Online Plagiarism and Cybercheating Still Strong – 61.9%
In a study of 1222 undergraduates, Selwyn examined differences in cybercheating levels between a variety of majors and student types. Overall results? 61.9% of students cybercheat.
Before getting into this, it’s important to distinguish cybercheating/online plagiarism and cheating in online courses. These are not the same. Cybercheating can be defined as cheating enabled by the internet – so cybercheating can occur in any course. For example, one variety of cybercheating is the use of “paper mills.” These websites employ people to write papers for undergraduates for a fee. A student might pay $2 per page for a term paper, for example. But such papers can be used in either in-person or online courses. This is not in any way unique to online courses.
According to Selwyn, estimates thus far vary a great deal as to what percentage and types of students engage in cybercheating, but they are all a little depressing:
- In a US study, 50% of students admitted to cybercheating at some point while they were in college.
- In another 30-40% of students admitted to copying text from the internet into their own work without citing the source. 10-20% did so for large sections of their assignments (i.e. more than a sentence here and there).
- About 25% of graduate students engage in these same behaviors.
- Typical profile of the most likely cybercheater: young male underclassmen experienced with the Internet
There is some disagreement as to why students engage in these behaviors. Some blame higher expectations for high grades, while others blame a changing youth culture where the copying of intellectual property is simply not seen as an important concern.
So how bad was it in Selwyn’s sample? 61.9% (757 students) admitted to engaging in online plagiarism. 59% copied a few sentences, 30% copied a few paragraphs, 12% copies a few pages, 4% copied entire documents, and 3% purchased essays. 22.3% admitted to engaging in such behaviors regularly.
Cybercheating rates were higher for males and for poor students. Contrary to prior research, rates were higher for more experienced students. Perhaps most interesting to me was the rate breakdown by field of study. Here they are in rank order of prevalence of at least a few sentences copied:
- Engineering and technology (72%)
- Computer sciences and mathematical sciences (71%)
- Social studies (64%)
- Business and administrative studies (63%)
- Law (62%)
- Creative arts and design (61%)
- Architecture, Building and Planning (60%)
- Medicine (58%)
- Natural sciences (57%)
- Humanities (46%)
Students with greater perceived Internet competency were also more likely to cybercheat, though not by a wide margin (about 8 percentage points across 4 categories of expertise).
The study also examined “traditional” plagiarism and found similarly high levels – again, 61.9% of the sample reported some type of plagiarism, though this time from books and articles. I am not wholly convinced that the researchers adequately differentiated “online articles” and “offline articles” (students may consider these to be the same thing), but there is not enough detail reported on their method to be sure either way.
I find this quote from a student particularly interesting (from p.473):
Things are a lot easier to get away with on the internet if you wanted to (giving false information for example.) But copying work without sourcing it is easier from books in my opinion, as universities have methods of screening essays for plagiarised work through the internet. (Female, 19 years, social studies, year 1)
It seems like this student has taken the time to reason through how she might cheat in the course and the relative risks of being caught. This is not a desperate student driven to cheat with a paper due at the last minute; this is premeditated.
We also get a window into why faculty are so bitter about online education in general. Consider these students (from p. 475):
… it’s easier to claim ignorance on a computer if you get caught doing something bad. (Male, 20, humanities, year 2)
As more and more people are using the Internet illegally (i.e. limewire etc.), I feel that the chances of being caught or the consequences of my actions are almost insignificant. So I feel no pressure in doing what ever everybody else is doing/using the Internet for. (Male, 19 years, engineering, year 1)
Again, purposeful deception, and not much regret over it.
All in all, these results are not all that surprising given previous research in this domain, but it does not seem as if things are getting any better. People wonder why I worry about cheating on hiring tests; well, where do you think these students go after they graduate?Footnotes:
- Selwyn, N. (2008). Not necessarily a bad thing…: A study of online plagiarism amongst undergraduate students. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33 (5), 465-479 DOI: 10.1080/02602930701563104 [↩]
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