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What Can Our Higher Education System do About The Uproar of Academic Dishonesty?

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What Can Our Higher Education System do About The Uproar of Academic Dishonesty?

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In today's academic system, students are found being academically dishonest more often then ever within the last few decades due to technology, the use of online courses, and the competitive nature of today's students. Academic dishonesty has always been a problem within the United States education system, but with the increase of students attending Universities and Colleges across the nation the mind set of these students begins to change. The students become more competitive, they try to be the best in what they specialize in, rather then just getting their degrees. This need for success is the number one reason that students in Colleges and Universities across the United States are becoming more and more academically dishonest. With this comes the question; why has cheating increased within the last few decades, and what can Colleges and Universities do to try and stop this uprising? The discussion of academic integrity brings four major stakeholders into the equation, Colleges and Universities, Professors and Instructors, Students, and Parents of Students.

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Every College and University typically has a school motto that tells people what they are ultimately about. For example, The University of Harvard's motto is "Veritas," meaning truth; this shows the values and beliefs that The University of Harvard is trying to put into their students and faculty. If a student from Harvard is being academically dishonest and cheating, then they are going against the school's message, making the institution look bad. Students who are cheating aren't only making themselves look bad, they make their institution look less credible then they would have if they did not have cheating incidents. Another example of this would be an Institution like Yale that is wide known for producing quality young men and women, and putting them into our society at a position that an average person may not be able to handle. It goes both ways with schools, and if a school gets a reputation of having students who cheat, then the school might lose private funding, it will lose credibility from previous companies who took in their students upon graduation, the school will lose applicants, the teachers begin to look like they aren't quality instructors. Colleges and Universities will gain nothing from having academic integrity issues, they will only lose things. Higher Education Institutions will not tolerate cheating, they will implement heavy honor codes, zero tolerance policies, and other methods of cracking down on cheating to prevent themselves from gaining a bad reputation which is how they will react to the inquiry question. Institutions believe that putting an honor code will help the issue, but the integration of an honor system will work the best. Colleges and Universities have the most at stake within the problem of academic dishonesty, and will be affected the most out of the four.

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College instructors and professors are a major stakeholder within the issue of cheating within higher education. These people are directly responsible for why students may find the need to cheat and be dishonest. They lead lectures, classes, and discussions for students within the higher educations system, and they are the only thing standing in the way of students from graduating. Instructors believe in the same values and honor codes as the schools that they work for, they are required to, and some professors even have their own that they require their students to respect. Cheating directly affects the instructors of the class, it offends them personally, it makes them look like they have no effect on your education, and students who cheat within their class give instructors the choice to choose the path on which you go for the rest of your academic career. To anyone who has been in a classroom before it is obvious that the instructor believes that cheating and academic dishonesty is wrong and that it should never have to be an option for students, but some Professors believe that today's classes need to be redesigned to cater to the possibility of solving the issue of cheating. James M. Lang, A professor at The Assumption College states that classes need to be redesigned in order to prevent cheating and try to make students encouraged and motivated to learn without the need of unauthorized assistance. Professors and Instructors believe that this is how to respond to the issue, and that it will help prevent students from being academically dishonest. Professors and Instructors of College courses decide whether students pass or fail, and are the serious stakeholders within the issue of academic dishonesty, after all, they are the ones who catch it.

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Students are the main reason that academic dishonesty is even an issue in today's education system. Students have very high stakes within the issue, and their affected by their own personal choices. Most students who choose to cheat usually cheat because they are trying to get better grades, or they slacked off and didn't study so they will try and take the easy way to an A, or they don't even care about school so why not cheat? There are a bunch of different thought processes behind why to be academically dishonest and to cheat or not to, but a lot of it is personal values. A student who choses not to cheat is more likely to be honest, have pride, and no what hard work is, why a student who choses to cheat is lazy, doesn't know what hard work is, and doesn't have any pride in their own work. With that being said, a student who has high expectations for themselves may also cheat and use unauthorized assistance to become that much farther ahead of their classmates. Students who cheat are risking many things, their ability to attend a college or university, their ability to graduate, the ability to get a good paying job after graduation, and many other things. Cheating incidents stick with you forever, and most companies look into these incidents in order for you to get a normal job, no company is going to want somebody who is dishonest around their work place. Students who get caught cheating will be thrown out of school, waste their parent's money, and end up in a world of trouble. Students typically say that the only way to stop cheating is to not let others cheat off them, but in a world where most students don't understand that copying homework or something as "small" as that is cheating there is not too many ways in which students can effect or change the issue. A student answering the inquiry question of why cheating has become so prevalent within today's school system will most likely not know why, or say that it is the only way they think they can succeed. A survey given to an LA school district of 30,000 student showed that 1/3 of the students stated that cheating was a means to succeed. Students believe that it has become a part of their education, that they need to cheat to become better academically.

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Parents are the least affected stakeholder out of the four, but still have many risks within the issue. Most parents in the United States pay for their children's education, which can cost a large portion of their life's savings. Most parents who send their children to College want to see them succeed just like anybody else, but they are putting a large investment into their child's life with expectations that they graduate. Students don't seem to realize how much school costs their parents, and how they might even make huge sacrifices to pay for their kids education. Students who get caught cheating will be thrown out of school, meaning that their parents investment was ultimately wasted on their kid throwing it away, the parent cannot get their money back. Students who are booted from school will probably end up back at home living off their parents until they are able to support themselves, which means that they will have to spend more money on their child. In some cases parents may put so much pressure on their kids that they are forced to cheat to try and meet their parents expectations in fear of being taken out of school and not paying attention to the fact that cheating will get them kicked out quicker. Usually a parent's view on cheating is pretty universal, that it is the worst possible thing for their kid to do, because they have seen what it does to other people's kids and want to avoid that. A normal parent would answer the inquiry question with an answer that cheating has become an increasing incident because parents have become less harsh on their kids or that our generation has things that they didn't have making it easier, and that being harsher on kids will solve the problem.

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The four stakeholders all show different views on the issue, and all believe in a different way of solving the problem of cheating. Colleges, Universities, and schools will work hand in hand with their professors and instructors, the schools will come up with a new honor system or redesign classes for their students, while the professors and teachers will enforce these news provisions. As faculty members of the schools, the professors and administration represent the school, and as somebody who works at that school they will want to represent their school in a good way. Some students will agree to these new rules while others will not, but there is always a culture to be formed, and people most typically always conform to what the majority of people are doing. Parents go in the same category as the schools and teachers, they believe in preventing cheating, but they probably don't care about how it happens. Students had the worst answer to the inquiry question that showed in the survey in LA, and most students don't care about cheating which makes the problem start with the student. Each stakeholder has different views on the issue, but there are some solutions that are similar, mostly between the Institutions, Teachers, and Parents.

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The issue affects each of the four stakeholders, some more then others, but I believe that the audience is meant to be Professors and Instructors. This stakeholder showed the most knowledge behind the issue, and also gave the best solutions. Teachers should realize that there is something wrong when students are cheating in their classroom or online course, and that they need to adjust their teaching methods or classroom methods to cater to that issue. James M. Lang stated that classes needed to be redesigned to motivate students to learn, or to teach students things that they could apply to the real world right away. Teachers would be the best audience for this argument paper because as a student I'd be able to argue as a student, and tell them what students believe about this issue. I'd be able to give the teachers solutions to the problem from a students perspective, as somebody who has seen people cheat just as much as the next. As a student in college I'd be able to explain my thoughts behind why cheating has become more prevalent throughout the last few decades and how teachers can become more aware of the why behind the issue.

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Lang, James M. "How College Classes Encourage Cheating." The Boston Globe. N.p., 4 Aug. 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.

Miller, Arden, and Adena D. Young-Jones. "Academic Integrity: Online Classes Compared To Face-To-Face Classes." Journal Of Instructional Psychology 39.3/4 (2012): 138-145.Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.

Schwartz, Beth M., Holly E. Tatum, and Megan C. Hageman. "College Students’ Perceptions Of And Responses To Cheating At Traditional, Modified, And Non-Honor System Institutions." Ethics & Behavior 23.6 (2013): 463-476.Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Oct. 2013.

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