To cheat, or not to cheat: That is the question.
Cheating has been a perennial issue in every academic institution since time immemorial. In a country that cannot even hold a decent election, students cheating their way through college should be anything but surprising. (Panao, 2008)
According to an advertising council campaign against cheating, the Educational Testing Service, academic cheating is defined as representing someone else's work as your own. It can take various forms, like sharing another's work or purchasing a term paper or test questions in advance.[1] Because of consistent practice, cheating is now a stereotype in the society. How and why does it successfully elude solutions?
In Adamson University, cheating is not new anymore. Fifteen college students from the Mass Communication department were chosen to be respondents in the survey conducted. Thirteen confessed to commiting academic dishonesty.
An alarming 87% of the respondents have confessed to cheating. When asked on how often they cheat in exams or quizzes, majority answered that they do it whenever they cannot answer a question in the exam. Majority answered that the reason of their cheating is failure to study for the exam. The funny part is, one answered that he cheats because it is fun to do. One answered that his classmates do it so he finds no reason not to do it, too. This shows that students who cheat feel justified in what they are doing. They cheat because they see others cheat and they think that they will be unfairly disadvantaged.
Out of the thirteen respondents who cheat, majority has not been caught and this is because cheating is made easier today. One of the respondents shares that he cheats by googling[2] for answers in his phone during examinations.
When asked on how they feel about cheating, majority answered that they were not affected at all. As students of a Vincentian education, is this the way these students must feel? Students are taught to be honest because cheating does not end at graduation, in most cases. The corrupt leaders of the country are probably cheaters in their college years, too.
Ironically, grades, rather than education, have become the major focus of many students today. Learning is gradually losing its essence. But cheating can still be solved as shown that majority of the respondents answered they think they can graduate in college without cheating. Panao says in her essay that it is not just teachers but the entire academic community who must make it their duty to safeguard academic integrity.[3] With enough discipline from both learners and mentors, cheating in Adamson can still be solved.
[1] Definition available at http://www.glass-castle.com/clients/www-nocheating-org/adcouncil/research/cheatingfactsheet.html
[2] Googling is the term used by people who use the search engine, Google, to find anything on the internet.
[3] Panao, A. (2008). Who really loses when a student cheats?
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