Promoting Academic Integrity in Higher Education.

The purpose of the study is to identify best practice initiatives that contribute to academic integrity and reduce scholastic dishonesty in higher education. Chief academic affairs officers (CAOs) or provosts at four year public and private colleges/universities and community colleges in the United States were surveyed. Four initiatives were found to be significant in reducing scholastic dishonesty: (a) faculty training, (b) effective classroom management strategies, (c) clear definitions and examples of cheating and (d) placing an "XF" on official transcripts of students found cheating. Significant differences were found between private institutions and community colleges in two initiatives: (a) encouragement of more collaboration on homework and (b) effective classroom management strategies. Introduction and review of literature The following study identifies the best practice initiatives that have contributed to academic honesty in higher education. Specifically, the study seeks to: (a) determine the initiatives perceived as being the most effective in promoting academic integrity and reducing academic dishonesty in higher education and (b) make recommendations to administrators for improving academic integrity. Scandal, deceit, corruption and deception run rampant in today's society all day, every day, in all walks of life (Smith & Oakley, 1996). Grab a newspaper, magazine or a book and flip through the pages. Stare at the tabloid headlines at a store checkout line. Simply spend a little time with any media outlet and the apparent becomes more obvious. Scurrility has taken all media outlets prisoner. Higher education institutions are not immune to cheating and other unethical behaviors. Higher education experiences its fair share of dilemmas (Wilcox and Ebbs, 1992). Unethical behavior occurs at many colleges and universities where dishonest students and their actions successfully disrupt the learning environment. Even worse, the fraudulent behaviors are tolerated by administrators and faculty whose reputations are compromised in the process (Morrisette, 2001). As a result, faculty members often experience undue stress, discontent and eventual burnout (Morrisette, 2001). Payne and Nantz (1994) determined between 67% and 86% of undergraduates had cheated on campus. McCabe and Trevino (1996) found that one in three students admitted to fraudulent academic behavior among 6,000 students at 31 colleges and universities. More than half of all undergraduate students cheat (Newstead, Franklin-Stokes & Armstead, 1996; & McCabe & Pavela, 2000). According to Nonis and Swift (2001), between 30% and 96% of college students participate in academic cheating. In a 1999 survey by the Center of Academic Integrity at Duke University, 68% of 2,100 students polled had committed at least one academic offense such as plagiarizing (Owings, 2002). Some administrators emphatically point to the Internet as the major culprit for increased academic dishonesty (Scott, 2001). Students are wired with cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and super-savvy laptops to cheat during exams and plagiarize on other class assignments (Read, 2004). Notes can be exchanged with other exam takers. Text messages can be received from classmates outside the lecture hall. The more enterprising students cheat by searching the Web, especially in large classes where technology makes cheaters harder to spot (Read, 2004). If there is any doubt that the Internet has given new glory to college-level plagiarism, hundreds of Web sites contain pre-written and custom-made essays, book reports and term papers (Owings, 2002). Web sites such as LazyStudents.com, SchoolSucks.com and Cheathouse.com claim to be research sources, but an increasing number of students are using them for much more. Likewise, professors turn to plagiarism-detection sites such as Edutie.com, TurnItin.com and Plagiarism. …