Today Show Highlights Scale, Ease of Academic Cheating

Plus, 751 cheating citations at University of Toronto. Plus, plagiarism cases up 50% over five years in Scotland.

Issue 15

Students on Today Show: We Are Cheating

On Tuesday, the Today Show ran a nearly five minute segment on cheating in college. If you have not watched it, you should. This is the link.

What’s surprising about the coverage, is the coverage - mainstream daytime broadcast TV finally covering the recrudescence of cheating. The absolutely stunning part is that NBC was able to get students on camera, on TV talking about it.

One student told the national TV audience of more than 3 million,

My grades are so high right now because I’m cheating. Straight up.

Another said,

Most people I know are cheating.

A student at the University of Missouri told the reporter,

I know a lot of my friends personally, we’re just looking to get the answer and just copy and paste the answer to just get the points.

Asked what would get him to stop cheating, the Mizzou student said,

In person classes, all the way.

In the segment, the reporter showed how easy it is to cheat with Chegg. Or Google. Seriously, watch it.

University of Toronto Cheating Numbers

Local coverage in Toronto (March 17) has the recent academic integrity numbers from the University of Toronto. The coverage says

that some students have taken advantage of online learning by committing academic offences through using unauthorized aids during assessments. In the Faculty of Arts & Science, the number of academic offences increased from 657 in the 2018–2019 academic year to 751 in 2019–2020. 

Credit U of T for releasing their numbers.

The article is interesting also because it makes the rare connection between trying to prevent misconduct and quality instruction, reporting:

In particular, the computer science department’s academic integrity coordinator shared how deterring cheating can often create more work for instructors and lead to lower quality assignments.

To deter cheating, the article says teachers are having to review websites that share test answers, constantly revise their exams and run multiple software applications to scan assignments and flag potential violations, then review those flags. And if misconduct is found, a series of reviews and conversations is initiated - a process that can last months. One department official said,

[stopping cheating] is going to be instructor dependent on… how much time they have to do that sort of thing.

Plagiarism and Collusion Cases in Scotland Grew 50% in Five Years

The U.K. is moving closer to banning essay mills and other contract cheating services. When Australia did the same thing, many of the big essay mills simply closed up shop.

This news report from Scotland (March 22) about the U.K. effort cites a “surge in university cheating cases” including that:

[Scotland’s five universities] logged 338 incidents over the last full academic year.

This was up from 290 in 2018-19, and marked a more-than-50% hike on 2014’s numbers.

Those numbers appear to only cover “plagiarism” and “collusion” so they may not be complete.

The Scottish paper broke the reported infractions down by year and school, showing:

Of the 338 cases of collusion and plagiarism reported by north universities last year, the majority were experienced at Aberdeen University and Robert Gordon University, with 144 and 141 respectively.

In the next “The Cheat Sheet” - CNBC’s epic prelude to the Today Show coverage. Plus, more cheating. Plus, Times Higher Ed asks, “Chegg: a $12 billion headache for academic integrity?” Share and sign up below.