Prevalence of Academic Dishonesty in Virtual English Classes: Does More Cheating Really Occur on Online Tests and in Online Classes?

With the outbreak of Covid-۱۹, online classes and online tests have become a necessity for many teachers, schools, and universities. However, many teachers are worried about the academic dishonesty and cheating that may occur in online classes. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether students do more cheating in online classes and on online tests. To this aim, ۱۵ ELT students from different universities were interviewed on the possible ways of cheating in conventional and online (virtual) classes. The results of the thematic analysis of the interviews were used to develop a ۳۱-item questionnaire that measured cheating in conventional and online classes and tests. The questionnaire was administered to ۱۲۸ English students from different universities. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability of the overall questionnaire was .۹۵, and those for cheating on online tests, conventional tests, online classes, and conventional classes were respectively .۹۰, .۹۰, .۹۰, and .۷۵. Then to answer the research questions, two paired sample t-tests were run to compare the repeated measures. The results showed that generally cheating in online classes and on online tests was not very high ( a mean of ۱.۵۶ for online classes and a mean of ۲.۰۲ for online tests on a scale of ۵). However, there was a significant difference between cheating on online tests and conventional tests (p<.۰۵), and between cheating in online and conventional classes (p<.۰۵), and more cheating occurred in online classes and tests compared to conventional ones. Given, the importance of reliability and validity of online tests, these findings imply that professors and administration authorities at universities need to take measures to guarantee the security of online tests and reduce the chances of academic dishonesty.

کلیدواژه ها:

Academic Dishonesty ، Cheating ، Online Tests ، Conventional Tests