Cheating Students: The Practice and the Consequences in the Professional Workplace

The Consequences of Cheating Students

Raising critical questions of ethics and honesty, cheating has become an increasingly prevalent issue in contemporary society. Empirical evidence suggests that cheating is on the rise both inside academic institutions and within the broader context of the real world. Cheating is essentially the purposeful attempt, however successful, to deceive another person, and the manifestations of cheating in the realm of academia are considerable, constantly in flux with technological innovation. Moreover, the consequences of cheating are many and varied, with the greatest amount of harm being done to fellow students of cheaters. However, there is a fine line between cheating and garnering help on a project, and it is this line that often prevents professors and fellow students from reporting instances of cheating.

Cheating is indicative of a broader, ethical crisis in the United States. Practices that were once considered extremely immoral are now widely accepted; this is apparent in the Enron scandal and the more recent conduct of financial institutions whose behaviors directly catalyzed the global recession of 2008-2009. By extension, the ethical conduct of today's college students will ultimately affect the business world of the future.

Students cheat for a wide range of reasons, such as an overwhelming workload or perceived inability to complete an assignment. Cheating might be formed as plagiarism, or the direct attempt to pass off another's original work as one's own, discussing test-answers with another student before an exam is taken, receiving text messages during a test, or using an electronic device to garner test answers during an in-class or at-home test. Manifestations of student cheating are in flux in conjunction with technology, and professors did not need to be concerned with electronic cheating only ten years ago as much as they are at the conclusion of the twenty-first century's dawning decade.

Students cheat for the same reasons that corporate fraud occurs; the perceived benefits of cheating outweigh the perceived costs. A low probability of being caught combined with a genuine belief that one does not need to complete the work in order to succeed in the real world leads to cheating. In short, students who cheat believe that they will gain more from cheating than they will lose.

Cheating is, however, extremely costly for both students and institutions. Students who cheat on an exam, for example, are setting the bar unfairly high for students who are doing their own work, particularly if the test is graded on a curve. A trend of cheating in a single classroom, by extension, will lead to more students who cheat because they feel it necessary to meet the same false standards as the cheating students. Cheating students are not receiving their tuition's worth by presumably learning less than students who do not cheat, which undermines the entire institution of higher learning.

In the absence of modern, technological innovations, cheating was squelched by a visible disparity between the depth of a student's knowledge and that of his or her work. The advent of plagiarism-checking software and distance learning, however, has redefined the landscape of cheating-countering, as the physical distance and lack of interpersonal contact between a professor and distance-learning student can promote cheating. More positively, however, plagiarism software and online programs can ensure that students did not copy and paste internet content in an attempt to pass it off as their own work.

Critical is it to note, however, that students who may have challenged writing abilities may seek out help for their own work through an internal tutoring center or an external service, and such action is not necessarily cheating. Conversely, these students are attempting to better their own skills and receive direct advice from experts in order to learn. Not every student's writing skills are the same, and there is a drastic difference between plagiarism and seeking outside help for one's own work.

The fine line between cheating and seeking out help, in part, leads many grosser instances of cheating to go underreported. Prosecuting cheaters is expensive and time-consuming, demanding that university protocols be followed to the proverbial letter, lest the student be able to appeal the accusation. Moreover, the professor or other staff member who prosecutes the student needs irrefutable evidence that cheating has occurred, and, in most instances, this evidence is not readily available.

An optimum strategy for countering cheating is then to stop it before it occurs through the use of alternative assessments and strategic assignments that have a low likelihood of cheating. For example, instead of a standardized, mathematics exam, teachers may opt for the use of a homework portfolio for grading; this would be less easily copied and more accurately demonstrate learning. Generally, assignments that have a lower likelihood of cheating promote higher levels of student creativity, as they are personal and flexible. While such assignments may be more time-consuming to develop and grade, they are not nearly as costly as cheating.

Cheating is a major issue in modern universities. The link between cheating in college and similarly unethical behavior in the professional workplace is a strong one, and thus cheating students should be addressed before they can affect the whole of society. Professors and university staff should be mindful, however, of the fine line between seeking out help and cheating, and opt for assignments and assessments that present a lower likelihood that cheating will occur.

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The term "cheating" holds a multiplicity of connotations in modern society, none of which are positive. Cheating is a means of purposefully deceiving another into believing something is true when, in fact, it is false. Not limited to academia, cheating has a range of implications for the professional world and infiltrates nearly every professional context (Villano 24). Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) are affected by cheating in several ways, with manifestations of cheating including that committed by coworkers, administrators, and even patients.

Healthcare workers often engage in cheating by attempting to pass off others' conclusions or work as their own. Alternatively, cheating can occur when staff members call in sick or leave their shift early when they are perfectly healthy. Most drastically, cheating can also manifest when workers steal medications or supplies.

Nursing administrators might cheat in similar ways. However, the position of power leads cheating to occur through more damaging channels. For instance, a Director of Nurses (DON) might unfairly afford his or her friends preference during scheduling holiday shifts.

CNAs likely experience cheating committed by patients more frequently than that committed by coworkers and administrators. Patients might lie about their history, make fraudulent claims in order to be administered medication, or smuggle in food, drugs, or other things that should not be in the hospital.

Cheating is akin to strategic lying, and it can be inordinately harmful to all affected parties. In the healthcare setting, high standards of care are precluded by cheating, and patients suffer the consequences. By extension, attempting to counter cheating in the healthcare workplace is an urgent and necessary charge for policymakers and administrators alike. While professionals may hesitate to report instances of cheating out of fear of being deemed a tattle-tale, reporting of cheating is critical. Even when instances of cheating seem minor, such as when a coworker takes an unfairly lengthy break, the seemingly inconsequential choice to cheat has the potential to lead to more disastrous manifestations of cheating in the future.