COVID-19 Pandemic Learning: Attitudes and Impressions of Cheating

Open Access
- Author:
- Murphy, Grace
- Area of Honors:
- Information Sciences and Technology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Michael Keith Hills, Thesis Supervisor
Edward J Glantz, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Cheating
COVID-19 Learning
Academic Integrity
Online Assessment
Education
Pandemic - Abstract:
- As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in March 2020, higher education institutions around the country began delivering all of their courses virtually. The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) was no different and switched entirely to remote online learning in the Spring and Summer semesters of 2020. With the decline in COVID-19, PSU slowly began transitioning back to a pre-COVID academic environment with in person. However, with the abrupt change in the academic environment from in person to online learning which occurred as a result of COVID-19, attitudes and impressions around cheating have dramatically changed. The research conducted in this thesis replicates a component of Don McCabe’s study of academic cheating from 2004, 2007, and 2010 from Texas Tech University entitled McCabe Academic Integrity Survey Report conducted prior to the pandemic The research presented here highlights these shifts in attitudes and impressions of cheating as a result of COVID-19’s impact on higher education and seeks to make recommendations for faculty and institutions of higher learning to better address them in a more unified fashion. The findings and results presented are exploratory in nature and future research has been identified to further pinpoint the shift in attitudes and impressions of academic integrity violations.