Every student can recall a memory associated with the word “cheating”. Whether they witnessed cheating, were themselves the perpetrator, or received the warning speech that many students are familiar with, cheating is an unfortunate aspect of education.
As is true of everything in the modern world, cheating continues to take new forms year by year. Recently, the impact of the pandemic and AI have completely changed the concept of academic dishonesty and have presented an unforeseen curveball for schools. Despite this, the objective of education remains the same.
“Academic honesty is the core of education. We are trying to measure what you know. You get what you earn, and that requires hard work,” Math Department Head Aaron Harding said.
But what is academic dishonesty? Often, the line can be blurry, as the definition looks different between schools, programs, and other institutions.
“IB defines academic dishonesty as presenting work that is not yours as if it were, or not giving credit where credit is due. Because IB is global, they have to think not just about American culture, but every culture,” IB coordinator Rhonda Betzold said.
Betzold became the IB coordinator just one week before the COVID-19 pandemic began, so she can clearly see the changes the pandemic has brought about surrounding cheating.
“COVID-19 did a number on a lot of kids because they were able to cheat and therefore did not learn. People say this all the time, that when you cheat you only cheat yourself. When you start to cheat, you don’t learn what you need to learn and then it snowballs. Before you know it, you have to cheat to succeed,” Betzold said.
Although the pandemic may feel like far-removed history for some, its effects will continue to be felt for years. The complete change in the learning process during that time shifted how students viewed academic honesty and failure.
“We learn a lot through not just failure, but we learn a lot through making mistakes. And if you don’t make an honest mistake, you don’t know where your weaknesses are,” Betzold said.
As for more recent developments in the world of education, artificial intelligence (AI) is a headline topic. Because it is so robust and integrated into all technology, it is impossible to pinpoint cheating through AI to one specific source.
“With AI, cheating is very accessible. Also, you add in all the demands on students these days with sports, activities, and work; students have less time to devote to their studies. This puts more pressure on students to use easy ways of getting things done,” Social Studies Department Head Brad Edmundson said.
While Harding shared AI is less prevalent in math classes, it has a greater prevalence in English and history classes. AI can complete time-consuming writing-based assignments in fractions of the time a student would take to complete the assignment.
“From the IB’s perspective, they’re not against AI. That would be like being against Google. The question we have as instructors is, how do I teach you to use AI to help you learn and not to replace learning with pretending something’s not your own,” Betzold said.
Both Betzold and Harding shared that they deal with academic dishonesty on a case-by-case basis, as each situation can be different. Recent policies at MN aim to mitigate the effects of technology as an aid to cheating.
“The use of Securly to monitor computer use and trying to eliminate phones has helped prevent academic dishonesty in classrooms,” Harding said.
Despite the changes that time, technology, and worldwide events have brought to the realm of education, MN teachers have observed that the reason behind cheating has remained largely the same.
“There is a misperception among high-achieving students that any B will derail your future. There is also a fear of failure among high achieving kids, and that fear of failure can drive them to unethical choices,” Beztold said.
The American Psychological Association (APA) states that in their surveys since 2013, teens have reported higher levels of stress than adults. These unmanageable stress levels can make academic dishonesty appear as an easier option.
“We as teachers have to do a good job of teaching our students the what and why for being honest in class and what our expectations are,” Edmundson said.
As academic dishonesty continues to become more prevalent within education, new policies will be implemented to guide students. Teachers will continue to teach students not only important lessons in math and science, but moral lessons too.