Student Attitudes on Academic Integrity Violations

Cheating is a continual dilemma on university campuses, and academic integrity violations have reached epidemic proportions according to current literature. The rapid growth of computer technologies and their application in education has provided unethical students, and otherwise ethical students, with new tools for their cheating activities. While extensive research exists on academic integrity violations in higher education, there is a limited body of research on students' attitudes as to what constitutes academic integrity violations. The purpose of this study is to assess college students' perceptions on the level of seriousness of academic integrity violations. This comparison study is intended to evaluate and compare student attitudes towards activities that constitute academic dishonesty. A discussion that addresses the participants, instrument, and procedures which comprise the study is presented. Based on preliminary analysis of the pre-test data, the students surveyed lack an understanding of the seriousness of many academic integrity violations, and present no clear understanding of what constitutes an academic violation. Approximately sixty-six percent of the student responding indicated that, based on aggregate category data, cheating during testing is not serious. (Contains 1 table.)