{"658783":{"#nid":"658783","#data":{"type":"news","title":"In Online Courses, Catching Cheaters May be More Effective Than Warning Them","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETelling students you have a method to detect cheating doesn\u0026#39;t prevent it, but identifying the perpetrators after they cheat does, finds new research by Assistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/econ.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/1103263e-f423-5a44-9c34-3f3083b87d12\u0022\u003EDaniel Dench\u003C\/a\u003E in Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/econ.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Economics.\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jebo.2022.01.018\u0022\u003Ethe experiment\u003C\/a\u003E, published in the \u003Cem\u003EJournal of Economic Behavior and Organization\u003C\/em\u003E, Dench and co-author Theodore Joyce report that warning undergraduate\u0026nbsp;students after their first offense reduced subsequent cheating attempts by at least 65%.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETheir findings are important as online classes and degrees expand and courses remain virtual amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Students may be tempted to cheat in an environment with less oversight than a traditional classroom, but \u0026quot;before you go nuclear, you can deter them from trying to do it in the future,\u0026quot; Dench said. \u0026quot;If there\u0026#39;s knowledge out there that we actually do know who\u0026#39;s cheating and when, then it\u0026#39;s a lot less likely that people will do it.\u0026quot;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo conduct the experiment, Dench and Joyce collected data from four finance, management, and accounting classes at a large public university outside of Georgia in 2019. Students completed their homework in Microsoft Excel, where the researchers embedded a unique identifier code in each student\u0026rsquo;s software that could flag work copied and pasted from another\u0026rsquo;s file. Unlike classes with papers or exams where plagiarism may be harder to detect, Dench said, this was a hard measure of cheating that was difficult for the students to deny.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EStill, the researchers found that reminding students when the course began that the software could detect cheating had little effect on cheating rates. Only flagging plagiarism after it happened by emailing the student directly and informing them they were on a watch list significantly reduced cheating \u0026mdash; not only in that class, but in the following classes as well.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFor example, in the Finance and Management courses, cheating fell by 80% to 90% in the ensuing semesters. Another notable aspect, according to Dench? \u0026ldquo;The rates dropped in future semesters before we even started policing,\u0026quot; he said. \u0026quot;That\u0026#39;s an indication that we\u0026#39;ve changed the culture around cheating.\u0026quot;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe experiment has some shortcomings, the researchers reported. The software couldn\u0026rsquo;t identify students who cheated from an outside source rather than copying from another student in the class. Dench and Joyce also could not determine how much cheating was curtailed by the email warning versus word of mouth from a friend or fellow student in the class. Finally, although instructors sent every student the first warning that the software could detect plagiarism, they were unable to confirm whether or not students had read it.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EEven so, \u0026quot;the takeaways appear clear,\u0026quot; the researchers wrote. \u0026quot;Boilerplate messaging in syllabi regarding academic integrity appears to be largely ignored. Even email messages delivered a week before an assignment is due are ineffective. Not until students are caught and at risk for serious disciplinary action does cheating decline on subsequent work.\u0026quot;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe article, \u0026ldquo;Information and Credible Sanctions in Curbing Online Cheating Among Undergraduates: A Field Experiment,\u0026rdquo; appeared in the March 2022 issue of the \u003Cem\u003EJournal of Economic Behavior and Organization\u003C\/em\u003E. It is available at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jebo.2022.01.018\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jebo.2022.01.018\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ELet\u0026rsquo;s connect! Follow the School of Economics on \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GaTechEcon\u0022\u003EFacebook\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/twitter.com\/gatechecon\u0022\u003ETwitter\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gatechecon\/\u0022\u003EInstagram\u003C\/a\u003E, and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/laura-taylor-502666188\/\u0022\u003ELinkedIn\u003C\/a\u003E to keep up with our students, school news, and upcoming events.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Telling students you have a method to detect cheating doesn\u0027t prevent it, but identifying the perpetrators after they cheat does, finds new research by Assistant Professor Daniel Dench."}],"uid":"35766","created_gmt":"2022-06-10 12:45:08","changed_gmt":"2022-06-10 14:26:07","author":"dminardi3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2022-06-10T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2022-06-10T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"658784":{"id":"658784","type":"image","title":"Image credit: Daniel Dench and Theodore Joyce \/ Journal of Economic Behavior \u0026 Organization.\u00a0Caption from paper added to image.","body":null,"created":"1654865761","gmt_created":"2022-06-10 12:56:01","changed":"1654874136","gmt_changed":"2022-06-10 15:15:36","alt":"Line graph showing the rates of cheating in Finance, Management, and all classes. On the left the lines go up to indicate cheating increasing from 2016 to 2018. On the right, cheating rates are incredibly low in 2020 (around two to four percent versus 14 percent in 2018).","file":{"fid":"249715","name":"ECON (1).png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ECON%20%281%29.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ECON%20%281%29.png","mime":"image\/png","size":288126,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ECON%20%281%29.png?itok=qvKvLppp"}}},"media_ids":["658784"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1282","name":"School of Economics"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDi Minardi\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003Edi.minardi@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["dminardi3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}