BEAT CHEATS, NOT THE SYSTEM

Education, more coursework and technology cut numbers of plagiarists

Times change – how technology helps keep students on the straight and narrow,

DUBAI // Cheating has been around as long as universities themselves – from the age-old habit of sneaking notes into exams to more modern methods of deception.

But technological advances are helping to keep students on the straight and narrow rather than aiding their deceit.

Academics in the country’s universities are noticing a gradual decline in the practice.

A realisation of how easy it is to be caught out by a computer, along with a shift away from crunch exams towards coursework in some curricula, are getting much of the credit.

Dr Hamdi Al Sheibani, head of the office of academic integrity at Abu Dhabi University, said that with coursework there is little chance of getting away with work lifted from the internet or plagiarised from books.

Students are asked to submit their work to Turnitin.com before they finish, to learn as they go, in their early days, what counts as plagiarism. “There will always be new technology to overtake the old,” said Dr Al Sheibani, but from eight cases in the autumn term compared to about 30 cases five years ago, he said the numbers speak for themselves.

“Many people don’t realise what they’re doing is cheating, and our role is to change those attitudes.”

One of the key challenges is tackling bad habits early.

“There are certain schools that I have found in my own research, which create that culture,” he said. “Those that put pressure on students with exams usually turn out the students inclined to cheat.

“Students from schools using the International Baccalaureate curriculum, which teach that exams aren’t everything, tend to be much less likely to cheat.” Zeenath Khan, academic at the University of Wollongong Dubai, has researched cheating and studied more than 1,000 students nationwide.

In the first stage of her research, which began in 2005, she found technology made cheating easier. But she said the most startling part of her latest research is that technology is now helping to discourage it. An earlier study found 80 per cent of students in the UAE admitted to cheating. “We were saying technology helps students cheat. Now, we’d say it’s helping them understand unethical behaviour better than ever,” she said. Programmes such as those that alert students to copy and paste within their work, reminding them to reference and insert quotation marks, Mrs Khan said, were helping many students unaware of the need for accurate referencing.

When it comes to “contract cheating” – when a student buys an essay online for as little as Dh200 – there is little technology can do to catch them.

But a good teacher will realise if content does not reflect what has been taught, Mrs Khan said. Dr Ammar Kaka, head of the Dubai campus of Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University, said that cheating worldwide remained a “major, major problem”.

“It’s much easier to detect plagiarism with things like Turnitin.com but now, in the first year of study, we use it as training for students to understand what plagiarism is,” he said. “It’s the issue of students paying for more major pieces of work that’s much harder to detect.”

Advances in technology, and perhaps a realisation that cheating will bring few benefits, appears to be filtering through.

One student in Dubai said: “For some students, they will always find a way to cheat. It’s pretty easy to find companies or individuals to write papers for you, but how much does it help you in the long run?

“When you go to work, people will soon realise your strengths and weaknesses.”

‘ Many people don’t realise what they’re doing is cheating Dr Hamdi Al Sheibani Abu Dhabi University