Tips on Reducing Cheating

Let's face it, there are some students who will cheat.  Heck, I had to change the way I faciliated a community service assignment in my freshman class a few years because the students were cheating on it, which many did not see to be a problem.

Here are some tips from a new book entitled "Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do" by Stephen F. Davis, Patrick F. Drinan, and Tricia Bertram Gallant (published by Wiley-Blackwell).  The authors offer a few strategies instructor can implement to discourage cheating that are covered in depth in their new book:

1. Clearly articulate your expectations for the class and EACH INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT. Can students work with others on their homework assignments, for example? Can they use old exams, lab reports, etc. as aids in the course?


2. Explicitly link assignments to learning objectives. Students often cheat on assignments that they see as meaningless or “busy-work.” If they understand the point of the assignment, especially how it will help them learn the material, they are more likely to push through it on their own rather than copy from someone else.


3. Reduce temptations to cheating. We cannot control student behavior, but we can at least show them that we care about the integrity of our classes by doing little things. For example, space students out during exams, provide multiple versions of the same test, require students to leave all non-essential materials at the front of the room, and have the WiFi turned off in the test room.


4. Talk to students about the relation of academic integrity to professional ethics and their future chosen career. Students are more likely to uphold integrity in academic assignments if they see it as holding more value than just being “another institutional rule.”


5. Report all cheating when you see it, rather than ignore it or handle it on your own. A professor can become known as someone who does not tolerate cheating or look the other way, and then the cheaters will not choose her class! Also, many professors mistakenly assume that they can reduce cheating on their own, but it takes the entire campus. If instructors do not report cheating, that same student may be cheating in other courses and no one would ever know!