TECHNOLOGY AND ACADEMIC DISHONESTY 1

In a recent study conducted in 2016, Mebratu Mulatu Bachore experimented to determine

the reasoning behind academic dishonesty and how it has evolved due to technology advances.

The study was conducted at Hawassa University consisting of 20 instructors and 60 students.

The students and instructors were chosen at random among four of the colleges at the university.

To conduct the study, the directors of the 4 chosen programs administered questionnaires and

interviews as methods for gathering the qualitative data to report for the study. The experiment

was given to answer the following questions:

How do teachers and learners perceive the practice of various academic dishonesties in

the university? What are the most frequently occurring unethical academic behaviors in

the university? Why do students engaged in such activities (academic corruption)

regularly; and What are strategies to curb the problems in the context of the university?

(Bachore, 2016, p.14).

After reading the article, one of the important findings were the reasons behind academic

dishonesty. Students reported that they had a lacked confidence in their work due to lack of

preparation and background knowledge. They also reported that class size and lack of assistance

from professors influenced their decision. Overall, the feeling of inadequacies led to dishonesty.

This was astonishing to me because I saw that collegiate students have many of the same

problems as students in K-12. In my teaching, I wanted to make sure that I am providing students

with adequate resources and instruction in my classroom to not feel the need to cheat. Additional

resources I could offer to help my students are tutoring sessions every morning, providing a

recording of me teaching online, and building conferencing into my class schedule to ensure

students can come and voice their concerns before testing. The addition of these resources would

improve my classroom and prevent cheating.

TECHNOLOGY AND ACADEMIC DISHONESTY 2

References

Bachore, M. M. (2016). The Nature, Causes and Practices of Academic Dishonesty/Cheating in

Higher Education: The Case of Hawassa University. Journal of Education and Practice,

7(19), 14–20, https://eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ1109249.