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What do ai chatbots really mean for students and cheating.

The launch of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots has triggered an alarm for many educators, who worry about students using the technology to cheat by passing its writing off as their own. But two Stanford researchers say that concern is misdirected, based on their ongoing research into cheating among U.S. high school students before and after the release of ChatGPT.  

“There’s been a ton of media coverage about AI making it easier and more likely for students to cheat,” said Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE). “But we haven’t seen that bear out in our data so far. And we know from our research that when students do cheat, it’s typically for reasons that have very little to do with their access to technology.”

Pope is a co-founder of Challenge Success , a school reform nonprofit affiliated with the GSE, which conducts research into the student experience, including students’ well-being and sense of belonging, academic integrity, and their engagement with learning. She is the author of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students , and coauthor of Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids.  

Victor Lee is an associate professor at the GSE whose focus includes researching and designing learning experiences for K-12 data science education and AI literacy. He is the faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning and director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), a program that provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students. 

Here, Lee and Pope discuss the state of cheating in U.S. schools, what research shows about why students cheat, and their recommendations for educators working to address the problem.

Denise Pope

What do we know about how much students cheat?

Pope: We know that cheating rates have been high for a long time. At Challenge Success we’ve been running surveys and focus groups at schools for over 15 years, asking students about different aspects of their lives — the amount of sleep they get, homework pressure, extracurricular activities, family expectations, things like that — and also several questions about different forms of cheating. 

For years, long before ChatGPT hit the scene, some 60 to 70 percent of students have reported engaging in at least one “cheating” behavior during the previous month. That percentage has stayed about the same or even decreased slightly in our 2023 surveys, when we added questions specific to new AI technologies, like ChatGPT, and how students are using it for school assignments.

Isn’t it possible that they’re lying about cheating? 

Pope: Because these surveys are anonymous, students are surprisingly honest — especially when they know we’re doing these surveys to help improve their school experience. We often follow up our surveys with focus groups where the students tell us that those numbers seem accurate. If anything, they’re underreporting the frequency of these behaviors.

Lee: The surveys are also carefully written so they don’t ask, point-blank, “Do you cheat?” They ask about specific actions that are classified as cheating, like whether they have copied material word for word for an assignment in the past month or knowingly looked at someone else’s answer during a test. With AI, most of the fear is that the chatbot will write the paper for the student. But there isn’t evidence of an increase in that.

So AI isn’t changing how often students cheat — just the tools that they’re using? 

Lee: The most prudent thing to say right now is that the data suggest, perhaps to the surprise of many people, that AI is not increasing the frequency of cheating. This may change as students become increasingly familiar with the technology, and we’ll continue to study it and see if and how this changes. 

But I think it’s important to point out that, in Challenge Success’ most recent survey, students were also asked if and how they felt an AI chatbot like ChatGPT should be allowed for school-related tasks. Many said they thought it should be acceptable for “starter” purposes, like explaining a new concept or generating ideas for a paper. But the vast majority said that using a chatbot to write an entire paper should never be allowed. So this idea that students who’ve never cheated before are going to suddenly run amok and have AI write all of their papers appears unfounded.

But clearly a lot of students are cheating in the first place. Isn’t that a problem? 

Pope: There are so many reasons why students cheat. They might be struggling with the material and unable to get the help they need. Maybe they have too much homework and not enough time to do it. Or maybe assignments feel like pointless busywork. Many students tell us they’re overwhelmed by the pressure to achieve — they know cheating is wrong, but they don’t want to let their family down by bringing home a low grade. 

We know from our research that cheating is generally a symptom of a deeper, systemic problem. When students feel respected and valued, they’re more likely to engage in learning and act with integrity. They’re less likely to cheat when they feel a sense of belonging and connection at school, and when they find purpose and meaning in their classes. Strategies to help students feel more engaged and valued are likely to be more effective than taking a hard line on AI, especially since we know AI is here to stay and can actually be a great tool to promote deeper engagement with learning.

What would you suggest to school leaders who are concerned about students using AI chatbots? 

Pope: Even before ChatGPT, we could never be sure whether kids were getting help from a parent or tutor or another source on their assignments, and this was not considered cheating. Kids in our focus groups are wondering why they can't use ChatGPT as another resource to help them write their papers — not to write the whole thing word for word, but to get the kind of help a parent or tutor would offer. We need to help students and educators find ways to discuss the ethics of using this technology and when it is and isn't useful for student learning.

Lee: There’s a lot of fear about students using this technology. Schools have considered putting significant amounts of money in AI-detection software, which studies show can be highly unreliable. Some districts have tried blocking AI chatbots from school wifi and devices, then repealed those bans because they were ineffective. 

AI is not going away. Along with addressing the deeper reasons why students cheat, we need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology. For starters, at Stanford we’ve begun developing free resources to help teachers bring these topics into the classroom as it relates to different subject areas. We know that teachers don’t have time to introduce a whole new class, but we have been working with teachers to make sure these are activities and lessons that can fit with what they’re already covering in the time they have available. 

I think of AI literacy as being akin to driver’s ed: We’ve got a powerful tool that can be a great asset, but it can also be dangerous. We want students to learn how to use it responsibly.

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New Data Reveal How Many Students Are Using AI to Cheat

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AI-fueled cheating—and how to stop students from doing it—has become a major concern for educators.

But how prevalent is it? Newly released data from a popular plagiarism-detection company is shedding some light on the problem.

And it may not be as bad as educators think it is.

Of the more than 200 million writing assignments reviewed by Turnitin’s AI detection tool over the past year, some AI use was detected in about 1 out of 10 assignments, while only 3 out of every 100 assignments were generated mostly by AI.

These numbers have not changed much from when Turnitin released data in August of 2023 about the first three months of the use of its detection tool, said the company’s chief product officer, Annie Chechitelli.

“We hit a steady state, and it hasn’t changed dramatically since then,” she said. “There are students who are leaning on AI too much. But it’s not pervasive. It wasn’t this, ‘the sky is falling.’”

The fact that the number of students using AI to complete their schoolwork hasn’t skyrocketed in the past year dovetails with survey findings from Stanford University that were released in December. Researchers there polled students in 40 different high schools and found that the percentage of students who admitted to cheating has remained flat since the advent of ChatGPT and other readily available generative AI tools. For years before the release of ChatGPT, between 60 and 70 percent of students admitted to cheating, and that remained the same in the 2023 surveys, the researchers said.

Turnitin’s latest data release shows that in 11 percent of assignments run through its AI detection tool that at least 20 percent of each assignment had evidence of AI use in the writing. In 3 percent of the assignments, each assignment was made up of 80 percent or more of AI writing, which tracks closely with what the company was seeing just 3 months after it launched its AI detection tool .

Experts warn against fixating on cheating and plagiarism

However, a separate survey of educators has found that AI detection tools are becoming more popular with teachers, a trend that worries some experts.

The survey of middle and high school teachers by the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit focused on technology policy and consumer rights, found that 68 percent have used an AI detection tool, up substantially from the previous year. Teachers also reported in the same survey that students are increasingly getting in trouble for using AI to complete assignments. In the 2023-24 school year, 63 percent of teachers said students had gotten in trouble for being accused of using generative AI in their schoolwork, up from 48 percent last school year.

Despite scant evidence that AI is fueling a wave in cheating, half of teachers reported in the Center for Democracy and Technology survey that generative AI has made them more distrustful that their students are turning in original work.

Some experts warn that fixating on plagiarism and cheating is the wrong focus.

This creates an environment where students are afraid to talk with their teachers about AI tools because they might get in trouble, said Tara Nattrass, the managing director of innovation and strategy at ISTE+ASCD, a nonprofit that offers content and professional development on educational technology and curriculum.

“We need to reframe the conversation and engage with students around the ways in which AI can support them in their learning and the ways in which it may be detrimental to their learning,” she said in an email to Education Week. “We want students to know that activities like using AI to write essays and pass them off as their own is harmful to their learning while using AI to break down difficult topics to strengthen understanding can help them in their learning.”

Shift the focus to teaching AI literacy, crafting better policies

Students said in the Stanford survey that is generally how they think AI should be used: as an aid to understanding concepts rather than a fancy plagiarism tool.

Nattrass said schools should be teaching AI literacy while including students in drafting clear AI guidelines.

Nattrass also recommends against schools using AI detection tools. They are too unreliable to authenticate students’ work, she said, and false positives can be devastating to individual students and breed a larger environment of mistrust. Some research has found that AI detection tools are especially weak at identifying the original writing of English learners from AI-driven prose.

“Students are using AI and will continue to do so with or without educator guidance,” Nattrass said. “Teaching students about safe and ethical AI use is a part of our responsibility to help them become contributing digital citizens.”

AI detection software actually uses AI to function: these tools are trained on large amounts of machine- and human-created writing so that the software can ideally recognize differences between the two.

Turnitin claims that its AI detector is 99 percent accurate at determining whether a document was written with AI, specifically ChatGPT, as long as the document was composed with at least 20 percent of AI writing, according to the company’s website.

Chechitelli pointed out that no detector or test—whether it’s a fire alarm or medical test—is 100 percent accurate.

While she said teachers should not rely solely on AI detectors to determine if a student is using AI to cheat, she makes the case that detection tools can provide teachers with valuable data.

“It is not definitive proof,” she said. “It’s a signal that taken with other signals can be used to start a conversation with a student.”

As educators become more comfortable with generative AI, Chechitelli said she predicts the focus will shift from detection to transparency: how should students cite or communicate the ways they’ve used AI? When should educators encourage students to use AI in assignments? And do schools have clear policies around AI use and what, exactly, constitutes plagiarism or cheating?

“What the feedback we’re hearing now from students is: ‘I’m gonna use it. I would love a little bit more guidance on how and when so I don’t get in trouble,” but still use it to learn, Chechitelli said.

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ChatGPT and cheating: 5 ways to change how students are graded

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Associate Dean, School of Graduate Studies & Professor, Faculty of Education, Queen's University, Ontario

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Louis Volante receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Don A. Klinger receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

Christopher DeLuca does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Universities and schools have entered a new phase in how they need to address academic integrity as our society navigates a second era of digital technologies , which include publicly available generative artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT. Such platforms allow students to generate novel text for written assignments .

While many worry these advanced AI technologies are ushering in a new age of plagiarism and cheating , these technologies also introduce opportunities for educators to rethink assessment practices and engage students in deeper and more meaningful learning that can promote critical thinking skills.

We believe the emergence of ChatGPT creates an opportunity for schools and post-secondary institutions to reform traditional approaches to assessing students that rely heavily on testing and written tasks focused on students’ recall, remembering and basic synthesis of content.

Cheating and ChatGPT

Estimates of cheating vary widely across national contexts and sectors .

Sarah Elaine Eaton, an expert who studies academic integrity, cautions cheating may be under-reported : she has estimated that at Canadian universities, 70,000 students buy cheating services every year.

How the recent launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI will impact cheating in both compulsory and higher education settings is unknown, but how this evolves may depend on whether or not institutions retain or reform traditional assessment practices.

Evading plagiarism detection software?

The ability of popular plagiarism detection tools to identify cheating using ChatGPT to generate assignments remains a challenge.

A recent study , not yet peer reviewed, found that 50 essays generated using ChatGPT produced sophisticated texts that were able to evade the traditional plagiarism check software.

Given that ChatGPT reached an estimated 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after its launch, it is understandable why some have argued AI applications such as ChatGPT will spur enormous changes in contemporary schooling.

Policy responses to AI and ChatGPT

Not surprisingly, there are opposing views on how to respond to ChatGPT and other AI language models.

Some argue educators should embrace AI as a valuable technological tool, provided applications are cited correctly .

Others believe more resources and training are required so educators are better able to catch instances of cheating.

Still others, such as New York City’s Department of Education, have resorted to blocking AI applications such as ChatGPT from devices and networks .

Forward-thinking assessment

The figure below depicts three critical elements of a forward-thinking assessment system. Although each element could be elaborated, our focus is in offering educators a series of strategies that will allow them to maintain academic standards and promote authentic learning and assessment in the face of current and future AI applications.

Teachers and university professors have relied heavily on “one and done” essay assignments for decades. Essentially, a student is assigned or asked to pick a generic essay topic from a list and submit their final assignment on a specific date.

Such assignments are particularly susceptible to new AI applications, as well as contract cheating — whereby a student buys a completed essay. Educators now need to rethink such assignments. Here are some strategies.

1. Consider ways to incorporate AI in valid assessment.

It’s not useful or practical for institutions to outright ban AI and applications like ChatGPT.

AI has already been incorporated into some university classrooms . We believe AI technologies must be selectively integrated so that students are able to reflect on appropriate uses and connect their reflections to learning competencies.

For example, Paul Fyfe, an English professor who teaches about how humans interact with data describes a “pedagogical experiment” in which he required students to take content from text-generating AI software and weave this content into their final essay.

Students were then asked to confront the availability of AI as a writing tool and reflect on the ethical use and evaluation of language modes.

2. Engage students in setting learning goals.

Ensuring students understand how they will be graded is key to any good assessment system.

Inviting students to collaboratively establish learning goals and criteria for the task, with consideration for the role of AI software, would help students to evaluate and judge appropriate contexts in which AI can work as a learning tool.

Read more: Unlike with academics and reporters, you can't check when ChatGPT's telling the truth

3. Require students to submit drafts for feedback.

Although students should still complete essay assignments, research into academic integrity policy in response to generative AI suggests students should be required to submit drafts of their work for review and feedback. Apart from helping to detect plagiarism, this kind of “formative assessment” practice is positive for guiding student learning .

Feedback can be offered by the teacher or by students themselves. Peer- and self-feedback can serve to critically evaluate work in progress (or work generated by AI software).

4. Grade subcomponents of the task.

Students could receive a grade for each subcomponent — including their involvement in feedback processes. They would also be evaluated in relation to how well they incorporated and attended to the specific feedback provided.

The assignment becomes bigger than a final essay, it becomes a product of learning, where students’ ideas are evaluated from development to final submission.

5. Move to more authentic assessments or include performance elements.

Good assessment practice involves an educator observing student learning across multiple contexts.

For example, educators can invite students to present their work, discuss an essay in a conference format or share a video articulation or an artistic representation. The aim here is to encourage students to share their learning through an alternative format. An important question to ask is whether or not you need the essay component at all? Is there a more authentic way to effectively assess student learning?

Authentic assessments are those that relate content to context. When students are asked to do this, they must apply knowledge in more practical settings, often making AI tools less helpful.

For help in rethinking assessment practices towards more authentic and alternative approaches, educators can consider taking the free course, Transforming Assessment: Strategies for Higher Education .

Improve benefits for students

Collectively, these suggestions may be more time-consuming, particularly in larger undergraduate classes.

But they do provide greater learning and synergy between forms of assessment that benefit students: formative assessment to guide teaching and learning, and “summative assessment,” primarily used for grading and evaluation purposes.

AI is here and here to stay, and we must embrace it as part of our learning environment. Incorporating AI into how we assess student learning will yield more reliable assessment processes and valid and valued assessment outcomes.

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• University study
• university policy
• Student assessment
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Why Students Cheat—and What to Do About It

A teacher seeks answers from researchers and psychologists. 

“Why did you cheat in high school?” I posed the question to a dozen former students.

“I wanted good grades and I didn’t want to work,” said Sonya, who graduates from college in June. [The students’ names in this article have been changed to protect their privacy.]

My current students were less candid than Sonya. To excuse her plagiarized Cannery Row essay, Erin, a ninth-grader with straight As, complained vaguely and unconvincingly of overwhelming stress. When he was caught copying a review of the documentary Hypernormalism , Jeremy, a senior, stood by his “hard work” and said my accusation hurt his feelings.

Cases like the much-publicized ( and enduring ) 2012 cheating scandal at high-achieving Stuyvesant High School in New York City confirm that academic dishonesty is rampant and touches even the most prestigious of schools. The data confirms this as well. A 2012 Josephson Institute’s Center for Youth Ethics report revealed that more than half of high school students admitted to cheating on a test, while 74 percent reported copying their friends’ homework. And a survey of 70,000 high school students across the United States between 2002 and 2015 found that 58 percent had plagiarized papers, while 95 percent admitted to cheating in some capacity.

So why do students cheat—and how do we stop them?

According to researchers and psychologists, the real reasons vary just as much as my students’ explanations. But educators can still learn to identify motivations for student cheating and think critically about solutions to keep even the most audacious cheaters in their classrooms from doing it again.

Rationalizing It


First, know that students realize cheating is wrong—they simply see themselves as moral in spite of it.

“They cheat just enough to maintain a self-concept as honest people. They make their behavior an exception to a general rule,” said Dr. David Rettinger , professor at the University of Mary Washington and executive director of the Center for Honor, Leadership, and Service, a campus organization dedicated to integrity.

According to Rettinger and other researchers, students who cheat can still see themselves as principled people by rationalizing cheating for reasons they see as legitimate.

Some do it when they don’t see the value of work they’re assigned, such as drill-and-kill homework assignments, or when they perceive an overemphasis on teaching content linked to high-stakes tests.

“There was no critical thinking, and teachers seemed pressured to squish it into their curriculum,” said Javier, a former student and recent liberal arts college graduate. “They questioned you on material that was never covered in class, and if you failed the test, it was progressively harder to pass the next time around.”

But students also rationalize cheating on assignments they see as having value.

High-achieving students who feel pressured to attain perfection (and Ivy League acceptances) may turn to cheating as a way to find an edge on the competition or to keep a single bad test score from sabotaging months of hard work. At Stuyvesant, for example, students and teachers identified the cutthroat environment as a factor in the rampant dishonesty that plagued the school.

And research has found that students who receive praise for being smart—as opposed to praise for effort and progress—are more inclined to exaggerate their performance and to cheat on assignments , likely because they are carrying the burden of lofty expectations.

A Developmental Stage

When it comes to risk management, adolescent students are bullish. Research has found that teenagers are biologically predisposed to be more tolerant of unknown outcomes and less bothered by stated risks than their older peers.

“In high school, they’re risk takers developmentally, and can’t see the consequences of immediate actions,” Rettinger says. “Even delayed consequences are remote to them.”

While cheating may not be a thrill ride, students already inclined to rebel against curfews and dabble in illicit substances have a certain comfort level with being reckless. They’re willing to gamble when they think they can keep up the ruse—and more inclined to believe they can get away with it.

Cheating also appears to be almost contagious among young people—and may even serve as a kind of social adhesive, at least in environments where it is widely accepted.  A study of military academy students from 1959 to 2002 revealed that students in communities where cheating is tolerated easily cave in to peer pressure, finding it harder not to cheat out of fear of losing social status if they don’t.

Michael, a former student, explained that while he didn’t need to help classmates cheat, he felt “unable to say no.” Once he started, he couldn’t stop.

Technology Facilitates and Normalizes It

With smartphones and Alexa at their fingertips, today’s students have easy access to quick answers and content they can reproduce for exams and papers.  Studies show that technology has made cheating in school easier, more convenient, and harder to catch than ever before.

To Liz Ruff, an English teacher at Garfield High School in Los Angeles, students’ use of social media can erode their understanding of authenticity and intellectual property. Because students are used to reposting images, repurposing memes, and watching parody videos, they “see ownership as nebulous,” she said.

As a result, while they may want to avoid penalties for plagiarism, they may not see it as wrong or even know that they’re doing it.

This confirms what Donald McCabe, a Rutgers University Business School professor,  reported in his 2012 book ; he found that more than 60 percent of surveyed students who had cheated considered digital plagiarism to be “trivial”—effectively, students believed it was not actually cheating at all.

Strategies for Reducing Cheating

Even moral students need help acting morally, said  Dr. Jason M. Stephens , who researches academic motivation and moral development in adolescents at the University of Auckland’s School of Learning, Development, and Professional Practice. According to Stephens, teachers are uniquely positioned to infuse students with a sense of responsibility and help them overcome the rationalizations that enable them to think cheating is OK.

1. Turn down the pressure cooker. Students are less likely to cheat on work in which they feel invested. A multiple-choice assessment tempts would-be cheaters, while a unique, multiphase writing project measuring competencies can make cheating much harder and less enticing. Repetitive homework assignments are also a culprit, according to research , so teachers should look at creating take-home assignments that encourage students to think critically and expand on class discussions. Teachers could also give students one free pass on a homework assignment each quarter, for example, or let them drop their lowest score on an assignment.

2. Be thoughtful about your language.   Research indicates that using the language of fixed mindsets , like praising children for being smart as opposed to praising them for effort and progress , is both demotivating and increases cheating. When delivering feedback, researchers suggest using phrases focused on effort like, “You made really great progress on this paper” or “This is excellent work, but there are still a few areas where you can grow.”

3. Create student honor councils. Give students the opportunity to enforce honor codes or write their own classroom/school bylaws through honor councils so they can develop a full understanding of how cheating affects themselves and others. At Fredericksburg Academy, high school students elect two Honor Council members per grade. These students teach the Honor Code to fifth graders, who, in turn, explain it to younger elementary school students to help establish a student-driven culture of integrity. Students also write a pledge of authenticity on every assignment. And if there is an honor code transgression, the council gathers to discuss possible consequences. 

4. Use metacognition. Research shows that metacognition, a process sometimes described as “ thinking about thinking ,” can help students process their motivations, goals, and actions. With my ninth graders, I use a centuries-old resource to discuss moral quandaries: the play Macbeth . Before they meet the infamous Thane of Glamis, they role-play as medical school applicants, soccer players, and politicians, deciding if they’d cheat, injure, or lie to achieve goals. I push students to consider the steps they take to get the outcomes they desire. Why do we tend to act in the ways we do? What will we do to get what we want? And how will doing those things change who we are? Every tragedy is about us, I say, not just, as in Macbeth’s case, about a man who succumbs to “vaulting ambition.”

5. Bring honesty right into the curriculum. Teachers can weave a discussion of ethical behavior into curriculum. Ruff and many other teachers have been inspired to teach media literacy to help students understand digital plagiarism and navigate the widespread availability of secondary sources online, using guidance from organizations like Common Sense Media .

There are complicated psychological dynamics at play when students cheat, according to experts and researchers. While enforcing rules and consequences is important, knowing what’s really motivating students to cheat can help you foster integrity in the classroom instead of just penalizing the cheating.

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Teaching excellence & educational innovation.

Identify possible reasons for the problem you have selected. To find the most effective strategies, select the reason that best describes your situation, keeping in mind there may be multiple relevant reasons.

Students cheat on assignments and exams..

Students might not understand or may have different models of what is considered appropriate help or collaboration or what comprises plagiarism.

Students might blame their cheating behavior on unfair tests and/or professors.

Some students might feel an obligation to help certain other students succeed on exams—for example, a fraternity brother, sorority sister, team- or club-mate, or a more senior student in some cultures.

Some students might cheat because they have poor study skills that prevent them from keeping up with the material.

Students are more likely to cheat or plagiarize if the assessment is very high-stakes or if they have low expectations of success due to perceived lack of ability or test anxiety.

Students might be in competition with other students for their grades.

Students might perceive a lack of consequences for cheating and plagiarizing.

Students might perceive the possibility to cheat without getting caught.

Many students are highly motivated by grades and might not see a relationship between learning and grades.

Students are more likely to cheat when they feel anonymous in class.

This site supplements our 1-on-1 teaching consultations. CONTACT US to talk with an Eberly colleague in person!

• Teaching Tips

Cheating: Preventing and Dealing with Academic Dishonesty

Someday it will happen to you. A student will turn in such an excellent, well-written paper that you seriously doubt its authenticity. Or, during a test, you will look up and find a student copying from another student. The sinking feeling that immediately weighs in on you could be overwhelming as you realize you must decide how to deal with a suspected or actual case of cheating.

If it hasn’t happened to you yet, either you are new at the game, you have your head in the sand, or you have been incredibly lucky. Or, perhaps you have created a situation in which cheating is unlikely. Studies show that about 40 percent of students cheat in a given term.

An Ounce of Prevention

Communicate Policies on Cheating

My institution requests all instructors to state their policy on cheating in the syllabus. Believe it or not, students have argued that they should not be punished for cheating because they were never told they couldn’t do it. State clearly when students may cooperate and when they must work independently. Students who have been encouraged to use programmable calculators in math courses may naturally expect that they can use them in your class. (Many calculators permit considerable amounts of text to be stored in their memories. Either design the test so that calculators are not necessary, or insist that they push the erase button to delete text memory.)

Relate With Your Students: Avoid Adversarial Relationships

Students may cheat because they feel alienated from the system. Let your students know that you respect them and expect the best from them. I believe students are less likely to cheat if they feel they know and like the instructor. Learning and using students’ names in class may have a beneficial side effect of reducing cheating.

Teach Students What Plagiarism Is So They Can Avoid Doing It

The nature of cheating depends on the assignment. Written assignments run the risk of plagiarism. Some instructors may be surprised to learn that students sometimes plagiarize unintentionally because they do not know enough about what constitutes scholarship. Before giving written assignments, it is a good idea to discuss how to credit other people’s work. Some departments promulgate written guidelines on plagiarism.

We will discuss later what to do when you suspect cheating. But one technique that is particularly suited to written assignments is to ask a student whom you suspect of plagiarism to explain something in the paper in other words. More sophisticated techniques include blanking out key words and asking the student to fill in the spaces.

Structure Writing Assignments So Students Cannot Use Others’ Work

Having informed students what plagiarism is, you should structure the timing of the assignment in such a way that plagiarism becomes less likely. Several weeks before the final paper is due ask the students for a statement of their topic. Next ask for a preliminary list of references that they intend to consult. Then have them turn in a tentative outline. Any changes you may suggest at these stages will make it more difficult for them to turn in a paper previously prepared by someone else. The only clear case of plagiarism I have experienced occurred with a student who had missed several weeks of class and skipped these stages. Your guidelines should suggest that they keep all drafts of their work, notes, printouts of computer searches, etc. They should photocopy the first page of every article or book cited in their reference list. This way they can’t cite papers they haven’t at least laid eyes on. Some faculty also inform students that they keep a record of all papers written, or the papers themselves, for the preceding five years.

Take Control of the Test Situation

Arrange the classroom situation to suit the nature of the test. You may want students to sit in every other seat, take assigned seats to break up groups of would-be cheaters, or leave the front row open for latecomers, etc. Some instructors number all tests and have students leave completed tests face down on the desk. Then they may be picked up in order, and papers of suspected cheaters can be compared for similarities. (Be aware that papers can be similar if students study together. But hearing boards that review suspected cases of cheating can be skeptical of purely statistical evidence.)

I require students to reverse baseball caps because the bill makes it harder for you to monitor their gaze. (I do not ask for their removal: A student may be taking chemotherapy, or just having a bad hair day.)

You should resist their complaints to the contrary and efforts to put you on the defensive. You do not need to explain why they should follow your instructions. You may instruct a student who is behaving suspiciously to sit elsewhere without making an accusation or justifying yourself.

Opinions vary on how faculty members should dress. But) make a point to dress in a businesslike manner on test day because I believe it is important to convey to students that they should take the situation seriously and the professor’s appearance can make the point without making them uncomfortable.

How you manage the testing situation depends on factors such as the type of test, class size and whether you reuse the same test for different classes or across semesters. Because I seldom reuse tests, for example, I generally do not need to count the booklets as) pass them out, nor do I need to recover them. But once a student has left the room, I do not permit that student to reenter. In large classes, I use alternate forms of the exam (e.g., same items appear in three different orders) so that a student looking at a classmate’s answer sheet is not helped by doing so. Simply changing the order of pages is not nearly as effective as scrambling items within pages.

If your class is large enough that you don’t know all students, require them to show picture ID and sign their test (as well as print their name on the test). Be sure to have additional proctors in large classes. I try to have help in classes larger than 75, about one for every additional 100 students.

Be Prepared

After teaching for 30 years I thought) knew all the tricks students used. Then one term I was confronted by two new ones. So I sat down and compiled a list of over 40 different ways to cheat, and about the same number of ways to prevent cheating. I am sure there are more. My point is that we need to keep a very large number of variables and contingencies in mind on test day.

For example, what would you do if you entered your classroom and saw “Professor X’s test has been canceled” written on the blackboard and many of the students had left? Suppose the fire alarm goes off in the middle of the test. Suppose students go to leave the test and find the doors locked by computer. Then, when you use the emergency phone to call campus security you are advised that the only way to unlock them is to pull the fire alarm. Imagine running out of test booklets because the secretary miscounted. All of these have happened in my experience.

During the test, the student can cheat in two basic ways: refer to contraband materials or get help from another person. I have already mentioned the use of programmable calculators. Students occasionally wear earphone tape recorders to tests. I require them to give me the cassette. Less technologically sophisticated but effective is hiding written material under clothing, which is awkward to prove for obvious reasons.

A student receiving help from neighbors is probably harder to detect. Folklore tells of the “power wedge,” whereby a group of students arranges itself in the pattern of geese in flight with the one who knows the material in the lead position. Signaling methods can be ingenious; the “M&M” method indicates the correct alternative by the color of the candy. A simpler method is to point to the question with the pencil as if studying it and touching left ear for “a,” knee for “b,” etc. Be on the lookout for students who appear to be doing an impression of a third base coach.

One of the most clever methods includes a student bringing a friend who is not in the course to sit next to him or her. The friend takes an exam and works on it as if a registered student. The actual student copies the answers from the ringer. When they are done, the ringer can either walk away and leave the test at the seat or turn it in with a fake name. Alternatively, the ringer can walk out with the test, which could also wind up in a fraternity file.

When a Student Cheats

Know and Follow Your Institution’s Procedures

My institution has a written set of guidelines on dealing with cheating. Be familiar with your institution’s policies and know what steps are available to you before an incident arises. Have the student(s) read the guidelines so they become familiar with the alternatives and processes set forth.

Settling Matters Informally

Generally, you should first try to settle the matter informally. But you and the student need to know how to proceed if the student denies the charge, or refuses to accept your proposed penalty. If you are lucky enough to settle the matter informally, be sure to get the student to sign a statement admitting the offense and accepting the penalty. You should file this statement for possible future use and send a copy to the department chair or the dean. This student may be a repeat offender requiring more serious action.

Settling Matters Formally

Some cheating incidents will require resolution through formal institutional processes. Be aware of deadlines and what information must be submitted. Write memos to your file on incidents of cheating that you witness. Write down details of the case such as who sat next to the student. Have TAs or proctors write statements on what they witnessed. Get signed statements from all parties, including the student, if he or she confesses. In brief, keep a paper trail.

The Legal System and Cheating

We live in a litigious society and many situations that were once dealt with informally now wind up in court. The best way to avoid lawsuit is to know and abide by your institution’s policies and procedures. Many faculty look the other way when they see cheating because they believe that it is necessary to have evidence that would stand up in a court of law, or they believe the procedures are too bureaucratic and they do not want to deal with them.

Courts will generally not get involved in a case if the student has been accorded due process, which is a less stringent criterion that having to follow legal rules of evidence and procedure. Due process has been accorded when the student has had an adequate opportunity to be heard, established institutional rules and procedures have been followed, the student has been assumed innocent until proven guilty, and the burden of proof has been placed on the institution.

Keep a Sense of Humor

Finally, do not take yourself too seriously. One instructor was trying to get the last stragglers to turn in their final exams. He announced that he would not accept any more papers after a certain time. Still, one student kept on working. When she ignored his final ultimatum, he refused to accept her paper. She walked up to the desk, looked him in the eye, and said, “Do you know who I am?” Thinking that she might be the daughter of a trustee, he warily said, “No.” Whereupon, she slipped her paper into the middle of the pile, squared it up, and strolled out. Sometimes there is nothing we can do.

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About the Author

Donald McBurney received his PhD from Brown University in 1964 and has proctored exams and read term papers for more than 30 years, first at the University of Tennessee, and now at the University of Pittsburgh where he is professor of Psychology. He works in sensory processes and perception, specializing in psychophysical work on taste and smell. He is the author or coauthor of three textbooks, Introduction to Sensation/Perception (2nd ed.), Prentice-Hall, 1984; Research Methods (3rd ed.), Brooks/Cole, 1994, and How to Think Like a Psychologist, Prentice-Hall (forthcoming).

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Privacy Overview

Adjusting to an Online Cheating Environment

By shoellis

By: Sierra President, Ethics and Policy Intern

Today, cheating is easier than ever. Regardless of its ease, cheating is still frowned upon in most traditional academic settings and will lead to negative consequences if caught. And yet, people continue to cheat. The recent advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), an overload of online resources, and a lack of student understanding regarding academic policies make it more likely that students will cheat and get away with it. Since we are in a digital age, where notebooks are replaced with screens and pencils are traded for keyboards, academics must find ways to regulate the use of these new technologies. If they don’t, learning and integrity may be put on the back burner while students still reap the benefit of their ill-gotten degrees.

What is cheating?

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, cheating is defined as “to deprive of something valuable by the use of deceit or fraud.” [1] However, this blog is focused on cheating in an academic environment. Many universities have their definitions for cheating and typically consider it academic dishonesty.

For instance, the Office of Student Conduct website says, “Generally, academic misconduct can be thought of as any behavior that involves the giving, taking, or presenting of information by a student that unethically or fraudulently aids the student or another on any work which is to be considered in the determination of a grade or the completion of academic requirements or the enhancement of that student’s record or academic career.” [2]

The website also describes the most common forms of cheating, which include:

• Copying from another assignment or test,
• Collaborating with others on an assignment with the professor has required independent work,
• Using outside resources when completing an assignment or test,
• Falsifying test answers or grades. [3]

Under its Code of Student Conduct, NC State also expands its definition of cheating to account for technological advances. Specifically, the code says, “Using materials, equipment, or assistance in connection with an assignment, examination, or other academic exercise which have not been authorized by the faculty member, including but not limited to notes, calculator, or other technology.” [4]

Many universities nationwide have policies like NC State’s. Students should acknowledge these definitions, but educators must also recognize the benefits of using online resources.

Why are students cheating?

According to the International Center for Academic Integrity, 68 percent of undergraduate students say they have cheated on their assignments. [5] It might seem obvious why students cheat, but the University of Buffalo’s Office of Academic Integrity released a list that describes multiple reasons why students cheat, including some that may not immediately come to mind. [6] This list includes:

• Poor time management,
• Wanting to help friends,
• Fear of failure,
• Because everyone else is doing it,
• Unmonitored environment or weak assignment design, and
• Lack of academic policy understanding.

In an article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education , Owen Kichizo Terry expanded on the reasoning as to why students cheat by saying that the emergence of AI, like ChatGPT, makes it harder to get caught. [7] In the article, he provided a blueprint for how ChatGPT can be used to write an essay without detection. Terry argued, “In reality, it’s very easy to use AI to do the lion’s share of the thinking while still submitting work that looks like your own.” He said that ChatGPT can give students multiple ideas for a singular prompt. So, if a student uses one of the chatbot’s options and changes the words, then a professor may not think twice about who wrote it.

Kathryn Hulick wrote a ScienceNews article arguing that since ChatGPT and similar programs create new material, it is hard to consider plagiarism because plagiarism is when someone else’s existing work is copied without credit. Hulick also argued that, while there are many illegitimate uses for the technology, AI can also help with writing, like how calculators help with math, and Google helps find facts. Hulick also said that ChatGPT, for example, can help students struggling with sentence structure and grammar. [8] It is likely that when universities do not have policies about tools like chatbots that use AI, students may not see it as an issue to use them for assignments. While most universities are actively developing their AI policies, professors have recommended that students unsure about when and how to use AI should come to them for a conversation. This is particularly important since students may not realize the potential negative impacts of using AI.

What are the punishments for cheating?

Punishments for cheating can vary based on the assignment, professor, and academic institution. Ironically, I asked ChatGPT what can happen if someone cheats on an assignment. ChatGPT outlined several penalties that universities could require for cheating, which include:

• Receiving a failing grade
• Academic probation
• Loss of privileges (access to campus facilities or activities)
• A note on the student’s permanent record
• Required completion of an academic integrity course
• Suspension or expulsion
• Legal action

It is important to note that ChatGPT only provided an overview of the possible penalties, meaning that it is possible for a student not to receive any punishment or to receive something that is not on this list. Each professor, department, and university has a different way of handling cheating, some of which may include a warning system.

In 2020, Georgia Tech had a cheating scandal when it was discovered that multiple students in an online physics class were using Chegg to get complete answers to their final exam. [9] Chegg is a company that provides digital homework help. Since users can freely post on the website, the answers to some assignments are posted in their entirety, giving students another way to cheat. The physics class received an email stating that if they admitted to using Chegg, they would be offered a second chance to take the exam. If a student did not admit to cheating but was found to have been using Chegg during the exam, they were reported to the Dean’s Office for Academic Misconduct and recommended to fail the course. Similar Chegg investigations were also underway at Texas A&M and Boston University. [10] Chegg states in their honor code that they do not condone the use of their website for cheating and will act against anyone who violates this, which should deter students from these actions. [11]

Jarrod Morgan, the founder of online test proctoring site ProctorU, said finances are a huge stressor for college students. [12] The possibility of having to repeat a course and pay for it again can add to their stress.

How can professors and administrators limit cheating?

The easy answer is to bring back in-person paper and pencil tests. However, the ease of using technology in classrooms makes this an unlikely option. As of 2023, 87 percent of classrooms globally use digital teaching practices. [13] There is now an “arms race” between technological advances that make cheating easier for students and technologies meant to detect or prevent cheating. Below are some tools and initiatives that can help educators monitor online cheating.

Vicky Harmon, the instructional design and manager of professional development at Arizona State University-Tempe, said, “If a student is going to do it, they’re going to do it, but we try to make it as difficult as possible.” [14] As a result of professors trying to manage cheating concerns, below are some helpful tools:

• Online Test Proctoring which monitors and records a student’s test taking to ensure outside materials aren’t used.
• Plagiarism Software which helps professors cross reference written assignments with possibly plagiarized information.
• AI Detection Software is discussed more in-depth in Ethics of College Students Using ChatGPT
• Lockdown browsers require students to download software on their computers, which limits the number of browsers that the student can open while they are taking exams.

AI Advancement Initiatives, Guidelines and Policies

Aside from using software to detect and prevent cheating, many universities are making students and faculty aware of changes in AI.

In Fall of 2023, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill created the UNC-Chapel Hill Generative AI Committee to help students and staff adapt to AI. This committee included a broad range of faculty and staff members and provided guidance for employees and students about how to use AI in classroom, research, and administrative work. This guidance outlines the following main points about the use of AI in teaching and class assignments:

• Students should only use AI to help them think, not to complete assignments,
• AI should be used responsibly and ethically,
• Students are fully responsible for their submitted work and cannot blame AI for anything wrong or false,
• Students should document any time they use AI,
• Professors reserve the right to change specific AI guidelines depending on the assignment/exam, and
• Confidential or personal information should not be put into AI tools.

UNC-Chapel Hill also has a “Carolina AI Literacy” initiative, which currently provides three instructional videos for students on:

• AI prompting and thinking,
• AI misinformation and biases, and
• AI plagiarism and citation. [15]

UNC-Chapel Hill also has Generative AI Training Modules for faculty members. These modules are split into these categories:

• Module 1 – Introduction to Generative AI
• Module 2 – The Art & Science of Prompting AI
• Module 3 – Teaching with AI
• Module 4 – Ensuring Academic Integrity with AI
• Module 5 – Launching Your AI Trajectory [16]

The UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center provides tips that explain what generative AI is, how it can be used in education, and what the downsides of it can be. [17]

What is the takeaway?

In summary, there is no way around it: technology-based school learning is here to stay. Instead of trying to avoid it, professors need to be upfront with students as early as possible about what is and what is not accepted.

Professors should also take advantage of the online tools that are available to help them in their professional duties, including monitoring cheating.

With the quick emergence of AI, students may find out about new platforms before a professor can give the okay on its usage. To combat this, universities need to create and continuously update initiatives regarding AI. As a result of the fast-paced evolution of AI, UNC-Chapel Hill uses recommendations and best practices about AI usage, but in the future, this may shift towards requiring certain behavior through policy. It is also important for students and faculty alike to cooperate and communicate during this process since this new way of learning is new for everyone.

[1] Cheat Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster

[2] Academic Integrity: Overview | Office of Student Conduct (ncsu.edu)

[3] Academic Misconduct | Office of Student Conduct (ncsu.edu)

[4] POL 11.35.01 – Code of Student Conduct – Policies, Regulations & Rules (ncsu.edu)

[5] Think Twice Before Cheating in Online Courses (usnews.com)

[6] Common Reasons Students Cheat – Office of Academic Integrity – University at Buffalo

[7] I’m a Student. You Have No Idea How Much We’re Using ChatGPT. (chronicle.com)

[8] How ChatGPT and similar AI will disrupt education (sciencenews.org)

[9] Georgia Tech warns physics students who cheated: Confess or fail (ajc.com)

[10] Texas A&M investigating ‘large scale’ cheating case as universities see more academic misconduct in era of online classes – ABC13 Houston

[11] Honor Code | Chegg

[12] How Cheating in College Hurts Students (usnews.com)

[13] What Percentage of Schools Use Technology in the Classroom? (techyinspire.com)

[14] Think Twice Before Cheating in Online Courses (usnews.com)

[15] Videos | Carolina AI Literacy (unc.edu)

[16] Generative AI Training Modules (tarheels.live)

[17] Generative AI in Academic Writing – The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (unc.edu)

Watch CBS News

8 Top Websites that Students Use to Cheat

By Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Updated on: May 6, 2011 / 6:37 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

In an attempt to answer that question, Turnitin , a company dedicated to uncovering plagiarism , looked at more than 40 million student papers. The firm concluded that the most popular website for plagiarism is the trusted source that millions of us Americans turn to to learn stuff: Wikipedia .

Interestingly enough, Turnitin said that the websites that are designed to assist cheaters by, for instance, selling papers represent only 15% of the potentially plagiarized content that the company detected.

In contrast, one third of the suspicious content that Turnitin uncovered was traced to social networks such as Facebook and question-and-answer sites where users contribute and share content.

Do Students Know They Are Cheating?

8 top sites for plagiarism.

• Wikipedia Encylopedia
• Yahoo! Answers Social & content sharing site
• Answers.com Social & content sharing site
• Slideshare Social and content sharing site
• OPPapers.com Cheat site & paper mill
• Scribd Social & content sharing site
• Course Hero Homework & academic site
• MedLibrary.org Homework & academic site

View all articles by Lynn O'Shaughnessy on CBS MoneyWatch» Lynn O'Shaughnessy is a best-selling author, consultant and speaker on issues that parents with college-bound teenagers face. She explains how families can make college more affordable through her website TheCollegeSolution.com ; her financial workbook, Shrinking the Cost of College ; and the new second edition of her Amazon best-selling book, The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price .

More from CBS News

• Free Speech

Shades of Gray on Student Cheating

By  Melissa Ezarik

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Getty E+ / baona

How acceptable is it to use study websites, or Google, to find answers to test or homework questions? What about using unapproved technology or tools to assist in an online exam? And would it be OK to give credit to another team member on a group project even if that person did not participate?

These are a few ways the latest Student Voice survey , conducted in mid- to late October by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse with support from Kaplan, explored the nuances of academic integrity and what students view as unethical.

Kathy Baron, an education journalist and host of The Score , a podcast about cheating in higher education that launched in October, recalls an Obama-era Department of Education leader remarking that one either has academic integrity or doesn’t, with no middle ground. But when she interviews students, she finds, “It’s not that clear to them. They do see gradations.”

For example, more than half of the Student Voice respondents see googling during homework as at least somewhat acceptable. And nearly half say it’s at least somewhat acceptable to use study websites. “People will talk about chegging like they do about googling,” says Karen Symms Gallagher, who spent 20 years as dean of the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and is now a senior research faculty member there.

When David Rettinger, president emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI), looked over the Student Voice data, he was drawn to the numbers that showed how much students realize certain actions would be considered cheating. “Some of [the unacceptable responses] are a little lighter for sure, but students generally would describe these behaviors as unacceptable,” says Rettinger, a professor of psychological science and director of academic integrity programs at the University of Mary Washington. “Their institutions talk about these things, and students know what they’re supposed to do, yet students cheat a fair bit.”

He can imagine a stressed-out student saying, “I know it’s unacceptable, mostly I don’t do it, but in this situation I’m going to do something I generally don’t believe in.”

“That poses a problem for us as administrators,” he adds.

What’s acceptable to students may be seen differently by professors and administrators. When Warren Frisina, dean of the Rabinowitz Honors College at Hofstra University, was working on development of the institution’s Academic Honor Code (affirmed by faculty, student government and the president in 2012 and announced the following year), students and faculty members were asked similar questions as in the Student Voice survey.

“We found that students and faculty lined up on just about everything except for students helping one another do homework,” he says. “That was an interesting divergence. In students’ minds, if you’re in your dorm working on homework and your roommate is, too, it seemed not only appropriate but a good idea to allow the other person to help you or to help the person. It’s not about sending in the same work, but faculty tended to assume that students knew they weren’t allowed to consult with anybody.”

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One Oregon public university respondent to the Student Voice survey noted that professors’ expectations aren’t always clear or fair. “On the homework, I feel like it doesn’t matter as much. If you don’t know how to do it, and knowing the answer helps you figure out the process and learn, then I think you should be able to [look it up]. It’s not like we spend time in class going over the homework, and the tutoring centers aren’t always helpful,” the student wrote.

Besides specifics about what constitutes cheating, the survey asked about how fairly students believe their institutions handle cheating, with more than eight in 10 of the full sample agreeing at least somewhat that it’s fair. With this student perspective on academic integrity, campus leaders can be better equipped to develop policy and practice around reporting suspected cheating, managing those accusations and determining consequences.

Searching for Answers

Student perceptions of the most basic online tool, the search engine, are split pretty evenly by those who think it’s ethically acceptable to use to get answers and those who don’t. Filtered to include only students who say their college officials often or very often communicate about academic integrity and cheating in some way (n=600), only 10 percent more students think googling on homework is unacceptable. When looking only at students who say their institution has very clear policies around academic integrity and cheating (n=1,100), the percentage finding it unacceptable is just slightly higher.

Both these findings suggest that perhaps messaging should include expectations about the use of search engines. Or, maybe education helps, but it does not move the needle on ethical behaviors very much.

One respondent, from a private college in New York, wrote that “learning should not be about memorization, so it should be okay on … assignments to discuss with others, use notes and use the internet. Rarely does one need to know information in a vacuum.” (The student goes on to note that “cheating is only considered cheating because it is explicitly not allowed, not because it is actually an unethical behavior.”)

Renee Pfeifer-Luckett, director of learning technology development for the University of Wisconsin system’s Office of Learning and Information Technology Services, points out that googling is an important workplace soft skill, particularly because of the need to confirm the accuracy of information. Pfeifer-Luckett, who has presented on learning tech tools used to ensure academic honesty, adds, “That’s a skill I use thousands of times a week.”

Students are also split on the use of study websites to find answers for homework or test questions—although such websites have gotten a lot of criticism from higher ed professionals. The responses about whether they are OK to use don’t vary much by those whose colleges address academic integrity frequently or by those who say their institution’s policies around cheating are very clear.

Baron recently interviewed a journalism student struggling with calculus who used study websites but also went to the tutoring center almost daily. “She just wanted to do well and understand it,” Baron says.

“Chegg has become really popular recently for problem solving,” says Pamela Vallejos, a biochemistry major at Hofstra who serves with six other undergraduates (plus faculty and staff) on the institution’s Honor Board. “I have friends who use it if they don’t understand something and need help. But it’s really up to the student how they use it. A lot of students don’t even realize it’s an easy way to catch a student cheating.”

Online exams appear to be seen as more sacred by students, with the majority of survey respondents saying that using unapproved technology or tools in exams is very unacceptable and only 17 percent seeing it as somewhat or very acceptable. “I think what you’re seeing is that the vast majority of students don’t cheat on exams most of the time,” says Rettinger.

Pulling Their Weight

As Vallejos says she has experienced firsthand , some students will get away with doing less or even no work on a group project.

There are certainly those “free riders,” says Alexander Matros, a professor of economics at the University of South Carolina who conducted research on cheating in the early part of the pandemic . And then there are those “who try to be perfect so they have finished the task and don’t care about contributions from everybody.”

When Pfeifer-Luckett used to teach marketing, figuring out how to design group work was challenging. One strategy involved splitting up all the marketing majors and dividing others by major, keeping general business, accounting and human resources program students in different groups. “I’d put one of each of those flavored students together,” she says. Other strategies included lots of check-ins and having the group members rate each other at the end. “But I never found a real effective way to make groups run efficiently,” she admits.

Getting Accused

The percentage of Student Voice respondents who say they have turned in a fellow student for cheating can be shown on one hand, and just a few others say they’ve been accused of either cheating or plagiarism. (A September survey by Online Plagiarism Checker , representing English-speaking students worldwide, showed similar findings in how many students have ever reported cheating.)

Vallejos found herself on the receiving end of an informal accusation early in the pandemic when she was back home in South America—trying to continue her studies while in quarantine in a farm area without Wi-Fi. “The only connection I had was through my phone,” she says, and that became a big problem when she was asked to take a quiz over Zoom. “The cellular only lasted five to 10 minutes, and it wasn’t strong enough to not look choppy. In my professor’s eyes, it was an intention of trying to cheat. He didn’t understand, and I ended up dropping the class.”

Experts focused on academic integrity cite a number of reasons for the low numbers of those reported for cheating. Professors may underreport because they don’t trust the systems the institution has in place to manage an accusation, or they may worry the institution will be too hard on students, Rettinger explains. Others feel that nothing will be done and they don’t want to be undermined, or waste their time.

Professors may also not want to admit students are cheating in their classes because “they see it as a reflection on them,” says Symms Gallagher.

Sitting on the Hofstra Honor Board, Vallejos has seen just how much goes into making an accusation and has come to believe some professors are afraid to report. Then there are professors who are “tired of students cheating” and will seemingly “do anything to find something to report,” she says.

When Hofstra put its Honor Code in place, one goal was to increase the number of reports, Frisina says, adding that the goal was realized early on. Still, many professors want to manage the situation themselves. “They just want to do the right thing for the kid in front of them,” he explains.

What’s the most common reason for reluctance to report? In Rettinger’s experience, it’s simply not having enough evidence.

Eren Bilen, a professor in the department of data analytics at Dickinson College who worked with Matros on the study about cheating in the pandemic, says it must be “undeniable that a student cheated. And the only way to get such evidence when an exam is given online is to be there with the student. If using a Zoom call and something is fishy, that’s not clear evidence.” Without proof, students can’t be issued consequences.

Yet not reporting creates inequities. “If faculty handle cheating in their own way, it’s not fair to students,” says Rettinger. “An institutional system protects students’ rights if done well.”

When Christopher Small, an academic resources and technology operations specialist at Southern New Hampshire University, used to teach at another institution, plagiarism was particularly challenging because an institutionwide system did not exist. “I just had to deal with it all and write a letter to the dean, explaining the severity level,” he says. “It was on the instructor to decide punitive measures.”

Being Heard

At Hofstra, the Honor Board’s job is “the care and feeding of the Honor Code,” says Frisina. That includes forming a committee of board members to hear incidents.

“I’ve attended one, and it was an interesting experience,” says Vallejos. “It was good to hear both sides, the professor and the student. It opens your eyes.”

Flowcharts posted on Hofstra’s Honor Code website visualize the academic dishonesty procedures for undergraduate and graduate students, which Frisina says helps both students and professors to have a clear understanding of the steps.

Rettinger, who sits in on many of the student-run hearings at Mary Washington, says “emotions run the gamut.” Some students feel disappointed in themselves, and “some students are defiant—it’s the everybody-else’s-fault-but-mine approach,” he adds. Rettinger sees a lot of students who fear for the future, too. “Those of us who run these processes want to take that part out, building a process that’s not punitive but educational.”

Students are still held accountable, though, Rettinger adds. “It’s important to think of the student that didn’t cheat on an assignment. When a student cheats, their actions have implications for everyone in the class.”

Systems where students run the entire process, including appeals, are very rare, to his knowledge. “No one knows the answer to this question, but there are probably fewer than 100 student-run systems in the U.S.—probably far fewer, but I’m being safe,” he says. Students have a substantive voice at additional colleges. But in terms of institutions like that outside the United States, Rettinger says, “there are probably close to zero, or a handful at most.”

At Mary Washington, the council includes five representatives from each of the four undergraduate classes, plus graduate school members and a president elected by the entire student body.

Facing the Consequences

At most colleges and universities, accusations of cheating either get ignored or result in punitive consequences, says Tricia Bertram Gallant, director of the academic integrity office at the University of California, San Diego, and a former board member of ICAI.

Some have implemented restorative justice approaches to formally get the accused and the accuser talking, and healing. Others, like SNHU, says Small, “try to turn the language and culture away from punitive charges to what academic integrity does for you.”

More coverage on the Student Voice academic integrity survey: How Students See Cheating, and How Colleges Can Contain It

At UCSD, it’s all about that teachable moment. “The reaction to cheating doesn’t need to be punitive, especially the first time,” says Bertram Gallant.

Students must reflect on the experience, talking about contributing factors. Then most complete an academic integrity seminar and learn how to make better ethical decisions.

Those facing suspension for cheating get an additional quarter during which an integrity peer mentor helps them work on whatever might be causing issues. Provided no more violations come up, the suspension gets canceled. The idea for students, says Bertram Gallant, is “to prove you want to be a member of this community that upholds academic integrity.”

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The university says creative writing faculty recommended returning its Jones Lectureships to their “original intent”

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A.I. Is Making It Easier Than Ever for Students to Cheat

Look out, educators. You’re about to confront a pernicious new challenge that is spreading, kudzu-like , into your student writing assignments: papers augmented with artificial intelligence.

The first online article generator debuted in 2005. Now, A.I.-generated text can now be found in novels , fake news articles and real news articles , marketing campaigns, and dozens of other written products. The tech is either free or cheap to use, which places it in the hands of anyone. And it’s probably already burrowing into America’s classrooms right now.

Using an A.I. program is not “plagiarism” in the traditional sense—there’s no previous work for the student to copy, and thus no original for teachers’ plagiarism detectors to catch. Instead, a student first feeds text from either a single or multiple sources into the program to begin the process. The program then generates content by using a set of parameters on a topic, which then can be personalized to the writer’s specifications. With a little bit of practice, a student can use AI to write his or her paper in a fraction of the time that it would normally take to write an essay.

I wanted to see what would happen if I fed an A.I. text generator like Sudowrite some sample texts for assignments. (Sudowrite is just one such program; I could name more, but I’d rather not make it even easier for students to cheat.) The results showed that teachers must be made aware of what is coming to their classrooms.

Say a student wanted to write an essay about U.S.-China policy and decided to use an A.I. program to speed along the process. I fed it the first few lines from a recent Pentagon report : “The PRC is increasingly clear in its ambitions and intentions. Beijing seeks to reshape the international order to better align with its authoritarian system and national interests, as a vital component of its strategy to achieve the ‘great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.’ ” The A.I. text generator provided these following sentences:

It is increasingly willing to disregard—or to actively undermine—existing international rules and norms when it feels its vital interests are at stake. The U.S. and its allies face a rapidly modernizing military, whose capabilities are growing rapidly, especially in the air and at sea. China has also made great strides in its development of cyber capabilities, and it is focused on the ability to degrade or disrupt critical U.S. military technology, as well as on targeting civilian infrastructure. In addition to being a challenge to the U.S. military and its allies, China’s activities in cyberspace have the potential to degrade U.S. political and economic institutions, and the global information infrastructure is at risk. 

If a high school student turned that in verbatim, their teacher would probably suspect that there was something amiss. But if this were turned in at the undergraduate or graduate level, and especially if the student were to edit the text, it would be much harder to detect.

Or let’s say they need to write a paper about climate change. Here’s what came up when I fed Sudowrite the first few lines from an article on climate change impacts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website:

Though we often think about human-induced climate change as something that will happen in the future, it is an ongoing process. Ecosystems and communities in the United States and around the world are being impacted today. 

It’s not particularly insightful, but it provides the A.I. program some basic building blocks. The artificial intelligence continued along this slightly edited line of reasoning:

The consensus view emerging from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other respected assessments is that the planet is warming because of the accumulation of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere caused by human activity. The level of scientific consensus that human activities are primarily responsible for climate change is like the consensus finding on smoking causing lung cancer.

The program had likely already been trained to know the term “climate change” was connected to the IPCC; by making certain inferences it could generate text which seemed like a reasonable extension of the idea.

What about ninth-grade English? Channeling my 14-year-old self, I wrote these lines:

“Romeo and Juliet” is a play that explores many different topics such as romance, betrayal, and tragedy. It has interesting characters that make it such a good story, even 400 years later. 

The computer spat back this take (which I’ve edited slightly):

Romeo, the main character, is a very passionate and immature young man who is torn between his love for Rosaline and his love for Juliet. He is also very rash and desperate to get Juliet and will do almost anything to win her. His desperation for Juliet is an interesting trait and is one that the younger kids can relate to, as well as older adults with first crushes. Romeo is an interesting character and is very different from how kids would imagine him to be. But he is also a great inspiration, showing that love is worth fighting for.

Again, the A.I. program had been previously trained to know that Romeo and Juliet contained certain characters, themes, and plot elements. But what stood out to me was that the text was crafted at an appropriate writing level for a high schooler, who would be reading about these star-crossed lovers for the first time. The awkward phrasing and the syntax errors baked into the program make it seem convincing.

I’ve struggled to find the right analogy to describe this phenomenon. Is using A.I. to write graded papers like athletes taking performance-enhancing drugs? As a society and as a sporting culture, we’ve decided certain drugs are forbidden, as they provide the user unfair advantages. Further, the cocktail of drugs flowing through these competitors and malicious sports programs could cause real physical and psychological harm to the athletes themselves. Would individuals using AI in writing be likewise considered in the same boat—a cheat to the system providing undue advantages, which also creates harm in the long run by impeding writing skills?

Or might using A.I. be more like using performance-enhancing gear in sports, which is both acceptable and encouraged? To use another sports analogy, even beginner tennis players today use high-performance carbon composite rackets instead of 1960s-era wooden racket technology. Swimmers wear nylon and elastane suits and caps to reduce drag. Bikers have stronger, lighter bicycles than their counterparts used a generation ago. Baseball bats evolved from wood to aluminum and developed better grips; baseball mitts have become more specialized over the decades.

Numerous educators assert that A.I. is more like the former. They consider using these programs violate academic integrity. Georgetown University professor Lise Howard told me, “I do think it’s unethical and an academic violation to use AI to write paragraphs, because academic work is all about original writing.” Written assignments have two purposes, argues Ani Ross Grubb, part-time faculty member in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College: “First is to test the learning, understanding, and critical thinking skills of students. Second is to provide scaffolding to develop those skills. Having AI write your assignments would go against those goals.”

Certainly, one can argue that this topic has already been covered in university academic integrity codes. Using A.I. might open students to serious charges. For instance, American University indicates, “All papers and materials submitted for a course must be the student’s original work unless the sources are cited” while the University of Maryland similarly notes that it is prohibited to use dishonesty to “gain an unfair advantage, and/or using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic course or exercise.”

But some study aids are generally considered acceptable. When writing papers, it is perfectly fine to use grammar- and syntax-checking products standard on Microsoft Word and other document creating programs. Other A.I. programs like Grammarly help write better sentences and fix errors. Google Docs finishes sentences in drafts and emails.

So the border between using those kinds of assistive computer programs and full-on cheating remains fuzzy. Indeed, as Jade Wexler, associate professor of special education at the University of Maryland, noted, A.I. could be a valuable tool to help level the playing field for some students. “It goes back to teachers’ objectives and students’ needs,” she said. “There’s a fine balance making sure both of those are met.”

Thus there are two intertwined questions at work. First: Should institutions permit A.I.-enhanced writing? If the answer is no, then the second question is: How can professors detect it? After all, it’s unclear whether there’s a technical solution to keeping A.I. from worming into student papers. An educator’s up-to-date knowledge on relevant sources will be of limited utility since the verbiage has not been swiped from pre-existing texts.

Still, there may be ways to minimize these artificial enhancements. One is to codify at the institutional level what is acceptable and what is not; in July the Council of Europe took a few small steps, publishing new guidelines which begin to grapple with these new technologies creating fraud in education. Another would be to keep classes small and give individual attention to students. As Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman, associate professor of English at Northern Kentucky University, noted, “When a writing instructor is in a classroom situation where they are unable to provide individualized attention, the chance for students to phone it in—whether this is plagiarism, A.I., or just writing in a boring, uninvested way—goes up.” More in-class writing assignments—no screens allowed—could also help. Virginia Lee Strain, associate professor of English and director of the honors program at Loyola University Chicago, further argued, “AI is not a problem in the classroom when a student sits down with paper and pencil.”

But in many settings, more one-on-one time simply isn’t a realistic solution, especially at high schools or colleges with large classes. Educators juggle multiple classes and courses, and for them to get to know every student every semester isn’t going to happen.

A more aggressive stance would be for high schools and universities to explicitly declare using A.I. will be considered an academic violation—or at least update their honor codes to reflect what they believe is the right side of the line concerning academic integrity. That said, absent a mechanism to police students, it might paradoxically introduce students to a new way to generate papers faster.

Educators realize some large percentage of students will cheat or try to game the system to their advantage. But perhaps, as Hindman says, “if a professor is concerned that students are using plagiarism or AI to complete assignments, the assignments themselves are the problem, not the students or the AI.” If an educator is convinced that students are using these forbidden tools, he or she might consider using alternate means to generate grades such as assigning oral exams, group projects, and class presentations. Of course, as Hindman notes, “these types of high-impact learning practices are only feasible if you have a manageable number of students.”

AI is here to stay whether we like it or not. Provide unscrupulous students the ability to use these shortcuts without much capacity for the educator to detect them, combined with other crutches like outright plagiarism, and companies that sell papers, homework, and test answers, and it’s a recipe for—well, not disaster, but the further degradation of a type of assignment that has been around for centuries.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate , New America , and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

Professors want to 'ChatGPT-proof' assignments, and are returning to paper exams and requesting editing history to curb AI cheating

• College professors are looking to "ChatGPT-proof" assignments to curb cheating.
• Some professors suggest returning to paper exams and asking students to show editing histories. 
• Changes to assignments come as teachers debate the usage of generative AI in the classroom. 

Since OpenAI's ChatGPT came out last November, a number of teachers have caught their students using the chatbot to cheat and plagiarize on their assignments.

Now, professors at colleges across the US and beyond are trying out ways to "ChatGPT-proof" their assignments, as concerns grow that students may be missing out on learning by using AI cut corners and tools that detect AI-generated text have been found to be prone to errors.

Bonnie MacKellar, a computer science professor at St. Johns University in New York, said that she is making students in her intro courses take paper exams instead of digital ones and having them handwrite their code. Paper exams will be a bigger portion of her students' grades this fall, she said, compared to previous semesters. In turn, students will be disincentivized to outsource their logical thinking to AI, which she said could stunt their learning and leave them unprepared for more advanced computer science classes down the line.

"I hear colleagues in humanities courses saying the same thing: It's back to the blue books," MacKellar said.

Other professors seek to curb AI cheating by reframing assignment questions so students are required to "show their work," William Hart-Davidson, an associate dean at Michigan State University who leads AI workshops for faculty members, told Insider over email.

Assignment questions, Hart-Davidson said, "should include a request for students to be explicit and reflective about the moves they are making."

"We don't just want them to reproduce a fact or a rote response, but to learn to account for their reasoning in a deliberate way," he said.

For instance, ChatGPT can easily answer a straight-forward question like "Tell me in three sentences what is the Krebs cycle in chemistry?" he said.

To avoid this, Hart-Davidson told Insider that teachers should reframe the question to something like "revise an existing passage" on the Krebs cycle, which would require students to point out errors, identify writing for clarity and accuracy, and explain how the writing could be improved.

That way, students are forced to think through their answers, rather than regurgitate what a chatbot tells them, which Hart-Davidson said could help improve their writing.

Related stories

Some professors suggest students show their work by including their editing history and drafts along with their completed assignments. A document that logs all the typos corrected and the sentences rephrased in an essay can prove that a human wrote it, Dave Sayers, a professor at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, wrote for the Times Higher Education , an education blog.

A guide from Butler University in Indianapolis on how to chatbot-proof assignments suggests that teachers could eliminate the essay, issue impromptu oral exams, and foster classroom discussions around how to best use the chatbot's responses.

The changes to school assignments come as teachers grapple with how to best integrate AI tools like ChatGPT into their classrooms. While some professors require their students to use ChatGPT to generate project ideas , some schools have outright banned the usage of AI to avoid cases of academic dishonesty.

Despite the controversy, some teachers are using AI chatbots themselves to streamline their workflows. Shannon Ahern, a high school math and science teacher in Dublin, Ireland, previously told Insider she used ChatGPT Plus to write lesson plans , generate exercise worksheets, and come up with quiz questions, which she claimed saved her hours of time.

As far as cheating goes, some teachers don't see that changing — with or without AI.

"I worried that my students would use it to cheat and plagiarize," Ahern said. "But then I remembered that students have always been cheating — whether that's copying a classmate's homework or getting a sibling to write an essay — and I don't think ChatGPT will change that."

Are you a student that secretly uses AI for your school work? Reach out to Insider's Aaron Mok at [email protected], or by encrypted messaging app Signal at 718-710-8200. Your identity will remain anonymous.

Watch: What is ChatGPT, and should we be afraid of AI chatbots?

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Why Students Cheat on Homework and How to Prevent It

One of the most frustrating aspects of teaching in today’s world is the cheating epidemic. There’s nothing more irritating than getting halfway through grading a large stack of papers only to realize some students cheated on the assignment. There’s really not much point in teachers grading work that has a high likelihood of having been copied or otherwise unethically completed. So. What is a teacher to do? We need to be able to assess students. Why do students cheat on homework, and how can we address it?

Like most new teachers, I learned the hard way over the course of many years of teaching that it is possible to reduce cheating on homework, if not completely prevent it. Here are six suggestions to keep your students honest and to keep yourself sane.

ASSIGN LESS HOMEWORK

One of the reasons students cheat on homework is because they are overwhelmed. I remember vividly what it felt like to be a high school student in honors classes with multiple extracurricular activities on my plate. Other teens have after school jobs to help support their families, and some don’t have a home environment that is conducive to studying.

While cheating is  never excusable under any circumstances, it does help to walk a mile in our students’ shoes. If they are consistently making the decision to cheat, it might be time to reduce the amount of homework we are assigning.

I used to give homework every night – especially to my advanced students. I wanted to push them. Instead, I stressed them out. They wanted so badly to be in the Top 10 at graduation that they would do whatever they needed to do in order to complete their assignments on time – even if that meant cheating.

When assigning homework, consider the at-home support, maturity, and outside-of-school commitments involved. Think about the kind of school and home balance you would want for your own children. Go with that.

PROVIDE CLASS TIME

Allowing students time in class to get started on their assignments seems to curb cheating to some extent. When students have class time, they are able to knock out part of the assignment, which leaves less to fret over later. Additionally, it gives them an opportunity to ask questions.

When students are confused while completing assignments at home, they often seek “help” from a friend instead of going in early the next morning to request guidance from the teacher. Often, completing a portion of a homework assignment in class gives students the confidence that they can do it successfully on their own. Plus, it provides the social aspect of learning that many students crave. Instead of fighting cheating outside of class , we can allow students to work in pairs or small groups  in class to learn from each other.

Plus, to prevent students from wanting to cheat on homework, we can extend the time we allow them to complete it. Maybe students would work better if they have multiple nights to choose among options on a choice board. Home schedules can be busy, so building in some flexibility to the timeline can help reduce pressure to finish work in a hurry.

GIVE MEANINGFUL WORK

If you find students cheat on homework, they probably lack the vision for how the work is beneficial. It’s important to consider the meaningfulness and valuable of the assignment from students’ perspectives. They need to see how it is relevant to them.

In my class, I’ve learned to assign work that cannot be copied. I’ve never had luck assigning worksheets as homework because even though worksheets have value, it’s generally not obvious to teenagers. It’s nearly impossible to catch cheating on worksheets that have “right or wrong” answers. That’s not to say I don’t use worksheets. I do! But. I use them as in-class station, competition, and practice activities, not homework.

So what are examples of more effective and meaningful types of homework to assign?

• Ask students to complete a reading assignment and respond in writing .
• Have students watch a video clip and answer an oral entrance question.
• Require that students contribute to an online discussion post.
• Assign them a reflection on the day’s lesson in the form of a short project, like a one-pager or a mind map.

As you can see, these options require unique, valuable responses, thereby reducing the opportunity for students to cheat on them. The more open-ended an assignment is, the more invested students need to be to complete it well.

DIFFERENTIATE

Part of giving meaningful work involves accounting for readiness levels. Whenever we can tier assignments or build in choice, the better. A huge cause of cheating is when work is either too easy (and students are bored) or too hard (and they are frustrated). Getting to know our students as learners can help us to provide meaningful differentiation options. Plus, we can ask them!

This is what you need to be able to demonstrate the ability to do. How would you like to show me you can do it?

REDUCE THE POINT VALUE

If you’re sincerely concerned about students cheating on assignments, consider reducing the point value. Reflect on your grading system.

Are homework grades carrying so much weight that students feel the need to cheat in order to maintain an A? In a standards-based system, will the assignment be a key determining factor in whether or not students are proficient with a skill?

Each teacher has to do what works for him or her. In my classroom, homework is worth the least amount out of any category. If I assign something for which I plan on giving completion credit, the point value is even less than it typically would be. Projects, essays, and formal assessments count for much more.

CREATE AN ETHICAL CULTURE

To some extent, this part is out of educators’ hands. Much of the ethical and moral training a student receives comes from home. Still, we can do our best to create a classroom culture in which we continually talk about integrity, responsibility, honor, and the benefits of working hard. What are some specific ways can we do this?

Building Community and Honestly

• Talk to students about what it means to cheat on homework. Explain to them that there are different kinds. Many students are unaware, for instance, that the “divide and conquer (you do the first half, I’ll do the second half, and then we will trade answers)” is cheating.
• As a class, develop expectations and consequences for students who decide to take short cuts.
• Decorate your room with motivational quotes that relate to honesty and doing the right thing.
• Discuss how making a poor decision doesn’t make you a bad person. It is an opportunity to grow.
• Share with students that you care about them and their futures. The assignments you give them are intended to prepare them for success.
• Offer them many different ways to seek help from you if and when they are confused.
• Provide revision opportunities for homework assignments.
• Explain that you partner with their parents and that guardians will be notified if cheating occurs.
• Explore hypothetical situations.  What if you have a late night? Let’s pretend you don’t get home until after orchestra and Lego practices. You have three hours of homework to do. You know you can call your friend, Bob, who always has his homework done. How do you handle this situation?

EDUCATE ABOUT PLAGIARISM

Many students don’t realize that plagiarism applies to more than just essays. At the beginning of the school year, teachers have an energized group of students, fresh off of summer break. I’ve always found it’s easiest to motivate my students at this time. I capitalize on this opportunity by beginning with a plagiarism mini unit .

While much of the information we discuss is about writing, I always make sure my students know that homework can be plagiarized. Speeches can be plagiarized. Videos can be plagiarized. Anything can be plagiarized, and the repercussions for stealing someone else’s ideas (even in the form of a simple worksheet) are never worth the time saved by doing so.

In an ideal world, no one would cheat. However, teaching and learning in the 21st century is much different than it was fifty years ago. Cheating? It’s increased. Maybe because of the digital age… the differences in morals and values of our culture…  people are busier. Maybe because students don’t see how the school work they are completing relates to their lives.

No matter what the root cause, teachers need to be proactive. We need to know why students feel compelled to cheat on homework and what we can do to help them make learning for beneficial. Personally, I don’t advocate for completely eliminating homework with older students. To me, it has the potential to teach students many lessons both related to school and life. Still, the “right” answer to this issue will be different for each teacher, depending on her community, students, and culture.

STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS IN SECONDARY

You are so right about communicating the purpose of the assignment and giving students time in class to do homework. I also use an article of the week on plagiarism. I give students points for the learning – not the doing. It makes all the difference. I tell my students why they need to learn how to do “—” for high school or college or even in life experiences. Since, they get an A or F for the effort, my students are more motivated to give it a try. No effort and they sit in my class to work with me on the assignment. Showing me the effort to learn it — asking me questions about the assignment, getting help from a peer or me, helping a peer are all ways to get full credit for the homework- even if it’s not complete. I also choose one thing from each assignment for the test which is a motivator for learning the material – not just “doing it.” Also, no one is permitted to earn a D or F on a test. Any student earning an F or D on a test is then required to do a project over the weekend or at lunch or after school with me. All of this reinforces the idea – learning is what is the goal. Giving students options to show their learning is also important. Cheating is greatly reduced when the goal is to learn and not simply earn the grade.

Thanks for sharing your unique approaches, Sandra! Learning is definitely the goal, and getting students to own their learning is key.

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• Using ChatGPT for Assignments | Tips & Examples

Using ChatGPT for Assignments | Tips & Examples

Published on February 13, 2023 by Jack Caulfield and Tobias Solis. Revised on November 16, 2023.

People are still figuring out the best use cases for ChatGPT , the popular chatbot based on a powerful AI language model. This article provides some ideas for how to use ChatGPT and other AI tools to assist with your academic writing .

These tools can assist you with the following steps when writing a paper, thesis , or dissertation :

• Developing a research question
• Creating an outline
• Generating literature ideas

Paraphrasing and summarizing text

• Getting feedback

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Table of contents

Developing a research question with chatgpt, creating an outline of your paper with chatgpt, generate literature ideas, getting feedback from chatgpt, limitations of chatgpt, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions.

You can use ChatGPT to help you formulate a clear and concise research question by generating and improving potential questions.

With the help of ChatGPT, you can develop a large number of possible research questions within a short time. This is a great way to generate ideas and different approaches to a topic.

However, make sure that the generated questions make sense and meet your needs. As you can see from our example, you can keep working with ChatGPT to adapt its suggestions to your needs (or just edit the text directly if you already have a clear idea of what you want).

First input

Develop three possible research questions on the following topic: “The influence of social media on political opinion formation.”

ChatGPT output

• To what extent does exposure to diverse political perspectives on social media affect individuals’ political opinions and behaviors?
• How does the personalized algorithm of social media platforms shape the formation of political opinions among its users?
• What are the underlying factors that determine the effect of social media on political opinion formation, and how can they be measured and analyzed?

Second input

Based on the second research question, develop three further research questions on the topic of polarization in US politics.

• Build my scientific method, qualitative discourse analysis, into each question
• Include the term “filter bubble” in each question
• How does the filter bubble effect on social media platforms contribute to the polarization of political attitudes in the US? A qualitative discourse analysis.
• What is the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US? A qualitative discourse analysis.
• How does the influence of filter bubbles on social media affect the ability of individuals to engage in productive political discourse across ideological divides in the US? A qualitative discourse analysis.

Third input

Try to incorporate “qualitative discourse analysis” into the questions themselves, instead of using it as a separate sentence.

• How does a qualitative discourse analysis of filter bubble effect on social media platforms contribute to understanding the polarization of political attitudes in the US?
• What is the contribution of a qualitative discourse analysis to understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US?
• How does a qualitative discourse analysis of the influence of filter bubbles on social media inform our understanding of the ability of individuals to engage in productive political discourse across ideological divides in the US?

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You can also use ChatGPT to help you draft a research paper outline or thesis outline . To do this, try generating possible headings and subheadings and then improving them. ChatGPT can help to generate a clear and well-structured outline, especially if you keep adjusting the structure with its help.

However, it doesn’t have a deep understanding of your topic. As a result, inappropriate headings may sometimes be generated. It’s important to check that the outline makes sense and covers all the points needed to answer your research question.

You should also ensure that the headings and subheadings follow a logical structure. Scribbr’s Proofreading & Editing service can help you with this.

Create an outline for an academic research paper with the following research question:

“What is the contribution of a qualitative discourse analysis to understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US?”

The paper will be about 8 pages long.

• Background information on filter bubbles and political echo chambers
• Purpose of the study
• Research question
• Thesis statement
• Definition and concept of filter bubbles
• Definition and concept of political echo chambers
• Previous studies on the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers
• Critiques and limitations of previous studies
• Research design
• Participants
• Data collection and analysis
• Validity and reliability
• Findings from qualitative discourse analysis
• Results related to the research question
• Implications of the findings
• Interpretation of the results
• Comparison with previous studies
• Limitations of the study
• Implications for future research
• Summary of the results
• Implications for understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers
• Conclusion and recommendations for future research
• List of references used in the paper
• Data collection materials
• Examples of qualitative data analysis

This seems like too much information to fit into only 8 pages. Can you condense the outline, for example removing the appendices and simplifying the structure?

• Background on filter bubbles and political echo chambers
• Definition of filter bubbles and political echo chambers
• Previous studies on the role of filter bubbles
• Limitations of previous studies
• Implications for understanding the role of filter bubbles
• Final thoughts

ChatGPT can be a useful way to generate ideas regarding what sources you might use in your work. Try asking it for suggestions about where to look and what to consider.

However, we advise against using it to find sources directly. It’s not designed for this and, if asked to do it, often just creates fake sources and presents them as real. Search a database like Google Scholar instead.

What types of sources could I use to write a paper on the following research question?

When writing a paper on the contribution of qualitative discourse analysis to understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US, you could use the following types of sources:

• Academic journals and articles: These are a good place to start when you’re looking for information on specific topics and they can provide you with in-depth analysis and perspectives on the topic at hand.
• Books and book chapters: These sources can provide comprehensive overviews of a particular topic and can also offer theoretical frameworks and historical perspectives.
• Government reports and studies: Government agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), may have conducted studies on the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating political echo chambers.
• News articles and media reports: These sources can provide insight into the current state of the issue, as well as opinions from various stakeholders.
• Online sources: Websites, blogs, and online forums can provide a range of perspectives on the topic and can also be useful in exploring the experiences of individuals who are affected by filter bubbles and political echo chambers.
• Data and statistics: Relevant data and statistics on the prevalence and impact of filter bubbles and political echo chambers in the US can be useful in providing evidence to support your arguments.
• Expert interviews and focus groups: Conducting expert interviews or focus groups with individuals who have experience with or knowledge of the topic can provide valuable insights and perspectives that can be used to support your arguments.

You can also try using ChatGPT to paraphrase or summarize text. ChatGPT can quickly condense the text or generate a number of different paraphrases of the same idea. You can keep typing “again” in the chat until you are satisfied with the result.

This kind of paraphrasing/summarizing can be helpful to, for example, non-native speakers who want to improve the fluency of their text. However, be careful. The outputs often:

• Contain grammatical errors
• Include false information

So you should always check the output to make sure it’s correct. If you’re unsure, you can run the text through the Scribbr Grammar Checker and cross-reference the information against other, more credible sources .

An alternative is to use the Scribbr Paraphrasing Tool or Scribbr’s free text summarizer , which were designed specifically for these purposes.

Paraphrase the following text:

“A filter bubble results from a social media algorithm’s attempts to cater to an individual user based on data such as their search history and previous behavior on the site. It results in the user only being presented with information that confirms their biases.”

Restructure the sentences and use other phrasings for the following parts:

• “results from”
• “only being presented with”

“A filter bubble is created when a social media algorithm customizes its content for a particular user based on their data, such as their search history and past actions on the platform. This leads to the user being confined to information that reinforces their pre-existing beliefs.” Note We strongly advise against having ChatGPT write text for you and trying to pass it off as your own work. This is academically dishonest and is widely considered plagiarism . It will usually result in an automatic fail, as well as other potential consequences .

Check for common mistakes

Use the best grammar checker available to check for common mistakes in your text.

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You can also use ChatGPT to get feedback on the argumentation and structure of your paper and suggestions for improvements.

An advantage of this is that you can get feedback from ChatGPT on different text excerpts at any time. However, one downside is that ChatGPT does not have a deep understanding of your research question, so its feedback and suggestions may be shallow or inappropriate.

This kind of feedback cannot replace input from an experienced academic supervisor who’s familiar with your topic. Use ChatGPT feedback as a supplement, not a substitute for human feedback.

If you need in-depth feedback on your writing from someone with academic expertise, try Scribbr’s Proofreading & Editing service .

[Text you want to get feedback on.]

Thank you for submitting your research paper for review. Let me provide you with my constructive criticism:

Clarity of Explanations: Overall, the explanations are clear and concise, but there are a few areas that could benefit from additional clarification. For example, in the first paragraph, you mention “the mental lexicon,” but do not provide a definition or further explanation for what this is. It would also be helpful to provide a definition of “lemma.”

Smoothness of Language: The language in the paper is generally smooth, but there are a few instances where it could be refined. For example, the sentence “The symptoms vary from adding superfluous words and taking pauses to hoarseness of the voice” could be rephrased to “The symptoms of these disorders can range from excessive use of words and pauses to hoarseness.”

Structure of Text: The structure of the text is clear, with each paragraph building on the previous one. However, the transition between the first two paragraphs could be smoother. Perhaps you could add a sentence or two to bridge the gap between the two topics.

Even though ChatGPT is a powerful writing tool, you should keep the following limitations in mind:

No original research

Risk of plagiarism, fake sources, fake “facts”.

ChatGPT was trained using existing texts, and the texts created by the AI are based on this data. It’s not capable of doing its own research, only of synthesizing sources that it was trained on.

Additionally, because the texts that it was trained on only go up to 2021, it’s unfamiliar with more recent world events, cultural trends, and developments in different fields of research. This means it may provide outdated information.

Because ChatGPT was trained using existing text, the AI tends to reuse that content in a way that may be considered plagiarism. The AI may copy text from an online publication in its responses.

Additionally, using ChatGPT to write your assignment for you is considered plagiarism regardless of where it got the content from, because you’re passing off something you didn’t write as your own work.

ChatGPT was trained on a wide variety of sources, but it’s not able to accurately tell you what sources it’s using for any given output. Worse, it has a tendency to make up sources that don’t actually exist when you ask.

In addition, ChatGPT is not designed as a citation generator and cannot add correctly formatted citations to your work. Instead, try a tool designed for this purpose, like the Scribbr Citation Generator .

ChatGPT is not always trustworthy when it comes to giving you factually correct information. While it doesn’t deliberately lie, it also doesn’t have “knowledge” in a traditional sense, and it lacks the ability to verify its claims.

Instead, its responses are based on recognizing and reproducing patterns that it has seen in other texts. This means that if it doesn’t “know” something, it tends to guess. And its guesses are presented with full confidence, just like established facts.

So it’s very important that you carefully check any factual claims made by ChatGPT against more credible sources —and don’t cite ChatGPT as a source of factual information for your research.

If you want more tips on using AI tools , understanding plagiarism , and citing sources , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations, examples, and formats.

• Citing ChatGPT
• Best grammar checker
• Best paraphrasing tool
• ChatGPT in your studies
• Deep learning
• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Best plagiarism checker

Citing sources

• Citation styles
• In-text citation
• Citation examples
• Annotated bibliography

You can use ChatGPT to assist in the writing process for your research paper , thesis , or dissertation in the following ways:

• Paraphrasing text

No, it’s not a good idea to do so in general—first, because it’s normally considered plagiarism or academic dishonesty to represent someone else’s work as your own (even if that “someone” is an AI language model). Even if you cite ChatGPT , you’ll still be penalized unless this is specifically allowed by your university . Institutions may use AI detectors to enforce these rules.

Second, ChatGPT can recombine existing texts, but it cannot really generate new knowledge. And it lacks specialist knowledge of academic topics. Therefore, it is not possible to obtain original research results, and the text produced may contain factual errors.

However, you can usually still use ChatGPT for assignments in other ways, as a source of inspiration and feedback.

No, it is not possible to cite your sources with ChatGPT . You can ask it to create citations, but it isn’t designed for this task and tends to make up sources that don’t exist or present information in the wrong format. ChatGPT also cannot add citations to direct quotes in your text.

Instead, use a tool designed for this purpose, like the Scribbr Citation Generator .

But you can use ChatGPT for assignments in other ways, to provide inspiration, feedback, and general writing advice.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. & Solis, T. (2023, November 16). Using ChatGPT for Assignments | Tips & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved August 29, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/ai-tools/chatgpt-assignments/

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How to Cheat On a Test

Last Updated: May 18, 2024 References

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 441 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 3,413,399 times. Learn more...

Whether you are simply unprepared, lazy, or otherwise unable to successfully pass an exam, you may feel compelled to use cheating as a strategy to get through a test. Here are some steps and tips to help you accomplish your goal and most likely get that A+ you've always wanted.

• Don't look suspicious. It's important to strike a balance between effectively getting your answers and not making it obvious. To do this, don't overly fidget. If you must look around, never hold your gaze in one place for longer than five to ten seconds. Switch it up by randomly staring in other directions — this way, your test supervisors won't get too suspicious and find out where your accomplice (or cheat sheet) is.
• Don't aim too high. It's not impossible to cheat your way into a perfect score if you really put in the effort, but if everyone else is getting an unremarkable grade on the exam, you will draw attention to yourself. This is fine if you normally get decent marks, but if you're known among teachers as one of the slower students, then there's a chance that they'll find out. Deliberately miss a few questions, though, and you'll be good to go. Try getting a B on a test and continually but slowly raising your average score until it's an A. You can even shoot for ups and downs in your scores, to make it appear more natural.
• Dispose of the evidence. As soon as the test is over, ask to go to the bathroom (if you haven't already gone) to wash off or throw away any evidence of cheating. The longer you hold on to something, then the better your chance of getting caught because one person or another will notice.

Using Cheat-Sheet Methods

• Try the "Body Part Cheat-Sheet" method. Instead of printing out the cheat sheet, try writing it on a part of your body. Good places include your forearm if you are a man or your upper thigh if you are a woman. These are both great because you can wear a dress or long sleeve shirt to cover up your cheat sheet when you aren't using it. It's important to not make it obvious that there is writing on your body. Put the words in a place that faces you only.
• Try the "Water Bottle Cheat-Sheet" method. Print out the cheat sheet on a colored piece of paper that matches that label of your water bottle. Paste it on the label and turn it so that it only faces you. Ideally, you want to mimic the writing on the label to avoid suspicion. [1] X Research source
• Try the "Binder Cheat-Sheet" method. If you have a binder that has a clear slot in the front, slide your cheat sheet into there. Move your binder from under your desk to the side of your desk to peek at your cheat sheet. Try to minimize the number of slides, especially if you don't have carpet in your classroom.
• Try the "Calculator Cheat-Sheet" method. This is common for people who are taking math tests because that's the only reasonable time to have a calculator without being suspicious. Slide formulas or information terms between the back of the calculator and the calculator's cover.
• Another Calculator Method to try: If you have a graphing calculator, save the math formulas into your calculator. Then, put the information into an archive, so you will still be able to get to it if your teacher makes you clear the RAM. Unarchive the information during the test. Clear the memory after the test. This also works if it's the school's calculator because no teacher or student is going to look in the archive. If you don't know how to archive things on a calculator, look it up. [2] X Research source
• Try the "Stashed Cheat-Sheet" method. Hide a cheat-sheet in a separate place altogether to avoid it getting connected back to you. This includes on a bulletin board in the classroom, in a bathroom stall, or on someone's chair.
• Wear a long-sleeved shirt and hide your cheat sheets under the sleeves. It is a very good method because your teacher won't look under your sleeves. And when your teacher isn't looking, you can easily take out a cheat sheet, and it's easy to put it back.

Implementing Partner-Cheating Methods

• Establish hand or foot tapping signals for A, B, C, D, E, and "wrong answer." By creating a signal for "wrong answer" you are going to improve the likelihood of you both doing well on the test by helping each other eliminate wrong answers. Also create a vocal noise for getting their attention that isn't suspicious (like a cough, or foot tap).
• Start by coughing to get their attention.
• Use your fingers to give the number of the question (flash 3 than a 2 to with your hand signal question "32").
• Wait for them to signal their answer (pulling their ear for "B").
• If you need help deciding between 2 answers: cough, give the question number, and signal for the answer you suspect it might be.
• They can nod their head if it's correct. if it's the wrong answer they can send the "wrong answer" signal (put up your hair in a ponytail).

Using Hard-to-Prove Methods

• Claim to be sick, go to the bathroom towards the end of the exam until it's over. Or pace yourself slowly. Be sure that your professor will let you come back before using this method as you could actually do worse if they don’t let you finish.

• Keep in mind that some classrooms have cameras. Avoid this if the one you are in does have a camera because if that is the case, it’s much riskier.

• If your exam paper is a question/answer type then remember to add one important point as the question and the other as the answer. You also have to include the page number and marks per question (if included).
• The next thing to do is a staple this piece of paper with the original question paper during the test without anyone noticing.

Implementing Studying Methods

• For essays , try to remember keywords and points. Usually, professors or teachers look for keywords or important points; the essay's formal "fluff" is less important. If you know the topic or possible topics of an essay question, cram four to five terms or important points you know your professor will be looking for instead of studying everything, thereby reducing the effort required. The same is true for short answers that require one or two sentences with keywords and points.
• For true-or-false exams, try studying the facts enough to pinpoint the details. Typically, there are more true statements on a test than false statements. If you find a statement where you have to change part of it to make it true, it's false.
• For multiple-choice exams , try "chunking" information you know will be on the test. Instead of memorizing a list of words, try breaking it into easier to remember smaller lists. [4] X Research source For example, if studying for a history test , instead of remembering "Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin, Washington, Grant, Lincoln, and Lee" break it up into the "4 of the founding fathers: Franklin, Washington, Jefferson and Hamilton" and the "3 civil war leaders: Lee, Lincoln, Grant." By memorizing the number of men to a specific topic, it'll be easier to narrow down who you are missing.
• For math exams , try to memorize formulas. Knowing a formula can be more powerful than spending hours doing practice problems. If you can write down a formula enough to memorize it, then you can spend the test trying to apply those to the problems.

Community Q&A

Tips from our Readers

• Try getting to class early and then write everything from the cheat sheet directly onto the desk with a pencil. At the end of the test, you can use your hand to wipe away the evidence.
• You can also try writing your answer on your arm and wearing a long sleeve shirt. Whenever you need to look, pull your sleeve down quickly and you have your answer!
• If you're someone who tends to sit cross-legged in class, you can slip a small page of notes in your shoe or boot.
• In some countries, certain methods of cheating on certain important tests is illegal and could entail jail time. [5] X Research source Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 0
• Other students may suspect you cheating and inform your teacher. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 1
• If this is a shared computer, you might consider deleting the browser history so you won't get caught by your parents. Thanks Helpful 6 Not Helpful 1
• There is always a possibility of getting caught. If you are found to be cheating, you could receive heavy penalties, such as getting an automatic zero on the test, suspension, or even expulsion. Many schools will even mark on your transcript indicating you violated the honor code. Instead of searching for how to cheat on a test, try finding tips on studying for exams. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 5
• In some countries e.g., those mentioned above, you must not possess any unauthorized material, or electronic equipment e.g., mobile phones in an exam room if you are taking an external exam, such as those detailed above, as this is a serious disciplinary offense. This applies even if you do not intend to use it.
• In many professions, you will need the knowledge you gain by studying instead of cheating. Remember, there is no cheating in the operating room when you're the surgeon operating on the patient or when you're in space as an astronaut flying far from Earth. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 1
• Don't brag about it. This may seem obvious, but it is something people do. You don't know who could tell the teacher. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• Always be aware of where the teacher is looking; no method of cheating is successful if the teacher is looking right at you while you hold the notes in your hand and are frantically copying them onto the test. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• If you are copying off the person next to you lean over and rest on your arm while tilting your head to the side to make sure it isn't obvious. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• If you had to cheat because you had no time, remember that it is still worth learning the content after the test. You may have cumulative tests afterward and some of these things could really help you in the future. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
• Partnering is always better than cheat sheets and the hard-to-prove methods are even better. Overall, the less evidence there is - the better it is for you. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1
• If you are allowed to chew gum, write the answers in a gum wrapper, then get out a piece of gum. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
• It is never a good idea to do this, because you may feel guilty afterward and get the urge to confess what you did, which most likely will land you in trouble. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1
• Even if you do manage to cheat without getting caught while suffering the stress of doing so, it is very unlikely that the few extra marks you gain will make much difference to the score. And you risk disqualification, expulsion, or being banned. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://edusson.com/blog/how-to-cheat-in-college
• ↑ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/11/10-crazy-and-inventive-ways-students-have-cheated-in-exams/
• ↑ http://www.creativeteachingsite.com/how-to-cheat-on-a-test.html
• ↑ http://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-learning/thinking/chunking/chunking-as-a-learning-strategy/
• ↑ http://time.com/4360968/china-gaokao-examination-university-entrance-cheating-jail-prison/

About This Article

To cheat on a test, try sitting diagonally behind someone who will do well on the topic, which will let you look over their shoulder and see their answers. If you know someone who’s willing to help you, use signs to communicate the right answers during the test, such as signing the shape of a letter for a multiple choice test. You could also try buying the instructor’s edition of your textbook online, since it contains example questions that may be used in the test. If you know that your professor will let you come back later to finish the test, make up an excuse, such as that you’re feeling unwell. Then, memorize the topics in the test so you can check the answers before you come back to finish the test. For tips on how to create a cheat sheet, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Insights into How & Why Students Cheat at High Performing Schools

“ A LOT of people cheat and I feel like it would ruin my character and personal standards if I also took part in cheating, but everyone tells me there’s no way I can finish the school year with straight As without cheating. It really makes me upset but I’m honestly contemplating it because colleges can’t see who does and doesn’t cheat. ” – High school student

“Academic dishonesty is any deceitful or unfair act intended to produce a more desirable outcome on an exam, paper, homework assignment, or other assessment of learning.” (Miller, Murdock & Grotwiel, 2017).

Cheating has been a hot topic in the news lately with the unfolding of the college admissions scandal involving affluent parents allegedly using bribery and forgery to help their kids get into selective colleges. Unfortunately, we also see that cheating is common among students in middle schools through graduate schools (Miller, Murdock & Grotwiel, 2017), including the high-performing middle and high schools that Challenge Success has surveyed. To better understand who is cheating in these high schools, how they are cheating, and what is driving this behavior, we looked at recent data from the Challenge Success Student Survey completed in Fall 2018—including 16,054 students from 15 high-performing U.S. high schools (73% public, 27% private). We asked students to self-report their engagement in 12 cheating behaviors during the past month. On each of the items, adapted from a scale developed by McCabe (1999), students could select one of four options: never; once; two to three times; four or more times. We found that 79% of students cheated in some way in the past month.

How Students Cheat & Who Does It

There are two types of cheating that the students we surveyed engage in: (1) cheating collectively and (2) cheating independently. Overall rates of cheating collectively were higher than rates of cheating individually. Examples of cheating collectively include, working on an assignment with others when the instructor asked for individual work, helping someone else cheat on an assessment, and copying from another student during an assessment with that person’s knowledge. Examples of independent cheating include using unpermitted cheat sheets during an assessment, copying from another student during an assessment without their knowledge, or copying material word for word without citing it and turning it in as your own work.

When we looked more closely at who is cheating according to our survey data, we found that 9 th graders were less likely than 10 th , 11 th , and 12 th graders to cheat individually and collectively. This is consistent with other research in the field that shows that cheating tends to increase with grade level (Murdock, Stephens, & Grotewiel, 2016). We also found that male students were more likely to cheat individually than female students. Broader research from the field about cheating by gender has yielded mixed results. Some find that rates for boys are higher than for girls, while others find no difference (McCabe, Treviño & Butterfield, 2001; Murdock, Hale & Weber, 2001; Anderman & Midgley, 2004).

Why Students Cheat

“I think what causes us stress during the school year is the amount of cheating going on around school…Some of my friends and classmates who have siblings or friends that took the classes before in a way have a copy of what the tests will look like. It makes them have a competitive advantage over other people who have no siblings or known friends that took the class before. To have people who have access to these past tests, it creates more stress on students because we have to study more and push ourselves harder.” – High School Student

Why are students cheating at such high rates? Previous research on cheating suggests students may be inclined to cheat and rationalize their behaviors because of various factors including:

• Performance over Mastery: Students may cheat because of the risk of low grades due to worry, pressure on academic performance, or a fixed mindset ( Miller, Murdock & Grotewiel, 2017). School environments perceived by students to be focused on performance goals like grades and test scores over mastery have been associated with behaviors such as cheating (Anderman & Midgley, 2004).
• Peer Relationships/Social Comparison: The increase of social comparisons and competition that many children and adolescents experience in high performing schools or classrooms or the desire to help a friend ( Miller, Murdock & Grotewiel, 2017) may be another factor of choosing to cheat. Students in high-achieving cultures, furthermore, tend to cheat more when they see or perceive their peers cheating (Galloway, 2012).
• Overloaded : Another factor in students cheating is the pressure in high-performing schools to “do it all” which can be influenced by heavy workloads and/or multiple tests on the same day ( Miller, Murdock & Grotewiel, 2017)
• “Cheat or be cheated” rationale: Students may rationalize cheating by blaming the teachers or situation. This often occurs when students see the teacher as uncaring or focused on performance over mastery ( Miller, Murdock & Grotewiel, 2017). Students may rationalize and normalize cheating as the way to succeed in a challenging environment where achievement is paramount (Galloway, 2012).
• Pressure: Students may also cheat because they feel pressure to maintain their status in a success focused community where they see the situation as “cheat or be cheated” ( Miller, Murdock & Grotewiel, 2017).

We see many of these factors reflected in our survey data. Students listed their major sources of stress as grades, tests, finals, or assessments (80% of students) and overall workload and homework (71% of students). We also found that 59% of students feel they have “too much homework,” 75% of students feel “often” or “always” stressed by their schoolwork , 31% of students feel that “many” or “all” of their classes assign homework that helps them learn the material, and 74% worry “quite a bit” or “a lot” about taking assessments while 70% worry the same amount about school assignments.

Reflecting high pressure from within their community, only 51% of students feel they can meet their parents expectations “often” or “always,” 52% of students worry at least a little that if they do not do well in school their friends will not accept them, and 80% of students feel “quite a bit” or “a lot” of pressure to do well in school. Meanwhile, only 33% of students feel “quite” or “very” confident in their ability to cope with stress . Open-ended responses reported by students on our survey reinforce the quantitative data:    

“It is hard to do well in classes and become well rounded for applying to college without something giving way… in some cases students cheat. ”

“ I don’t think anyone is having a great time here, when all they’re focusing on is cheating and getting the grade that they want in order to ‘succeed’ in life after high school by going to a great college or university.”

“ Teachers often give very challenging tests that require very large curves to present even reasonable grades and this creates a very stressful atmosphere. Students are often caught cheating because that is often times the only route to getting a decent grade. ”

Quotes like these suggest that there may be a relationship between heavy amounts of homework on top of busy extracurriculars and students feeling that cheating is the only way to get everything done.

What Can Schools Do About It  

Schools may find the prevalence of the cheating culture overwhelming—potentially daunted by counteracting the normalization and prevalence of achievement at-all-costs and cheating behaviors. Students themselves, in our survey and in previous research, call for a learning environment where cheating is not an expectation or everyday behavior for getting ahead, and students are held responsible for their behavior (McCabe, 2001).

“ The administration needs to punish students who cheat. The school does not crack down on these kids, and it makes it harder for others to succeed. ”

“ Since I was in 9th grade it feels like our counselors only really care about our class rank and GPA. I am a hard worker but I don’t have the best GPA. Our school focuses too much on grades. This creates pressure on students to cheat just to get a good grade to boost their GPA. Learning has been compromised by a desire for a number that we have been told defines us as people. ”

Schools can work with students to change the prevailing culture of cheating through listening to students about their experiences and perceptions, acknowledging the issue and predominant culture, and collaborating with students to clarify and redefine how and why students learn. Some areas we (and other researchers) recommend that schools can address underlying causes of cheating include:

• Strive for school-wide buy-in for honest academic practices including defining what constitutes cheating and academic dishonesty for students and providing clear consequences for cheating (Galloway, 2012). Further providing open dialogue and discussions with students, parents, and teachers may help students feel that teachers are treating then with respect and fairness (Murdock et al., 2004).
• Educate students on what cheating means in their school community so that cheating is viewed as unacceptable ( Miller, Murdock & Grotewiel, 2017)
• Establish a climate of care and a classroom where it is evident that the teacher cares about student progress, learning, and understanding.
• Emphasize mastery and learning over performance . One strategy is through using formative assessments such as practice exams that can be reviewed in class and homework that can be corrected until students achieve mastery on the concepts ( Miller, Murdock & Grotewiel, 2017).
• Revise assessments and grading policies to allow for redemption and revision.
• Ensure that students are met with “reasonable demands” such as spacing assignments and assessments across days and reduce workload without reducing rigor ( Miller, Murdock & Grotewiel, 2017)
• Teach students time management strategies (e.g. using a planner, breaking tasks into manageable pieces, and how to use resources or ask for help). Schools may even teach parents how to help students organize and manage their work rather than providing them with answers. ( Miller, Murdock & Grotewiel, 2017)

Overall, schools should aim to change student attitudes around integrity through “clear, fair, and consistent” assessments, valuing learning over mastery, reducing comparisons and competition between students, teaching students management and organization skills, and demonstrating care and empathy for students and the pressures that face ( Miller, Murdock & Grotewiel, 2017) .

Anderman, E.M. & Midgley, C. (2004). Changes in self-reported academic cheating across the transition from middle school to high school. Contemporary Educational Psychology , 29(4), 499-517.

Galloway, M. K. (2012). Cheating in advantaged high schools: Prevalence, justifications, and possibilities for change. Ethics & Behavior, 22(5), 378-399.

McCabe, D. (1999). Academic dishonesty among high school students. Adolescence, 34 (136), 681- 687.

McCabe, D. (2001) Cheating: Why students do it and how we can help them stop. American Educator , Winter, 38-43.

McCabe, D. L., Treviño, L. K., & Butterfield, K. D. (2001). Cheating in academic institutions: A decade of research. Ethics & Behavior , 11, 219-232.

Miller, A. D., Murdock, T. B., & Grotewiel, M. M. (2017). Addressing Academic Dishonesty Among the Highest Achievers. Theory Into Practice , 56 (2), 121-128.

Murdock, T., Hale, N., & Weber, M. (2001). Predictors of cheating among early adolescents: Academic and social motivations. Contemporary Educational Psychology , 26, 96-115.

Murdock, T. B., Miller, A., & Kohlhardt, J. (2004). Effects of Classroom Context Variables on High School Students’ Judgments of the Acceptability and Likelihood of Cheating. Journal of Educational Psychology , 96 (4), 765-777.

Murdock, T., Stephens, J., & Grotewiel, M. (2016). Student dishonesty in the face of assessment. In G. Brown and L. Harris (Eds.), Handbook of Human and Social Conditions in Assessment (pp. 186-203). London, England: Routledge.

Wangaard, D. B. & J. M. Stephens (2011). Academic integrity: A critical challenge for schools. Excellence & Ethics , Winter 2011.

Interested in learning more about your students’ perceptions of their school experiences? Learn more about the Challenge Success Student Survey here .

Why Students Cheat (It’s Not Them—It’s Us)

To tackle student cheating, we need to rethink assignments and classroom culture

Winter 2021

You would be hard-pressed to find a faculty member, myself included, who has not had to address an act of student cheating. Many professors could tell multiple stories of academic dishonesty that rival the best plotlines of any comedy or criminal drama series. I have had to confront a crib sheet glued to the bottom of a student’s shoe, notes written on a student’s forearm, and even answers scribbled on a desk the night before an exam. As technology has advanced, I’ve caught students using their cell phones to photograph exam questions and text them to peers for the answers. I’ve also had many students plagiarize entire research papers by cutting and pasting material straight off the internet. I even had one student who had his girlfriend take an online course in his place. Another student in the class told me what was happening, and when confronted, the couple admitted to the behavior. My reaction to these incidents has ranged from having a quick talk with the student to officially reporting the incident and recommending that the student be separated from the college.

When faced with pervasive—and increasingly creative—forms of plagiarism and cheating, what should we faculty members do? Give in? Give up? Or should we consider the classic break-up line “It’s not you—it’s me” and make changes in the ways we assess student learning? If we truly wish to increase student success and decrease acts of student dishonesty, then we must rethink whether the regurgitation of facts and dates truly constitutes the learning we want students to achieve, ensure that their instruction incorporates immersive and captivating assignments that spark critical thinking, and create a classroom culture in which academic integrity is of paramount importance.

How and why college students cheat has been an area of academic inquiry for decades. Plagiarism.org cites a 2002–05 study for which Donald McCabe, then a professor at Rutgers Business School, surveyed 63,700 undergraduates in the United States. Thirty-six percent of respondents admitted to paraphrasing or copying sentences from an internet source without footnoting it. The survey also found that 7 percent of respondents had turned in work completed by another person and that 3 percent had purchased a ready-made research paper.

In a 2017 Kessler International survey of three hundred college students, 86 percent of respondents admitted to cheating in some manner. Of those who acknowledged cheating, 97 percent indicated that they had gotten away with it. As the Ad Council notes in its fact sheet “Cheating Is a Personal Foul,” “Students who cheat often feel justified in what they are doing. They cheat because they see others cheat and they think they will be unfairly disadvantaged. The cheaters are getting 100 on the exam, while the non-cheaters may only get 90s.” And students in many self-report research studies explain their behavior with reasons ranging from “everyone does it” to “feeling pressure to succeed.”

While the days may be long past when students used synchronized coughing to give away the correct responses to a multiple-choice quiz, ubiquitous access to smartphones and other forms of technology means that students still have plenty of ways to be dishonest in their academic work. Of the students who admitted to cheating in the Kessler survey, 72 percent had used a mobile device to cheat during class, 79 percent had plagiarized from internet sources, and 42 percent had purchased custom term papers or essays online. Students are tethered to their devices, and simply collecting them before an exam is not always feasible. Sadly, sometimes increased proctoring may be the only option.

Another common type of cheating is copying text from another student’s assignment, which 76 percent of all respondents in the Kessler survey admitted to doing word for word. This last case is often seen in mathematics, accounting, or classes for which software such as Excel is used and for which assignment answers (and processes leading to the answers) are not subjective. For example, one student can complete the assignment and share it with peers, who can then simply change the file name and submit it as their own work. In this case, detection of cheating is difficult and might only be uncovered when blatant plagiarism is apparent, such as when the same errors are found in the assignments of more than one student.

To help prevent and detect plagiarism, students and faculty can use several online tools, such as Turnitin . These plagiarism detection tools compare a student’s paper to anything on the web, as well as to a database of previously submitted papers. The tools can be effective, but they are nowhere near perfect. A simple internet search of “how to get around Turnitin” leads to websites like EssayOnTime.com , which provides workarounds to “avoid plagiarism and cheat Turnitin.” That particular site suggests paraphrasing some of the content, choosing a different document format, or simply changing sentence word order. Other sites offer plagiarism-free research papers on any subject of interest at a reasonable price. While these paid-for papers can be hard to detect, word choice inconsistent with terms the student has previously used, near perfection in grammar, and content far outside the scope of what students would commonly know are signs that an assignment might not be a student’s original work.

Another common type of cheating is copying text from another student's assignment, which 76 percent of respondents in a survey admitted to doing word for word.

Having corrected my share of papers, I concur that plagiarism from the internet appears to be the most common and easiest type of cheating. I see a high frequency of this behavior with first-year students who have yet to master the correct way to cite sources. Providing class time and instruction, at the onset of the course, on the need for students to adhere to standards of academic honesty and proper citation corrects a good amount of this behavior and reduces the number of students who repeatedly cheat. At the beginning of a course, faculty have a unique opportunity to set expectations on many things, such as the importance and value of academic integrity. In addition, talking to students one-on-one about crediting sources offers an opportunity to connect with students, learn their interests, and reinforce the idea that academic integrity is highly valued and necessary for their success.

Students who cheat—and the reasons they do it—don’t fall into neat categories. In a 2016 article in Independent School , Alexis Brooke Redding, Carrie James, and Howard Gardner identify three conditions that increase the possibility of cheating in high school: pressure to achieve, particularly to get into the right college; a community-wide ethos of cheating; and unaddressed digital collaboration.

“More times than not, it is the easy way out,” one student shared by email when I asked students to send me thoughts about academic cheating. “Either they didn’t have enough time to study or simply didn’t want to; no one wants to fail. Students also have this pressure to succeed brought on them by their families and society.”

Indeed, in a 2010 piece for the Journal of Business Ethics on why students cheat, Mark G. Simkin and Alexander McLeod highlight a “‘desire to get ahead’ [as] the most important motivating factor” reported by students who said they had cheated. In very real ways, students internalize the external pressure to maintain their academic standing or scholarship, and this pressure can cause them to ignore their moral compass and cheat on an exam or use someone else’s work. Honors students “feel as if there is so much pressure on them because they are seen as the top of their class, the smart ones,” another student told me by email. “If they are not performing to that level, they are going to think professors are going to think less of them, and validation is important.”

Students also engage in academic dishonesty because they don’t care about the course material. “There’s not enough intrinsic motivation to do the work,” explained another student in an email. “So, students find shortcuts to get the grade instead of trying to gain the knowledge and insight that’s intended to be taught to them.”

If students embrace academic integrity in their work for one class, they will be more inclined toward academic integrity in other courses.

So, what can faculty do to curtail incidents of academic dishonesty? I would return to the idea that the bulk of the responsibility falls with educators. If faculty members wish to increase student success and improve academic integrity, then we must also create engaging assignments, which decrease student apathy and thereby reduce students’ propensity to claim borrowed material as their own. We need to ditch the automatically graded, multiple-choice exams and build interesting assignments based on application, reflection, and analysis of material—processes that require original thinking and work. In a recent piece for Inside Higher Ed , Doug Lederman frames strategies to address academic dishonesty by suggesting that “a lot of instructors would benefit from rebuilding their pedagogy, not only to minimize academic dishonesty but to build student engagement and learning.”

One way to better engage students in critical thinking is by using contemporary films and documentaries as part of their learning. Inquiry-based and integrative learning assignments promote deep thinking and, by design, bring students’ personal experiences to the academic province and push them toward novel responses, thereby reducing the prospect of academic dishonesty. For example, a course assignment I refer to as “What did you see?” pairs readings on a specific topic with a documentary. In my courses, I ask students, through a series of four essay questions, to analyze connections between the readings, the film, and their own views. Students will have to think critically as they find ways to reflect on the readings and the film and use examples from both. A different version of this type of assignment—called “What did I read?”—uses biographies and collateral readings instead of films.

Another way faculty can increase engagement and reduce cheating is through having students own their learning. Students read and write with passion when they tackle topics that have personal meaning for them. When students write essays that link theory to personal life events or craft creative stories that explore themes that resonate in their world, they showcase greater depth of inquiry and are less inclined—and have less opportunity—to plagiarize.

For example, in my counseling psychology class, each week, students examine the biography of a theorist, his or her theory of personality, and the associated therapy. I ask students to use a journal format to demonstrate a strong understanding of the class material and make connections between the various readings. I also request that they focus on their own reflections and not simply summarize the material, using five or more details from the text and additional credible outside sources to support their point of view. By the end of the course, students have created a trove of original material. They can then draw upon this work for their final assignment in which I ask them to choose one theoretical perspective on personality development and at least one established therapeutic model that aligns with their current understanding of human growth and development as well as their understanding of “who they are” in their own development. They use this assessment to answer one of the central questions of the course, “What is your theory of personality and how might you effect change in people?” This type of formative-to-summative assignment engages students in self-reflection, encourages and rewards original work, and promotes appropriate citing and use of reference material.

Creating engaging, in-depth assignments will only go so far in addressing student cheating if academic integrity is not a clear value in the classroom. In fact, the strategies suggested in this article simply mitigate instances of cheating. As they say, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” However, as educators, we must demand a classroom culture that embraces academic integrity as being at the core of learning.

Practically every college and university has an honor code, and including the policy or a link to it on a course syllabus can help deter cheating. As Kimberly Yavorski states in a 2019 Higher Ed Connects article on honor codes, “It is naïve to believe that an honor code will prevent all cheating, but studies have repeatedly shown that rates of cheating are lower at schools that have an honor code.” While honor codes tend to be broad in nature, most, if not all, include a section on academic honesty, which faculty can use to lay the foundation for integrity within the classroom.

For instance, a fellow faculty member shared with me how she addresses academic honesty at the start of a course and makes it integral to her instruction. She puts the topic directly on her syllabus and speaks about it during several classes. “I tell them, don’t give away [your] integrity over a grade,” she told me by email. In this example, the faculty member is making the written policy a part of the learning process and classroom culture, creating a learning environment that promotes academic honesty, and emphasizing that adherence to doing what is right is always more important than a grade. If students embrace the practice of academic integrity in their work for one class, they will be more inclined toward academic honesty in other courses.

Establishing an unwavering ethos of academic integrity in the classroom is not easy. Today’s students, and all of us, live in a world where truth is referred to as fake and alternative facts are considered a substitute for reality. When society at large sends the message that behaving without integrity carries no consequences, it’s no wonder some students cheat. And while we have an abundance of research on how and why students cheat, much of that research focuses on the negative element of human behavior—we look more at why students cheat than why they don’t. But we should examine what stops them from cheating, because it points back to us, the educators. As Simkin and McLeod note in the Journal of Business Ethics , “One important reason why students refrain from cheating: the presence of a moral anchor in a faculty member whose opinion mattered.” This is a powerful finding. Instead of worrying about developing a better version of Turnitin, we should be giving more care to what we say to our students and how we convey our own ethos of integrity. Our words and behavior matter—so do the assignments we create to engage students to think creatively, critically, and ethically. We need to reframe the research to consider why students don’t cheat and remember that maybe it’s not them—it’s us.

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9 Proven Essay Hacks: Cheat Sheet and Tips to cheat on essays

In this comprehensive guide, we show you proven essay hacks to use as an essay cheat sheet and tips on how to cheat on essays. Earn the grades legally. If you effectively apply these 9 tips and tricks, you will significantly save your time in writing essays, and the efforts you put on your homework and earn high grades easily.

In many essays and assignments, students get stranded due to the lack of knowledge on how to navigate from one step to another in the writing process. Sometimes, there are easy ways to write essays, but they only work when you know the tips. Let us now discuss each in detail.

Easy navigation table

Proven Essay Hacks to legally Cheat on Essays

1. hire a professional essay writer.

This is one of the most convenient and easiest ways through which a student can cheat on essays, homework, and other assignments. The student hires a professional essay writer.

Professional essay writers can be accessed through professional writing websites. Grade Bees essay writing is one of the best ones. Several writing websites have experienced and competent writers who can handle different types of essays or any other assignment 24/7.

When you hire a professional essay writer, you can be assured that your paper will be of high quality and it will be delivered on time as your work.

However, there are some things you should consider before hiring a professional essay writer online. You should conduct a thorough research concerning the credibility of your selected writing services provider.

Make your Order

Give Instructions

Your writer completes the task

Download your File

The credibility can be gauged based on how long the website has provided witting services to students, the consistency of the website regarding the delivery of quality essays to students, and most importantly the support system within the site.

Once you are satisfied with the website offering professional writing services, you will be assigned a verified essay writer to complete your assignment.

The assigned professional write will deliver your essay, homework, or any other assignment according to the instructions you provided and the deadline you gave.

Of course, those services are not free. You will have to pay. The price may differ from one service provider to another.

2. Plagiarize wisely without getting caught

This is also an ingenious method of cheating on your essays, homework, and more.

While plagiarizing is academic dishonesty that is punishable by law, plagiarizing wisely without getting caught can help you cheat on essays if you believe it is morally right.

The first method of plagiarizing wisely is to add adverbs and adjectives into original sentences to make them sound and appear different or unique.

Also, you should note that plagiarism detecting tools look for overlapping text between your essay and other works from other writers.

If you add adverbs and adjectives, the similarity or overlapping text will disappear and you will be good.

You can also change the order of text within the original sentences. This is an easy method of plagiarizing because plagiarism detecting tools such as SafeAssign and Turnitin will be incapable of detecting any overlaps between your essay and the original work.

Changing the word order can also be achieved by Article Rewriting tools. Those tools are several on Google.

What they do is to take the original text and jumble it in such a way that it maintains meaning and coherence while becoming different from the original work.

Finally, you can utilize several quotes within your essay. However, this will depend on whether your instructor accepts them or not.

If you use quotes, be sure to quote (“…”) the original text and add an in-text citation at the end of the quote to avoid detection.

Check our our guide how to plagiarize wisely without getting caught especially when dealing with Turnitin or SafeAssign.

 3. Paraphrase your essay well

Paraphrasing is when a student takes the original text and mixes the words in such a way that they look original while retaining the same meaning with the original text.

You should note that even though you have paraphrased, you should correctly cite the source in the right format.

Below are some of the tips that can be used to help you paraphrase your work well:

• Use a Dissimilar first sentence
• Use relevant synonyms
• Change sentence structure
• Break long sentences

We can explain these points in detail below;

1. Use a Dissimilar first sentence

First, you should begin your essay, or the first sentence of your essay, at a dissimilar point from that of the original.

This means that you will not follow the structure of the source. You will have to find the structure through which you will rewrite the source’s text.

2. Use relevant synonyms

Secondly, you should use synonyms. This is a clever way of paraphrasing because you will exchange the original words with their synonyms.

This can easily fool plagiarism detecting tools. The Saurus Tool can help you if you are stuck.

3. Change sentence structure

Thirdly, you can change the sentence structure. If the original sentence has been written in the active form, you can change it into a passive form.

4. Break long sentences

Finally, you can break long sentences or information into smaller and separate sentences. This will make your essay original while maintaining the original or intended information.

Read our guide on the Dos and Don’ts of paraphrasing – and learn how to paraphrase well.

4. Submit late assignments wisely

It is a requirement that all assignments should be submitted before the deadline.

Any late submissions are not accepted by most instructors because the students have not followed the instructions and they may have used that opportunity to cheat on their essays.

Depending on the institution you are studying in, your instructors have different preferences when it comes to submitting assignments.

Most will require you to submit the assignments via plagiarism detecting tools such as Turnitin or SafeAssign while others may require you to physically hand in your work.

Either way, late submissions are unacceptable. This is because they can be used as a loophole to cheat.

Read our guide on how to submit late assignments and escape with it.

To ensure that you turn in your late assignments, be sure to upload a corrupted file before the deadline. The instructor will struggle to open the file without success.

During that time, take the opportunity to complete the assignment. You can also seek help from your smart classmates because they will assume that you have also uploaded the file and their help will not have any impact on your paper.

By the time your instructor requests you to re-upload your assignment, you will have completed your paper. Voila!

5. Work with homework help tutor

This method cannot be considered as an unethical approach to cheating on essays. This is because a homework help tutor is just like your teacher or instructor who wants to make you better understand the course and the homework.

Again, parents who think that their children are not at par with their peers at school will most likely hire extra help from such tutors. Those tutors can also help you while completing your homework.

Well, homework help tutors can be actual physical people who you interact with or someone/something that you interact within a virtual space (online).

In either case, both can provide valuable information that can help you complete your homework.

Their experience as tutors and the academic information they possess guarantees that you will complete your homework and expect the best results. 

For example, if you have been given Chemistry homework and you feel that it is difficult to complete because you do not understand the concepts, you can seek homework help tutor

Maybe the grade you will get from the assignment will impact your final grade. Though you will have cheated, seeking help will save your grade.

Look out for our homework help services and see if you can get someone to walk your academic journey with you

This is one of the most effective and successful methods of cheating on essays, homework, and more without getting caught. You have legally or morally done nothing wrong.

6. Re-use previous papers from you or others

This method of cheating on essays, homework, and more can be very risky if not done wisely. As we have noted, some tools are used by institutions to check for plagiarism.

Tools such as SafeAssign and Turnitin can detect any overlaps between your submitted papers and other papers, essays, or works that are available within their databases.

If they detect any overlaps, then your paper has a degree of plagiarism that is dictated by the similarity index.

If the previous papers from you or others to be reused have been previously submitted through either of plagiarism checking tools, then your paper will be detected and rejected because of a high similarity index.

However, it should be noted that the two plagiarism checking tools use different databases and they do not check the other’s databases.

Therefore, it may be possible to reuse a paper that has been previously submitted using Turnitin by submitting it through SafeAssign and vice versa.

Turnitin stores all the papers that have been submitted through it to its database. In the case of SafeAssign, students and instructors can choose to donate those papers as resources.

The key thing to note is that most of the tools used to check for plagiarism have a mechanism of detecting papers that have been previously submitted through them.

Read our guide how to re-use previous papers without self-plagiarism and apply this crazy hack.

However, if your paper or another person’s paper has not been submitted through such tools, you can confidently reuse them.

 7. Smartly cheat your online tests

Some smart methods can be used by students to cheat during their online tests. One of the most commonly used methods is screen mirroring or sharing.

Since online tests are given to students from remote locations, you have the freedom to use more than one monitor.

Those monitors are used to simultaneously mirror the test questions to your smart friends who can provide answers.

The second method you can use to cheat during online tests is by using devices to cheat. Some Bluetooth devices are very tiny and undetectable.

You can place them strategically into your ear and use them to receive voiced answers from your smart friends or any other person you have hired to help you during the online test.

Another device you can use to cheat during online tests is your smartphone. They can store valuable information and answers. They are connected to the internet and you can search your answers on cheating websites like Sparknotes or more.

Another method that can be used to cheat during online tests is impersonation. Here, the candidate hires or uses another person to do the test on their behalf.

You can read our full guide how to cheat online tests and get some easy hacks that may help you escape being caught.

Administering online tests remotely allows the candidates to use impersonators who are more knowledgeable and are likely to attain good grades for the candidates. However, we give a disclaimer that such cheating in school is wrong , and you should try it at your own peril.

Though this is the case, most institutions are now administering online exams though proctored programs like web browsers and tools to avoid cheating incidences. 

8. Use free model essays to write your essays

Copying or using model essays/papers to write your essays/papers is also an effective method of cheating on essays, homework, and more. Model essays have been created by individuals who are well versed in the course content and its requirements.

Most likely, those individuals create those model essays/papers to guide or provide an actual example of how students should do their papers or essays. In most cases, the model essays or papers have been written or approved by the instructor. Therefore, they can be valuable assets when writing your paper or essay.

What you should note is that not all model essays or papers will completely match the assignment requirements given by your instructor.

Read our post on how to use completely free sample essays as models for your paper.

You should carefully check the contents and the context of the model essay or papers before copying or using them to write your essays or papers.

If by chance the model paper is similar to your assignment, you can proceed to copy the points in your paper or essay. However, do not copy-paste. Read our guide on paraphrasing hack 3 above.

If you decide to completely copy the model paper or essay, be sure to check for similarity through plagiarism checking tools such as Turnitin Self-Check, Grammarly, or any other tool. This will ensure that the paper does not exist within the databases of those tools. If they do exist, you can plagiarize or paraphrase wisely to avoid getting caught. If they do not exist, then you can copy and upload the paper as your own.

9. Have someone take your class online

As aforementioned, online classes and courses are administered remotely. Therefore, students and tutors do not physically interact. This gives students a lot of freedom to cheat. One of the methods is to have someone take your online class from the start to end. Due to proctoring tools and online authentication through biometrics and student IDs that are taken

during the start of the online course, having someone take the online class from the start will ensure that they will have assumed your identity. They will also do online proctored tests and exams without any problem.

Essay Cheat Sheet and Tips to improve your writing

1. use proofreading tools to polish your work.

Proofreading tools like Grammarly and writecheck can be very helpful when completing your essays.

They are easy to use and they make your work to be significantly easier.

At the same time, they will take lesser time and save you on the deadline.

When you are done writing your essay or research paper and you need to proofread your work to correct any grammatical errors, punctuation, and so on, you can just copy-paste or upload the file directly to the tool.

Some of the proofreading tools are free while others require a subscription fee.

Read our hacks on how to use Grammarly Premium version for free and see how it works.

Once uploaded, the tool will automatically detect any errors or issues within your paper. You can correct them as required.

2. Format your paper well – cite referencing, etc.

Formatting your paper well will guarantee more points. After you are done writing your paper, it is important to format it following the academic guidelines provided by your instructor.

The format will dictate the arrangement of your paper in terms of paragraphs, the in-text citations, presence or absence of endnotes or footnotes, and the placement of the bibliography/works cited/reference page.

Read our guide how to format papers in APA or MLA and get a quick lesson or essay hack on the same.

The common and acceptable formats include APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard. Be sure to follow the format dictated by your instructor to be graded.

Some instructors will not grade papers that do not follow the correct format that is well done.

You can hire one of our cheap essay writers from our website to proofread your work professionally.

3. Self-check your papers for plagiarism

This is also a very important step to do before submitting your paper. As we have noted earlier, most instructors will require you to submit your papers and essays through plagiarism checking tools such as SafeAssign and Turnitin.

However, some submissions can only be done once because they are taken as final copies rather than drafts. It is therefore important to perform a self-check through tools.

Read our guide on Turnitin Self-check alternatives and learn more.

Some of the tools discussed in that article include Turnitin’s Feedback Studio, Grammarly, PlagScan, DupliChecker, and so on before submitting your drafts as final copies.

4. Keep your plagiarism score within the acceptable range

Different institutions and instructors have different standards when it comes to plagiarism scores.

Some will be strict while others will be lenient depending on the course discipline and the writing prowess of the students.

Check out our post on the acceptable plagiarism score on Turnitin and know how not to surpass that level.

As a student, you should take note of the accepted range and try as much as possible to keep your plagiarism score within the acceptable range.

You will not be penalized due to plagiarized content if you keep your score within the acceptable range.

5. Follow online guides on how to write essays and papers

If you google or search the web for topics on how to write different types of papers, you will find several results.

Read our comprehensive guides how to write an essay and how to write research papers for detailed lessons.

Some many websites and blogs provide free guides on how to write different papers. You should however check the credibility of the online sources because some of them may misguide you.

Different papers will take different forms. The most credible sites will give you guidelines in terms of structure, outline, format, tone, and how to effectively cite sources.

6. Know the allowed plagiarism – easy essay cheat sheet

Different institutions and instructors have different standards when it comes to how much plagiarism is allowed. Some institutions or instructors will not allow students’ papers with a plagiarism score of more than 5%. Watch the video below to learn how to reduce your plagiarism.

Others can allow a score of below 25% while others can allow as much as 30% depending on the course’s discipline and the writing proficiency of the students.

If your instructor or institution allows or tolerates a plagiarism score of 30%, then you can plagiarize to that extent.

However, if they do not tolerate that (5% and below), then avoid plagiarism by using the aforementioned methods.

How to cheat on your final paper: Assigning AI for student writing

• Published: 10 March 2022
• Volume 38 , pages 1395–1405, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

• Paul Fyfe   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9481-0730 1  

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This paper shares results from a pedagogical experiment that assigns undergraduates to “cheat” on a final class essay by requiring their use of text-generating AI software. For this assignment, students harvested content from an installation of GPT-2, then wove that content into their final essay. At the end, students offered a “revealed” version of the essay as well as their own reflections on the experiment. In this assignment, students were specifically asked to confront the oncoming availability of AI as a writing tool. What are the ethics of using AI this way? What counts as plagiarism? What are the conditions, if any, we should place on AI assistance for student writing? And how might working with AI change the way we think about writing, authenticity, and creativity? While students (and sometimes GPT-2) offered thoughtful reflections on these initial questions, actually composing with GPT-2 opened their perspectives more broadly on the ethics and practice of writing with AI. In this paper, I share how students experienced those issues, connect their insights to broader conversations in the humanities about writing and communication, and explain their relevance for the ethical use and evaluation of language models.

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Availability of data and material

The course syllabus and module assignments are available open access in the MLA CORE repository: https://doi.org/10.17613/0h18-5p41 .

Code availability

Not applicable.

Plagiarism appears as its own section of “Academic Misconduct” (8.4) in NC State’s student conduct policy (“POL 11.35.01 – Code of Student Conduct” 2020 ).

See Elkins and Chun for a report on an assignment oriented more toward literary writing ( 2020 ). See also the reflections by Lang et al. ( 2021 ).

As defined by Long and Magerko, AI literacy includes “a set of competencies that enables individuals to critically evaluate AI technologies; communicate and collaborate effectively with AI; and use AI as a tool online, at home, and in the workplace” ( 2020 , 2). See also Ng et al. for a review of recent approaches to defining AI literacy ( 2021 ).

Long and Magerko recommend that “Researchers seeking to foster AI literacy may want to avoid misleading tactics like Turing deceptions and black-box algorithms” ( 2020 , 8)—and I could not disagree more. Inviting students into this experience instead resembles how Meredith Broussard works with AI “to commit acts of investigative journalism” into its consequences ( 2018 , 6).

Such cross-disciplinary approaches might especially be warranted given the landscape of ethics training in CS programs (Raji et al. 2021 ).

The course syllabus and module assignments are available open access in the MLA CORE repository: http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/0h18-5p41 .

For an extensive introduction to this class of machine learning software as well as its emerging uses and risks, see Bommasani et al. ( 2021 ).

Scott has since moved to a position at the software company Sourcegraph.

A quick demo of GPT-2 can be done online with the site “Write With Transformer” created by the company Hugging Face: https://transformer.huggingface.co/doc/distil-gpt2 In a subsequent version of this assignment, students used the open-source language model GPT-J which also makes a web-based demo available in a browser: https://6b.eleuther.ai/ .

Similar discussions can be found in the use of AI or automated systems to grade student writing (Anson 2006 ; Anson and Perelman 2017 ).

We considered training the model on student’s own writing for better results, but realized that would require a prohibitive and potentially invasive amount of training data from students: 50 + MB their writing in plain text. We agreed a simpler approach would still achieve the assignment’s goals.

This may especially apply in context of ESL and language diversity, as students and/or instructors disqualify their expression against standard written English.

See also Reid on the “possibility space” of nonhuman rhetoric ( 2020 ).

Personal conversation with the author. Rieder’s own experiments in physical computing and new media composition are similarly interested in hybridity. He describes this as “everting” new media, or “infusing the real with aspects of the virtual.”

For an extensive introduction to assemblage in writing studies, as well as current examples in pedagogical practice, see Yancey and McElroy ( 2017 ).

For specific examples from those frameworks, see Long and Magerko ( 2020 ), Ng et al. ( 2021 ).

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Acknowledgements

My thanks to the students in the HON 202 seminar “Data and the Human” for their enthusiastic participation in this experiment. Many thanks also to NC State University colleagues including Scott Bailey, Zachary Beare, Chris Anson, Helen Burgess, and David Rieder for sharing their perspectives and recommendations. Thanks also to peer reviewers for constructive suggestions that improved this article.

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Fyfe, P. How to cheat on your final paper: Assigning AI for student writing. AI & Soc 38 , 1395–1405 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01397-z

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Received : 13 September 2021

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Published : 10 March 2022

Issue Date : August 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01397-z

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