Reflection 3

"My thoughts on academic cheating"

The sole purpose of cheating in an academic setting is to secure a higher grade. Cheating may be spur-of-the-moment, a crime of opportunity. Perhaps the student studied hard but was presented with a question that he did not come across when studying--he might feel that he had studied enough and deserved a good grade, so peeking at his neighbor's exam would not be an issue, especially if peeking were easy. If the exam seems arbitrary, why not use arbitrary means to pass it? Cheating may be pre-meditated, planned far in advance, a substitute for studying as a means of securing a good grade. Perhaps the student didn't care about the material or the class, and it just seemed easier to cheat. A student's decision to cheat is dependent on the student's relation to the subject matter. Furthermore, a decision to cheat may be influenced by opportunity.

Some forms of examinations are more resistant to cheating. In a technical class, the work done to arrive at a solution to a problem must often be shown; the method used to solve the problem may even be worth more than the final answer. In exams based on essay questions, it is easy to see if two students' work is very similar. Both of these types of exams present barriers to cheating. Multiple-choice exams, on the other hand, offer students an easy way to copy work with little chance of detection. The type of exam can contribute to a student's decision to cheat. Multiple-choice exams are often the norm, especially for large classes, perhaps due to the ease of grading. This further exacerbates the problems with large classes that were discussed in class.

In a perfect world, the grade given would be a perfect reflection of the student's ability. In the real world, a disconnect can exist between the grade and the mastery of the material. Part of the problem that can exist between the students' ability and the grade are the criteria used to assign the grade. Professors are fallible, and exams can be poorly written. In one extreme case, a professor's exams were barely comprehensible, and the choices given for the multiple choice questions were often contradictory or included more than one correct answer. What should a student do when presented with a poor method of evaluating his ability in the subject? A student's perception of the relevance and fairness of an exam can influence the decision to cheat.

As discussed in class, students' personal relationships with the professor are a further factor in their decisions to cheat. Closely related to this is the subject of class size; smaller classes are correlated with stronger student-professor relationships, and students are less likely to cheat when they know and respect the professor. Large classes also tend to be introductory classes, which may not be interesting to students. This lack of interest can add to the decision to cheat. Large classes are also more likely to use standard multiple-choice exams as a means of evaluation as previously mentioned, which could worsen cheating. Both students and professors are more invested (and more likely to put forth good effort) when classes are smaller.

The sole purpose of cheating is to secure a higher grade. At the risk of becoming too existentialist, the only reason to have exams is to give students grades. In my mind, the primary purpose of classes and education should be to increase students' knowledge and improve their abilities. Grading students is an imperfect attempt to measure the success of the class, the professor and the students. What purpose do grades serve? Are they an absolute, or rather a relative, ranking of the students' ability? Are they a good indicator of students' acquisition of knowledge and skills? How good is the correlation between grades and ability? Do exams measure significantly more than the students' proficiency at exam-taking? Are the exams valid?

Cheating undermines the validity of grading. Smaller class sizes may help to decrease students' desire to cheat by increasing courses' quality and students' investment in those courses. In a system where measuring the effectiveness of courses and the abilities of students was not important, there would be no need for grades or cheating. Because we are interested in the performance of students, we must assess and grade them as validly as we can. Because we grade them, they try to secure the best grades they can, regardless of their personal commitment towards learning the material at hand.