Want to see a magic trick? OK, follow along. I can predict with extreme accuracy whether or not you cheated in college. Regardless of once, twice, or for all 4 years. It doesn’t matter if it was one assignment with a smidgen of plagiarism, a little eye-wandering on the big test, or full-blown stealing the test from your teacher’s office. I will predict this with outstanding accuracy. How? You need to answer one question: did you complete an undergraduate degree?
If you answered “Yes”, well friend, I would bet that you are a cheater. Ta-da! Impressed?
Don’t worry, I’m not going to report you to the dean or tell your mom. Want to know how I did that trick? Sorry, a magician never reveals his secret.
But I’m only an amateur magician (sleight-of-hand, card tricks, sawing women in half, etc…) so I’ll share my secret. It’s simple statistics. 82% of college alumni admit to some kind academic dishonesty. That’s nuts, right? That’s self-reported, so it could be a little higher. Meanwhile, 66% of current students admit to violating academic integrity.
Tabling the epidemic of cheating across the USA for now, at Ithaca College cheating has gone down! The education world is shocked and surprised. Here, just look at this quote from the article (emphasis added):
“Michael Leary, the assistant director of the Office of Judicial Affairs, said he does not know exactly why the number of students caught cheating has gone down in recent years. He said the low number of freshmen, who make up the majority of judicial offenses according to Leary, enrolled last year, could be a factor.”
Is there a direct correlation to number of students and number of academic integrity violations and cheating? Maybe. I’d like to think there is a behavioral shift in students views of cheating. Or that tools like our proctoring software have impacted students.
What’s the trend like at your school? Is cheating up or down? How has enrollment effected academic integrity issues? Let us know and we’ll write a blog about it!
Shoot me an email at Jeff@proctorfree.com and we’ll get that post up shortly.
