Project RITE
Recipients
Perceptions of Academic Honesty in Online vs. Face-to-Face Classrooms
Michael Spaulding
Assistant Professor, Educational Studies, UT MartinOverview
As online courses become more and more prevalent, one challenge for faculty involves creating a course as close to a face-to-face course as possible. It is important to create an environment that not only teaches the content of the course, but that accomplishes this in a manner that is as personal as a traditional course. While maintaining academic integrity is of utmost importance in any course of study, it often proves to be an even greater challenge within the online format.Online instructors are continually searching for various means to ensure that academic integrity is addressed and adhered to by all students in all courses. Thus, in order to adequately address this subject, it is important to first assess students’ views and perceptions of academic integrity in relation to both face-to-face and online courses. This study will examine students’ perceptions of academic honesty and determine in which type of course students perceive it is easier to cheat.
The hypothesis for the proposed study is that there are distinct differences between online students’ perception of academic integrity and face-to-face students’ perception of academic integrity.
This research will be guided by two primary questions:
- Do differences exist between online vs. face-to-face students’ perceptions concerning academic integrity?
- Do differences exist between online and face-to-face students’ perceptions concerning the ease with which they can be academically dishonest?