Abstract:

In today's world, in which digital technologies facilitate copying, editing and disseminating information, we witness a dramatic rise in cheating and plagiarizing of different content: texts, images and music. Academic dishonesty, or the violation of academic integrity, refers to an intentional and non-legitimate behavior that occurs in order to accomplish learning assignments such as exams, papers and homework.

The conceptual framework of Pavela [1] defines 4 types of academic dishonesty, without taking into consideration the role that modern digital technologies play in magnifying this phenomenon:
(1) Cheating – unauthorized use of content or consulting other people;
(2) Plagiarism – using content or ideas of others and presenting them without reference to the source, as if they were one's own;
(3) Fabrication – falsification or invention of information, data or citations;
(4) Facilitating academic dishonesty – helping others in violating the code of academic integrity.

With the introduction of digital tools for legitimate study purposes, there is increasing use of these tools for non-legitimate academic activities [2, 3]. Employing technologies for academic dishonesty can be seen, for example, during exams: in exchanging text messages, searching online for answers or in reading from smartphones pre-prepared summaries. A considerable number of students tolerate digital academic dishonesty significantly more in comparison with dishonesty in non-digital settings [4]. Some learners even commit digital academic dishonesty out of naïveté and a lack of awareness of the ethical and legal problems involved in their behavior [5, 6].

In previous quantitative studies [7, 8] we found a significant interaction effect of technology and academic dishonesty types on the pervasiveness of dishonesty. The findings show that use of digital technologies increases the pervasiveness of plagiarism, while cheating and fabrication are more common in non-digital settings. Moreover, plagiarism and helping others in executing academic dishonesty are perceived as more legitimate when using digital tools.

This paper presents initial qualitative findings from a large-scale study, examining the phenomenon of academic dishonesty in the principal ethnic sectors and age groups within the Israeli education system. Scenarios inspired by Yeo's [9] study, representing the four types of Pavela's academic dishonesty framework were presented in both digital and non-digital learning contexts to 300 students in non-religious state schools: 100 students from elementary schools, 100 from junior-high schools and 100 from high schools. For each scenario, the participants were given the open-ended question, asking them to judge the ethical aspects of the scenario and to describe how a student in the scenario should act. Their answers were triangulated with semi-structured interviews with 12 of teachers and 12 mothers and fathers of children of the same age-groups. The data was coded based on Pavela's framework.

Our findings provide indicate that Pavela's model needs to be expanded in order to explain academic dishonesty in the digital world. This research's finding have important implications for our understanding of the reasons for different academic dishonesty behaviors in digital and non-digital settings, and for developing strategies for coping with this phenomenon in education systems, in academia and professional training in the corporate world.

Keywords:

Academic integrity, cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty of others.