Assignment – Academic Honesty
Week 4

In researching academic honesty through the University Library I was able to locate two sources which contained valuable information regarding my research.
The first article was searched using the key words “online academic dishonesty” and was conducted in the EBSCO Discovery Service. The title of the first article is “Rural Education Perspective. Rural Special Education Quarterly” the article was written in 2008 and its authors are, Sileo, J. M., & Sileo, T. W.
The second article used for my research was found when searching with key words “online academic honesty” and was conducted also in the EBSCO Discovery Service. The title of the second article is “Monitoring Help Ensure Academic Honesty”, which was written in 2005 by Online Classroom, 1-3.
From information contained in these two articles came specific items at concern for academic honesty in an online or distance learning environment. One issue that was consistent for online the distance learning environment is using internet term paper websites to download or purchase papers, plagiarism in its most extreme form. The best remedy for this would be a good software detection program such as the University’s Plagiarism Checker program. This can catch all kinds of used data as long as they have been used before.
Another issue could be since connected to distance learning and academic honesty is the availability for students to communicate during exams and quizzes. As students in distance learning are not monitored as in a traditional classroom and have the ability of email and Instant Messaging it is easy to communicate with each other regarding test and quiz material and even answers while preparing and even taking the test. Ways to combat this practice would be to give timed tests where the time for communication would limit the number of questions that could be answered in the time allotted. Also another way could be to have random versions of the test where not all questions and answers would be the same for all students. This would limit the chances of to many students having the same test and being able to communicate and the material.
In a variation of communication during exams, students who take an exam early could in essence give answers or information regarding the material or questions asked on the exams to students who will be administered the exam at a later time. This scenario could also be remedied by the random use of exams among students of the same distance class.
In my research it was a common theme that sometimes in a distance learning environment, since different from a traditional environment, a student doesn’t quite know exactly what to expect, and when they are assigned to work in study groups for project and assignments, and when not made clear of expectations, figure that is perhaps the way they can conduct themselves for tests and quizzes also. So while some distance environment honest issues maybe purposeful, some maybe misunderstandings. The best way to avoid academic honesty issues in the first place maybe to make a clear understanding from the beginning what the expectations are for the distance learning experience and what the consequences are for not upholding those standards.