E-CHEATING AND UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS STUDENTS: TRENDS AND THE ROLE OF GENDER

A perpetual challenge for educators is the occurrence of student cheating, a problem exacerbated because of the availability of electronic technology. As a result, this longitudinal study was undertaken to empirically examine the cheating practices of those that will likely face ethical dilemmas in their careers, the undergraduate business students. Findings suggest that while the volume of unethical behavioral incidences vary by type of behavior, the percent of students exhibiting these behaviors is decreasing for most unethical behaviors. However, participation in e-cheating is on the rise. Even though the student perception is that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to cheat on an online course exam, for example, now two-thirds of students perceive that it is easy to cheat and onefourth indicate that he/she cheat on these exams. Finally, results suggest that gender is a factor with respect to electronic cheating incidence.