The use of essay mills and other online sites to buy academic work is a global industry estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The practice is known as "contract cheating" (Clarke & Lancaster, 2006), and it occurs when a student engages with a third party to complete academic work on their behalf. Canada lags behind…

There is increasing attention given to academic integrity across university education and dental schools are not immune to this problem (Andrews et al. J Dent Educ 71; 1027-1039, 2007; Ford & Hughes Eur J Dent Educ 16(1):e180-e186, 2012). While there has been an increasing concern about academic dishonesty in written exams and assignments,…

Dyslexia is a Specific Learning Difficulty that impacts on reading and writing abilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical schools have been forced to undertake distance learning and assessment. The wider literature suggested that e-learning might pose additional challenges for dyslexic students. Here we explore their overall experiences of…

To reduce academic dishonesty and strengthen learning outcomes, I adopted in-depth oral examinations as my benchmark and summative assessments in a Human Anatomy & Physiology course taught in an online asynchronous setting. This decision led my students and me down the transformative path of mastery learning. This was a "threshold…

Promoting authenticity and academic integrity in assessment continues to present a priority for educational institutions. Besides providing the foundation for high academic standards and best practice, authentic assessments and academic integrity enrich students with skills that advance their employability. Given the multilayered significance of,…

In this article, the authors argue that colleges and universities have an ethical obligation to respond to the problem of cheating in a way that honors higher education's duty to facilitate students' moral and civic development. After the authors compare and contrast the punitive versus developmental approach to cheating, they explore the promise…

Along with many other institutions of higher education, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Northeastern University to move courses online for the second half of the spring semester and beyond. As this crisis unfolded, faculty turned to the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning Through Research (CATLR) for support on how to conduct their courses…

Online learning is ubiquitous for millions of students worldwide, yet our understanding of student experiences in online learning settings is limited. The geographic distance that separates faculty from students in an online environment is its signature feature, but it is also one that risks widening the gulf between teachers and learners. In…

This was a causal comparative study to investigate the causality of 'ex post-facto' variables: moral reasoning (MR) and cheating behaviour (CB) and their associational effect on the authenticity of examination results among Senior High School (SHS) students (N=2,520). Two different data sets were derived from (i) a survey questionnaire with one MR…

Cheating is a more or less prominent feature of all educational contexts, but few studies have examined its association with aspects of school effectiveness theory. With recently collected data from upper-secondary school students and their teachers, this study aims to examine whether three aspects of school effectiveness--school leadership,…

Checking the identity of students and authorship of their online submissions is a major concern in Higher Education due to the increasing amount of plagiarism and cheating using the Internet. The literature on the effects of e-authentication systems for teaching staff is very limited because it is a novel procedure for them. A considerable gap is…

If media reports are to be believed, Australian universities are facing a significant and growing problem of students outsourcing their assessment to third parties, a behaviour commonly known as 'contract cheating'. Teaching staff are integral to preventing and managing this emerging form of cheating, yet there has been little evidence-based…

Contract cheating presents an existential threat to university assessment integrity and, therefore, to the reputations of universities and their graduates. We report on two workshops, with academic development participants who collaboratively addressed assessment identity verification through problem identification and solution creation. As…

Academic misconduct is a growing national and global concern. There is a paucity of literature on academic misconduct in nursing. Among the research studies that have been conducted, all but one were quantitative. The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of Associate Degree (AD) nursing students' experiences with academic…

Academic corruption in its different forms is not a new phenomenon. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) has been active in addressing this area for a number of years. In cooperation with UNESCO, it issued an "Advisory Statement on Discouraging Degree Mills" (see ED603204). The document was prepared for the 2009 UNESCO…