The Net Generation Cheating Challenge

Abstract

Academic integrity is the cornerstone of the best we have to offer in higher education. Integrity flourishes in an environment that encourages mutual respect, fairness, trust, responsibility, and a love of learning and that is maintained by safeguards like clear expectations, fair and relevant assessments, and vigilant course management (McCabe and Pavela 2004). Compelling evidence of widespread academic dishonesty among Net-Generation students threatens to undermine both the environment of trust that nourishes integrity and the safeguards that ensure it. Net-Generation students ' disregard of societal norms regarding academic honesty coupled with their nearly constant connectivity to each other can severely undermine assessment, whether it is done online or via more traditional methods (Exhibit 1). Our experience with unauthorized online quiz collaboration demonstrates how students can subvert the quality of online grading and how initial infractions can spread to pollute the learning environment, raising the question of whether the grades assigned are valid measures of what the enrolled student has learned. The results of our study reinforce the importance of using the latest technology to design a more secure learning environment and foster an appreciation for academic integrity. The Net Generation and Cheating As noted in a recent Innovate article (Garcia and Qin 2007), whether you call them millennials, electronic

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