Online classes have become more common at universities across the country. This is good news for students: Online classes allow students to study and work at their own pace and at odd hours. They also can be less expensive. Finally, commuting students don’t have to worry about traveling to and from their classes each day if they’re taking them virtually.
Educators, parents and others, though, do have some concerns when it comes to online classes. Most notably, they worry that the lack of close teacher supervision makes it easier for students to cheat when they’re taking courses online.
Is there any truth to this? According to students themselves, the answer is a clear “yes and no.”
According to students’ own self-assessments, 32.1 percent of students admit to having cheated on a quiz or test in live classes. At the same time, 32.7 percent of students admit having done the same thing during online classes. A total of 18.1 percent of students admitted that they had someone provide them with answers to a test or quiz in live classes, while 23.3 percent admitted doing the same thing with online classes.
A total of 4.2 percent of students have used instant-messaging through a cell phone or handheld device to get answers during a quiz or test when they are taking online classes. That number stands at 3 percent for students in live classes.
But other forms of cheating are actually more common in live classes than they are in online ones.
For instance, 6.5 percent of students in live classes admit that they have turned in others’ work as their own. That number falls to 4.4 percent for students taking online classes. A high number of students in live classes, 33.2 percent, admit that they have received answers to a quiz or test from other students who have already taken the exams. This happens in online classes, too; but only 20.3 percent of students taking virtual classes report this activity.
In a far more serious crime, copying other students’ work without their permission and submitting it as their own, students taking live classes again lead: 4.2 percent to 1.8 percent. Students in live classes also report willingly plagiarizing work from books or articles and then turning it in as their own work more often than students attending virtual classes: 13.2 percent to 5 percent.
A total of 5.3 percent of students in live classes admitted to relying on a term-paper writing service to complete their assignments for them. Only 2.1 percent of students in online classes admitted to the same behavior.
Students themselves have a slightly skewed view of online versus live-class cheating. Students admit that they are more likely to cheat during online classes. But they think that their classmates are even more likely to cheat in these classes.
While students may not actually be cheating more when they are taking virtual classes, there is one fact that can’t be debated: The cheating that students do online is different from how they cheat in live classes.
For instance, students in online classes are more likely to blame the technology when they’re late with assignments. They’ll tell their teachers that their computer went down when they actually spent the evening watching a Lost marathon. Other students, who are skilled at using technology, will use the technology itself to cheat, while still others will perform even more complicated hacking to change their grades.
