat the problem, the Government has passed a law that makes it an offence to provide or advertise academic cheating services in higher education and published an academic integrity toolkit.

Following an increase in breaches of academic integrity during the remote fall term, two teaching assistants (TAs) are asking Queen’s University to take action against academic misconduct. In grading final assignments using Turnitin, they found that four of her five plagiarism cases had copy rates of 50 and 60 per cent. When reporting the cases of plagiarism, the administration claimed the process was ‘’intense’ while the professor of the course suggested marking the assignment with a 20 per cent grade deduction because they “didn’t want to make this misconduct a big deal.”

The assistant dean of students reported 292 cases of academic dishonesty on the Atlanta campus for the academic year 2019/20. For the current year, from July 1 through, 268 more cases through November 5. With the increased use of technology and apps like GroupMe, universities all over the country had to integrate cheating via GroupMe into their academic honesty policies.

A study conducted by Visual Objects revealed that 52% of students anticipate widespread cheating and breaches of academic integrity while experiencing distance learning. Upholding academic standards have been replaced with an unethical pursuit of higher grades at the cost of true education and personal character. At Staples High School, for example, teachers may give the same test to students – with half of the class in person, and the other half participating via Zoom. When assessments are announced, many online students use various tools to cheat on tests. Photomath, a popular mobile app that completes math problems by scanning photos, has experienced heightened usage during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new Federal government-funded Education Integrity Unit will monitor academic misconduct at Australian Universities. Researchers report that between 6 and 10 per cent of students have cheated during their studies. The new academic Unit will address “emerging threats” to academic and research integrity, admission standards and information, student safety, foreign interference, cybersecurity, fraud, and corruption.

14 students from the University of Calgary taking a third-year geology course received academic misconduct notices after sharing tutorial answers in an online chatroom. According to one student, the course was an open book and the professor gave them contradictory and confusing instructions. In addition to getting failing grades, students who accept guilt or are found guilty following an appeal are also required to take academic integrity workshops.