I tell this story often because I think it is a shining example of student thinking about cheating.

While administering an assessment I had a student tell me that he wasn’t cheating because he
was not asking for the answers, he was only asking how to work the problem. I would love to say
that is the only time I have heard that reasoning for talking during a test, but it is a common
response when I ask students what they are doing.

Students talk freely about how they cheat on homework, their online learning program APEX,
and online practice programs we use. I have caught multiple students cheating by using their
cellphones. Students look up answers, use tutoring aps to solve the problems, or someone has
used social media to distribute answers to a test. When I am serving lunch duty I see students
copying each other’s homework frequently and talking about the test material in their previous
class. When I do catch students cheating they appear slighted that I am speaking to them about
this. Among some students cheating seems to be accepted and nothing to be ashamed about.
When I first started teaching about fifteen years ago, students would receive a zero on any
assignment they were caught cheating on and disciplinary action. Now the policy of most
schools is to allow students to retake / redo the work and receive a disciplinary action.
Cheating is a complex problem that involves many variables (McCabe & Trevino, 2016). Parents
want students to be successful at any cost and students who want to be compensated for being
called out for cheating (Stephens, 2015). It is not just an online education problem. It is more of
a social problem with some subcultures having higher instances of cheating (Miller & Jones,
2013). Students who cheat in a face to face learning environment will try to cheat in an online
learning environment.
Most schools have policies that forbid academic dishonesty in all forms. The student handbook
at Georgia Virtual has a disciplinary code for students who are caught cheating. Students will
lose points on their assignments. Students at my school will receive ISS and will have to
schedule a time to retake the test.
As with all things funded by government money, online education for high school has the same
accountabilities as a brick and mortar school. When looking at the ethics and legalities of an e-
learning environment some of the biggest concerns are: accessibility for all, copyright violations,
and holding these institutions accountable to the same standards. In addition, all e-learning
environments must follow the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Before I
could intern at Georgia Virtual I had to pass a course on FERPA. As e-learning continues to
expand there will be a need for the people in charge to revisit this topic.
References:
Homeschooling and Online Education. (n.d.). Retrieved March 05, 2018, from
https://www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/c21941.htm
Mccabe, D. L., & Trevino, L. K. (1993). Academic Dishonesty. The Journal of Higher
Education,64(5), 522-538. doi:10.1080/00221546.1993.11778446
Miller, A., & Young-Jones, A. (2012). Academic Integrity: Online Classes Compared to Face-
to-Face Classes. Missouri State University. Retrieved March 5, 2018, from
http://people.missouristate.edu/ardenmiller/swpa12.pdf
Stephens, J. M. (2015). Creating Cultures of Integrity: A Multi-level Intervention Model for
Promoting Academic Honesty. Handbook of Academic Integrity, 1-10. doi:10.1007/978-
981-287-079-7_13-1