Academic Integrity

Every day, millions of students face ethical and moral dilemmas and unfortunately, studies have proven that most students choose to plagiarize. Academic dishonesty is a main concern for all students and facility members of any institution because of classes that are offered online, which may lead to students to plagiarize and cheat on assignments. With the new development of technology, the honesty of academic writing has become more of a confrontation. Teachers and students do not interact physically because of doing online classes, a face-to-face interaction is not necessary. Plagiarism for some students is hard to comprehend the thought of what plagiarism exactly is. In today's newer technology, many colleges have come up with a program for all work that has been turned in by students to make sure the work is not copied, (Grijalva, Nowell & Kerkvliet, 2006).

One program that institutions are using is called Turnitin, which can be accessed through the institutions website.

UGA students at ASAP conference

Group of Woodbine Agricultural School students, Wo...

Auburn University students at ASAP conference

This is a certified program that records a diverse number of pages from an assortment of sources, which include periodicals, web pages, and papers that have been put forward by other students, (Lee, 2009). When papers are submitted through the program, they are routinely saved and are used to spot plagiarism, (Lee, 2009).

Professor Donald McCabe, a leading expert in academic integrity, conducted a survey, which showed that between 25-30 percent of college undergraduates confessed to some type of deliberate plagiarism, (Cheating Statistics). In 2001, Professor Donald McCabe interviewed 1800 students at nine different universities and 84 percent acknowledged that they had cheated, (Cheating Statistics). With plagiarizing being a common problem, instructors have a detailed guideline for the students; and the students are expectant to create their own checklist to avoid them from partaking in this dishonest practice, (Cheating Statistics).

Plagiarizing, why do students...