Maintaining academic standards and integrity in online business courses

Abstract

As the number of online courses being offered at universities has increased dramatically over the past several years, the level of oversight has lagged and created an environment ripe for cheating. We find that students admit to higher levels of cheating in online classes and believe other students also cheat more relative to face-to-face classes. This is likely due to the lack of tools to combat online cheating and the lack of policy from universities. We know from previous studies that business colleges have a comparatively high level of cheating and the amount of cheating at universities has been rising. These trends threaten to create an unfair system where cheaters are rewarded with higher grades than non-cheaters, thereby encouraging otherwise honest students to cheat. This may result in declining and erratic knowledge among university graduates, diminishing the value of a university education.