Investigating Differences in Cheating Behaviours of IT Undergraduate and Graduate Students: The maturity and motivation factors

Abstract

Within the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering of MonashUniversity concerns have been raised about the prevalence of cheating amongst the IT students. Many isolated reports from staff of different cheating incidents collectively present a view of a problem that is widespread and multifaceted. Although indications are that these practices exist across all year levels in both undergraduate and graduate programmes, the actual extent of the problem, and whether any particular groups of students are more inclined to cheating behaviours, is difficult to gauge. Many studies have investigated undergraduate cheating; however, there have been very few studies of graduate students. Furthermore, there is a scarcity of studies of the cheating behaviour of information technology students. In some reporting of student cheating there is a tendency to take a general view of the problem, and preventative or educative measures to address this problem do not differentiate between undergraduate and graduate students. It is of concern that strategies that do not focus on attitudes or behaviours that are exhibited by a particular group are not as effective as they could be. The results of the study reported here show that there are differences between the undergraduate and graduate IT students in regard to their attitudes towards cheating and practice of cheating. The study hypothesises a relationship between maturity and motivation, and cheating behaviour. The possible reasons for this are explored and implications for the design of future education programmes are presented.

An Analysis of the Effect of Mobile Learning on Lebanese Higher Education

“…While severe penalties are a deterrent, a survey of students by Sheard, Markham, and Dick (2003) found that it ranks fifth on a list of deterrents, below factors such as knowing the value of their work and pride in their work. However, simply appealing to the moral code of the students does not reduce cheating rates, while the credible threat of detection and punishment has been demonstrated to reduce the amount of cheating in a course (Hollinger & Lanza-Kaduce, 2009).…”

“…Some students confess that they cheat because they are simply lazy (Sheard, Markham, & Dick, 2003;Wilkinson, 2009). Dennis (2004) found that a related factor, that students ran out of time because they started the assignment too late, was the top reason that students plagiarized.…”

Attitudes of management students towards workplace ethics: A comparative study between South Africa and Cyprus

“…In only one question was modification required to ensure that the question was clear to respondents in both countries. Brimble and Stevenson-Clarke (2005), Marsden, Carroll and Neill (2005) and Sheard, Markham and Dick (2003) note that the majority of studies investigating ethics of students rely on survey responses that indicate attitudes and perceptions but which do not provide in-depth insights into motivations for such responses.…”

How do master level students in computer science perceive plagiarism?

“…Reasons for not cheating were attributed to pride in one's work, a sense of moral values, and fear of penalties if caught. Studies of perceptions of plagiarism of graduate students in computing [11,13] have revealed that mature students are more committed to achieving learning outcomes and therefore less susceptible than undergraduate students, who are pressured by time and fear of failure, to adopt cheating practices.…”

“…Sheard and Dick [3,[9][10][11] conducted two surveys of undergraduate students in a School of Information Technology in 2000 and in 2010. They performed a comparative analysis of the survey data [12] of computing students' practices of cheating and plagiarism.…”