Technology

Academic Dishonesty on the Rise at Stanford, University Investigating

Stanford University saw a spike in allegations of academic dishonesty on campus in the winter of 2014 and now the university wants to get to the root of the cheating problem.

As The Wall Street Journal first reported, Stanford’s Provost John Etchemendy addressed a letter to faculty and teaching staff explaining that an “unusually high” number of allegations of academic dishonesty had been reported during the winter quarter of 2014. These include an incident which could involve as many as 20 percent of the students in a large introductory course.

In the letter dated March 24, the Provost expressed intense concern and intent to formally investigate the allegations.

“In violating academic integrity, they are cheating themselves of the very core of our mission – the process of learning and discovery – as well as risking severe consequences,” Etchemendy said.

Stanford’s Office of Community Standards will be investigating these allegations of academic dishonesty. Stanford spokesperson Lisa Lapin told NBC Bay Area “there is nothing further to add beyond what is in (the Provost’s) letter,” and declined to comment on any other details regarding the allegations.

Stanford’s students are held accountable by an honor code which prohibits copying, plagiarism, and other infringements of academic integrity. Students agree to abide by the university’s honor code at the start of their Stanford education. According to the university’s website, students may find themselves with a one quarter suspension and 40 hours of community service for one violation of the honor code and with a three quarter suspension for multiple violations.

Technology may play a role in the recent spike in cheating allegations. The Provost’s letter cites technology and “collaborative culture” as possible contributors to student tendencies to take credit for work that is not their own. Etchemendy called on faculty to guide students on using technology with academic integrity.

In 2010 the Mercury News reported that allegations of cheating at Stanford more than doubled in the last decade, with computer science students making up the largest number of those violations. Technology has allowed students to collaborate in unprecedented ways and has also allowed professors to monitor cheating like never before.

Other highly-ranked universities have seen an uptick in academic dishonesty as well. In the spring of 2014, Randy Katz, a professor of Computer Science at UC Berkley had what he calls “a rather large cheating problem” in one of his classes. Katz explained that the cheating often stemmed from collaboration in which confused students try to help one another, but end up using the same material.

Technology was a large factor in the most flagrant examples of cheating in Katz’s class. One of his students hired another person from a website to do an assignment. Another student broke into his roommate’s computer to get the solution to a problem.

Katz is now considering having future students perform humorous skits to demonstrate what is and isn’t cheating.

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