The Committee on Academic Misconduct had 1,454 cases filed in the last seven months of 2020 — more than double the 721 academic misconduct cases filed and resolved in all of 2019, Deborah Grzybowski, chair of COAM and professor in the Department of Engineering, said. Credit: Christian Harsa | Asst. Photo Editor
With the stress of the pandemic and a year of online learning, the temptation to cheat for Ohio State students may be higher than ever before — or so the rise in academic misconduct cases suggests.
The Committee on Academic Misconduct had 1,454 cases filed in the last seven months of 2020 — more than double the 721 academic misconduct cases filed and resolved in all of 2019, Deborah Grzybowski, chair of COAM and professor in the Department of Engineering, said. Instructors attribute this to multiple reasons, including increased access to online resources during exams and online courses set up in ways not conducive to learning.
According to Ohio State’s Code of Student Conduct, students violate the code when they compromise the academic integrity of the university or subvert the education process. Examples of academic misconduct include violating course rules found in the syllabus, knowingly providing or receiving information during exams, committing plagiarism and providing falsified materials.
Grzybowski said once students violate the code, they can choose to admit responsibility and opt for an administrative decision or refuse to accept responsibility and ask for a panel hearing.
Because of the increase in academic misconduct cases, Grzybowski said COAM will not resolve all of them by the end of the spring semester.
In a typical year, she said students can go through a panel hearing and get the decision 30 to 60 days after their petition, but this year, it’s taking much longer.
“It’s so frustrating for us, it’s frustrating for the students, but we’re really doing our best,” Grzybowski said. “I’m trying to make our administration aware of the predicament that we’re in, but I’m also trying to make students aware of their part in this.”
The university resolved 802 academic misconduct cases between May 11, 2020, and March 8, 2021, university spokesperson Ben Johnson said in an email.
Eric Anderman, a professor in the College of Education and Human Ecology who researches academic integrity and the motivation behind cheating, said he believes the increase is due to a higher temptation with online classes and easier access to online resources. He said the independence that comes with college and increased stress levels from the pandemic could also contribute to the rise in COAM cases.
“When people are worried more, they’re more likely to cheat,” Anderman said. “COVID has just raised the anxiety.”
Anderman said the pandemic has not only changed the way students complete their coursework, it has changed the way instructors assess their students’ learning. He said instructors may use more tests than if the course were in person because the mode of instruction and social distancing guidelines have limited what types of assignments they can require.
When students are faced with courses that are more test-based rather than mastering a skill, Anderman said they have a higher tendency to cheat because there is more pressure to do well on the one assessment. He said cheating occurs more often in the hard sciences and advanced math and business courses.
Grzybowski said online tools such as Chegg and Course Hero are easily accessible to students when taking exams or completing assignments.
The fast transition to online learning last spring may have also contributed to the increase in cases, Grzybowski said, because some instructors didn’t have enough time to prepare proper exams and online courses that measure knowledge acquisition as opposed to memorization.
“So here we’re telling faculty, ‘You need to revamp your course to adapt to the online environment but wait, you have more sections,’ or whatever the situation is for the faculty,” Grzybowski said. “Creating that time, that space to do that curriculum development work is a difficult thing.”
Former University President Michael V. Drake announced March 12, 2020, that classes would be virtual for the rest of the semester. Spring break was extended until March 22 to give instructors additional time to transition their courses to an online format.
The Office of Distance Education and eLearning had four full-time staff and two students, who were available to answer questions about Carmen and eLearning tools around the clock before the pandemic, according to an August 2020 article from Ohio State’s Information Technology Department. In the week of March 22, 2020, learning technology support requests more than tripled compared to the week of March 1, 2020 — the last week of in-person classes before the university moved to remote learning to prevent the spread of COVID-19. After the pandemic started, the office increased support to 68 staff and 27 student workers.
Kay Halasek, the director of the Drake Institute of Teaching and Learning — a voluntary resource for faculty who have questions about teaching — said the institute provided workshops for professors who wanted help redesigning their courses, and many instructors asked for individual consultations.
More than 40 workshops, receiving more than 10,000 views, were held to help instructors learn the technology, according to the article.
The Drake Institute provided instructional strategies supporting lab and field activities, clinical teachings, instruction redesign cohorts, a teaching and learning collaborative and a respectful dialogue toolkit, Halasek said. The institute also showed instructors how to navigate Carmen Canvas, the university’s learning management system.
“In stressful times like this, knowing that there are resources out there and people available, professionals who are there to help, is comforting, and I think as I said before, inclines people to think about using those resources,” Halasek said.
Johnson said the university will provide instructors with updated syllabus statements that clearly outline expectations for academic integrity. The COAM office is also working with the Drake Institute and ODEE to provide more informational sessions and resources to academic departments on how course assignments are structured, tips for identifying misconduct cases and outlining the university’s process for investigating cases.
Anderman said the best way for the university to prevent more cases is to train faculty to design assessments that will lessen the desire to cheat, such as crafting lower-stakes exams and setting more realistic expectations.
“I’m sure some of my colleagues would read that and say, ‘You know, that’s crazy. It’s not my responsibility, students shouldn’t cheat.’ I agree that students shouldn’t cheat, but it’s like you set the perfect storm,” Anderman said. “You know people are gonna cheat, so there are things we can do. At the end of the day, the decision is the students’. They either do it or don’t, and it’s their decision, but there are things we can do to lessen the temptation.”
Correction: A previous version of this story stated the Office of Distance Education and eLearning had only six technical support workers after the pandemic started. This article has been updated to reflect that the number grew to 95.
