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Cheating
- Who's to blame?
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McCabe, Donald L. 1999. Academic dishonesty among high
school students. Adolescence
34(136):681-687.
Abstract: Research on academic dishonesty has generally relied on survey
techniques, which
may fail to capture students' true feelings about
cheating. The present investigation used
focus group discussions to
gain a fuller understanding of students' beliefs about academic
dishonesty. The results suggest that, in regard to their cheating,
students generally place the
blame on others.
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Cheating Analysis Program
Our tests are all
multiple choice. The Scantron marking program has an option called Answer Choice Match Analysis. This program
compares answers for all students and calculates the Z score probability of similarity due to pure chance.
When this probability is below a certain critical value, the program flags those two students as possible
cheaters. We, ourselves, then investigate the situation further.
If you study closely with one or a few other people, chances are
that your knowledge bases are similar.
Chances are that you may give similar answers on your tests and your marks
may be similar. To avoid possible
problems, it is advised that study partners sit away from each other in test rooms. |Top |
Plagiarism
A general definition of plagiarism can be found in your Lab
Notes, on the back of the front cover. These scholastic offences and penalties are also listed
in the Academic Calendar.
In Bio 1222/23, plagiarism means copying another's words and submitting them as your own. This includes
copying lab reports from previous years or copying your partner's report
(i.e. words - not data). Gather data
together and discuss it together but do not write the reports together. Reports too similar in form and
style become suspect. Clues such as identical spelling mistakes or unusual adjectives become dead
giveaways.
Other subjects may have slightly different applications or more relaxed tolerance of this problem of
copying. It is your responsibility to find out. Penalties become very serious in upper level courses. There
is a growing global concern that universities share over cheating. So much so
is it at Western that
it has arranged a site license for all UWO courses to submit essays to a plagiarism checking program.
As one example, please
feel free to visit this web site on Plagiarism.
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