Words: 1162
Academic dishonesty on the other hand is taking someone else’s work and claiming it as your own. So given the shift in trends in this dilemma, why is this shift happening and what is being done to stop it? The first reason that I believe that students are turning to academic dishonesty more now than ever before is one simple word, the Internet. With billions of useful pieces of information readily available on the Internet, students can cheat by simply finding their topic, copying and pasting it to a word document, and turning it in as their own work.
It is so easy. Students feel that because there is so much information readily available on the Internet that no one could possibly know that they cheated or be able to prove it for that matter. However, there are glitches to their plans. Yes, they are right that there is a lot of information on the Internet and it would be almost impossible to prove that they did, but there are new cites that are being created such as www. Turning. Com that will compare the paper that is turned in to all the websites on the web looking for exact matches.
It is getting easier and easier for teachers to catch students cheating and not just by gut instinct but with actual proof. Another reason that students have turned to cheating is the pressure that is being put on them by parents, professors, and even themselves. Students can become so overwhelmed with stress and pressure from outside sources that instead of trusting in their own minds and the knowledge that they already have, they turn to what other people have already done and said.
First, this gives students more time to spend on other subjects or extracurricular cause a paper that would normally take them three hours to write now takes them thirty minutes. However, there are downfalls to this as well. Even though cheating may seem like a good idea and maintains their good grades for their parents, teachers, and themselves, what are they actually learning from that assignment? An assignment that was given to make them smarter and more competent in a given are has been completely wasted.
So in essence the education that they are so worried about obtaining and maintaining is the education that they are the rowing away. A third reason leading to the increase in academic dishonesty is the pure and simple fact that once a student cheats on a paper or any type of homework assignment and does not get caught and reprimanded for their actions, the more that student believes that they can keep doing it without getting caught. The more and more that a student cheats and gets away with it the more the student feels that they are invisible and can continue doing it.
This is a sad occasion when this happens because the student is only hurting themselves. They are not hurting their parents or their teachers because they re not the ones that are going to be getting a job from this education it is the student that is hurting the students. Not every student gets caught cheating but with the sites like Turning. Com the students caught cheating is going to rise tremendously. In an article interviewing a University teacher from Wayne State in Detroit, Richard Grousing, Chairman of the English Department says, “what students don’t realize is that it’s just as easy for us to get popularized material.
All we have to do is conduct a Google search on any sentence from a student’s paper and then we will get list of choices of where that sentence or work came from” (Jackson 1). It is getting easier and easier to catch students in the act of plagiarism. They cannot go forever on this destructive behavior before retribution needs to be made. Because of the fact that plagiarism and academic dishonesty are on the rise, what are colleges and universities doing to help prevent their students from falling into this trend?
Many colleges and universities are setting up an honor code/policy in their schools so that students know the schools policy and the consequences that will follow if caught and found guilty of academic snootiest. Many of the consequences result in a failed course, academic probation, and possibly expulsion. “The University of Virginia possesses one of the most prestigious Honor Codes in higher education today. Instilling moral values throughout the whole community as well as the university, the Honor Code has been in place since 1842.
Known for its strict policy, the university immediately removes a student from the institution if he is convicted of any means of dishonesty” (Rubricate ). Many colleges and universities view their Honor Codes as an advantages tepee toward the stop of academic dishonesty. They are trying to reverse the ever so popular trend of cheating by showing students that there are consequences that will be put into action against them. Officials from colleges and universities feel that by having a strong and working Honor Code, this makes the students aware of their choices and furthermore, their consequences.
For those students who believe that just because they have cheated in the past and gotten away with it that this is not going to be the case now that they are involved in higher education. Schools are very strict bout students getting the most out of their education, and cheating just does not cut it. However serious academic dishonesty may be, some colleges find that when students are charged with academic dishonesty they must complete the charges against them. Yet, every student deserves a second chance.
The University of Maryland wants to ensure that any student faced in this situation not only faces the charges to show that the school means business and will not allow that kind of behavior; however, they also give their students a second chance to ensure that a lesson has been learned. Marshland’s Code isn’t geared to punish alone, however. First time offenders who receive the SF grade are usually given the opportunity to remove it if they complete an academic integrity seminar’ (Canter 1).
Even though students who plagiarism regularly and think that they can get away with it continue to do so in their classes are headed for a big surprise. Universities and Teachers are well aware of this issue of academic dishonesty and are working to bring the statistics down and eventually to zero. Their job is to educate students and the student should be there to be educated, but he role of the Internet has made plagiarism and academic dishonesty too prevalent in schools, so now it is time for educators to crack down on those students who chose to waste their education.