Upcoming Tech Tuesdays
1: Using Edutainment to Teach Business Courses.
Guest presentation from Kelly Richmond Pope (Associate Professor, School of Accountancy & MIS) and Roni Jackson (JackedIMC.com):
Have you ever thought about using edutainment as business pedagogy? An edutainment curriculum is designed to educate through entertainment. Early implementation of edutainment dates back to Poor Richard’s Almanac, with Benjamin Franklin combining entertaining and educational content, such as puzzles and rules of conduct, for colonists.
In this workshop, you will learn how to implement edutainment into your courses. Our speaker, accounting professor and award-winning filmmaker Kelly Richmond Pope, will unveil a new edutainment product designed specifically for the business curriculum with funding from the DePaul University Academic Innovation Grant.
- Date: Tuesday October 22, 2019
- Time: 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
- Location: DPC 7406 (7th Floor of the DePaul Center, 1 East Jackson Blvd.)
- RSVP: https://condor.depaul.edu/jmoore/tech/
2: How Students Cheat with Technology
An updated encore session from 2018
Technology can be a boon to educators, extending the reach and productivity of effective professors. However, there are various technological solutions that can be abused by students to cheat on assignments and high-stakes testing. In this engaging and hands-on session, you will be introduced to some of the gadgets, websites and software that can be used by the less-than-ethical students. Methods that professors can use to protect the integrity of their teaching will be presented.
Some of the examples presented include:
• Cheating gadgets - “Spy” pens, wristwatches with hidden cameras and microphones, and other devices to beware
• Software and website that creates corrupt Office documents
• Sites where students can find your papers and exam information
• Sites where students pay others to write papers
• How Desire2Learn can highlight examples of plagiarism
• How online exams can be secured
- Date: Tuesday November 19, 2019
- Time: 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
- Location: DPC 7406 (7th Floor of the DePaul Center, 1 East Jackson Blvd.)
- RSVP: https://condor.depaul.edu/jmoore/tech/
Academic Integrity: The blueprint of the thing we call character
Perhaps this sounds familiar. It is late, you are tired, but you cannot go to bed until you submit your term paper, or you will fail the course. You could work through the night to get it done right, or you could quickly skim a buddy’s paper from the previous year, and write something acceptable for the professor. Then you could get much needed sleep – you would feel rested the next day, you would pay closer attention in class, you would be altogether a better student. This really would not be cheating. After all, everyone else in the class did this too. You would be a fool not to join in. How are you going to get ahead in business if you fail in your studies? Wearily you look at the clock and decide what to do…
Researchers at the University of Arkansas’ Sam M. Walton College of Business have spent over two years investigating factors that would lead to academic integrity violations, with a particular focus on freshman business students. Routinely, business students are perceived as more likely to cheat than fellow students in other disciples, and readily admit to doing so.
Understanding the causes that lead to cheating could result in colleges and universities enacting effective policies and procedures that lessen academic integrity violations. This goes beyond directly improving student behavior and the college climate, as the students of today become the leaders of tomorrow. Unethical student behavior can go on to infect all aspects of society, particularly in business, law, medicine, and politics. Now, this is not a recent concern – the researchers themselves cite concerns about cheating going as far back in time as Aristotle, but there are indications that through correctly targeted actions cheating can be reduced. This benefits both society at large and academia.
The Factors
So what are these factors that would lead freshman business students to cheat? The researchers looked at five variables that would impact the decision to share homework or to plagiarize. These variables occurring frequently in associated research:
- Attitude to cheating: Does the student think cheating is acceptable? Does the student think consequences of cheating are not severe?
- Subjective norm: Does the student think peers and caregivers think cheating is unacceptable?
- Perceived behavioral control: Does the student think that she or he can get away with cheating?
- Moral obligation: Does the student feel guilty about cheating?
- Past academic integrity behavior: Has the student cheated before?
Over thirteen hundred students were sampled during the two-year period to predict intention to violate academic integrity in two ways, the sharing of homework (when prohibited) and plagiarizing. For the sharing of homework, all five variables were significant predictors. For plagiarism, all but subjective norm were significant predictors:
| Sharing Homework | Plagiarism |
|---|---|---|
Attitude to cheating | Yes | Yes |
Subjective norm | Yes | No |
Perceived behavioral control | Yes | Yes |
Moral obligation | Yes | Yes |
Past academic integrity behavior | Yes | Yes |
But these variables did not all have equal weight. Of the five, attitude to cheating, past academic integrity behavior, and moral obligation were the strongest predictors of intent to cheat. The past academic integrity behavior took place prior to students being admitted to university, so this suggests that the problem of cheating is not being addressed early enough. Patterns of cheating are established well before a student attends college or university, so the focus on educating high school students about the importance of academic integrity and defining appropriate conduct is key.
Key Predictors:
- Attitude to cheating
- Past academic integrity behavior
- Moral obligation
However, for students already at college or university the two variables on which to focus attention are attitude to cheating and moral obligation. These are areas requiring future research, but inculcating moral obligation could be increased by enrolling students in professional associations and communities of practice which champion academic integrity as their core tenets.
The problem of academic integrity is not yet fully resolved, but there is a light shining out to follow.
Cronan, T. P., Mullins, J. K., & Douglas, D. E. (2018). Further Understanding Factors that Explain Freshman Business Students Academic Integrity Intention and Behavior: Plagiarism and Sharing Homework. J. Bus. Ethics Journal of Business Ethics, 147(1), 197-220.
Cheating In An Online Environment
Cheating In Online Courses: The Student Definition
“One of the barriers to faculty acceptance of online teaching and learning is a concern about cheating and the quality of the learning experience. This paper reports the findings of a descriptive survey focused on the students’ definition of cheating in the online learn- ing environment.”
Online Classes See Cheating Go High-Tech
June 2012 article from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Tips to Reduce the Impact of Cheating in Online Assessment
From the Northern Illinois University Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center Blog.
Three Actors that Contribute to Student Success in Online Courses: The Institution, Instructor and Student
Debbie Morrison’s Online Learning Insights (OLI)
For Some Students, Customized Online Learning Is Best
September 2014 article from the Times of San Diego
Spy Watch
Tech Tuesdays: How Students Cheat with Technology
The next Technology Tuesdays session will take place on the 30th August from 10-11 a.m. in DPC 7406 (seventh floor of the DePaul Center)
Technology can be a boon to educators, extending the reach and productivity of effective professors. However, there are various technological solutions that can be abused by students to cheat on assignments and high-stakes testing. In this engaging and hands-on session you will be introduced to some of the gadgets, websites and software that can be used by the less-than-ethical students. Methods that professors can use to protect the integrity of their teaching will be presented.
Some of the examples presented include:
- “Spy” pens and wristwatches with hidden cameras and microphones
- Software and website that creates corrupt Office documents
- Sites where students pay others to write papers
- How Desire2Learn can highlight examples of plagiarism.
- How online exams can be secured
For more information, and to RSVP please visit this page.
Is the Cheating Risk Always Higher in Online Instruction Compared to Face-to-Face Instruction?
Is the Cheating Risk Always Higher in Online Instruction Compared to Face-to-Face Instruction?
Well worth a read.....