It is 2020, we are living in a year where technology and grades determine how we develop and grow into the future. This indicates there would be a cheating issue since online classes are used all over the world during this era. This has given students the advantage of having access to technology at home; without monitoring during virtual classes, there will be fewer signs or details showing if students are cheating on their work. 

 Cheating has been a big issue ever since schools have shut down due to covid. It’s been getting worse every day. 

According to a study shown by the Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics resulted in interesting statistics on cheating.  

“59% of high school students admitted cheating on a test during the last year. 34% self-reported doing it more than two times.” 

There are a variety of reasons why students taking online courses turn to cheating .“I think students feel the need to cheat for a lot of different reasons like being under stress can make you desperate,” stated one of the junior students.

Students will most likely not miss out on any advantage of cheating because there is no way of getting caught by a teacher.

Online courses are sometimes difficult to understand because of distractions and people have different ways of learning. This gives students stress so they are convinced if they cheat they will have a high standard of getting a better grade than they thought if they did not have any devices.

Students will cheat during online courses so their grades could look good without putting any effort into studying or class work. Students use their devices or notes to cheat on tests/quizzes. Since there is no monitoring in their room it will be more difficult to know if students are using unfair advantages on important work that they have to know.

Perhaps one of the most effective ways to try to decrease the amount of students cheating during a test is to make them reference their work for an essay and put their work under a strong software which will detect any plagiarism, such as Turnitin, Paperrater and Quetext. That software has made a huge impact on the amount of cheating and plagiarism that is occurring during online courses. Those apps will highlight and specify every plagiarized detail and where it was plagiarized from, resulting in students being more mindful of their work.

Researches have asked students for their opinion and say on cheating; One senior girl stated, “The world is filled with people who want to succeed through their own work and people who want to succeed but without putting any effort into the success they desire,”, “There will always be cheaters, it’s sad to say but it’s true. A lot of people seek the easy way to success but later on, it will catch up with them, and sooner or later they’re going to fail.” 

Another sophomore boy had said, “We don’t have the ability to keep our phones anymore during classes but students still cheat by looking at their classmate’s exam who are sitting by or near them.”

Students are now getting lazy, thinking the mindset that school is optional. They are sitting at home sitting comfortably at bed or on their couches. This will make students feel more tired and unproductive throughout school hours. They will not learn anything and think of cheating using their smartphones etc.

As well with no moderation on the students at home they will use this advantage to cheat on exams without receiving any consequences. Students cheat so their grade could look good. They want those high profiles of being a “smart kid” so they will have the urge to cheat for that title.

Overall students haven’t let go of cheating and won’t anytime soon, it will always be their first option when getting stuck on a question and answers can be easily revealed through looking at their peers’ work or simply looking it up on google which takes a matter of seconds. Students will probably not recognize what they are doing will impact them in the future, but sooner or later they will realize that they have only been cheating themselves this whole time.