"Adjusting" lab data to make the lab result valid. (happens a lot, but I am not sure if this is considered cheating)

Getting an extension on a paper by claiming a death in the family, when the family death was the family dog.

I have witnessed one of my . . . TA's to give out solutions to the next assignment to his friends in my class.

1)Taken a mini-camera into the class after an exam, taken photos of each page of the exam, sold the photos to students taking the course the following semester. 2)answers written on paper, hidden in long sleeve shirt, pulled out in large lecture hall exams 3)answers programmed into graphing calculator 3)answers written on bottom of shoe in permanent marker, cross legs during exam 4)finger signals from friend in class i.e.)1 finger means true, 2 fingers false 5)swapping papers with students in various years, at different universities using email or MSN 6)going to people who are specialists in a particular area in chat rooms on the internet and having them give answers, especially for take home exams

I openly conversed with people who wanted answers during a test. We didn't even try to hide it.

A group of . . . students sitting together, they can talk to each other [in a foreign language] and it is an almost inaudible mumbling

1) During one exam, different colored exams were placed on the various chairs. Two students sat a couple of seats away from each other such that they had the same colored exam. Both wrote the exam, then the one student (who apparently wasn't registered in the class) handed off his exam to the other student, who then compared the two exams and handed the one in that the 'other' student had written. 2) . . . When a prof announces that the exam is over, there is a couple of minutes where students are gathering their exams and standing up to pass in their exams while they are leaving. I have seen a number of students speaking to each other in [another] language and quickly writing down answers on exams.

Also, young students may cheat out of desperation when they do not know how to get honest help in an appropriate manner. This may be the case with international students, for instance, whose study costs are very high, and whose families place very high expectations on them. I believe it is critically important in the case of young international students to link them up with effective academic support, and to impress upon them at every possible opportunity exactly what constitutes cheating, how that is viewed by the society at large, and what the penalties may be. There are other countries where what we would classify as serious cheating is not frowned on to the same degree as it is here; indeed, in some cases may not be frowned on at all. So I think, as the student mix becomes more diverse, the university needs to be very proactive with young students from different cultures, to effectively acclimatize them to our academic expectations and provide appropriate academic supports in order to prevent cheating.

For open book exams, two students were writing with one seat in between them. One person would write the answer down and then put his page on the seat in between them and then the other person would pick up the exam and copy the answer down. They switched answers. I really hate open book exams. They should not be given to students.

In a large lecture hall I witnessed 6 people sitting diagonally behind each other all cheating off the front person on a test. It was funny because they all knew, they'd copy off the person in front of them and then lean back in their seat so the person behind them could easily read their paper.

My girlfriend informed me that a member of the . . . Club told her that they have an underground network of papers and class notes. She worked with a member who told her that if she ever needs a paper for any class that she can get it and that all of the members exchange papers and notes.

It's this atmosphere of basing people's understanding and marks on tests alone. It's not the way to go if you get anxious about writing tests. Every course should really strive to test people's understanding in various other ways as well as tests. It's not fair if someone is smart and willing to work very hard, but they don't write tests well. If 100% of their mark is based on tests alone - then that person sometimes doesn't stand a chance. This eventually is what leads to cheating. Then, it is no longer about learning or having fun - but it's just all about getting that darn GPA at any price. Also, people at SFU (mainly staff and teachers) should stop caring as much as they do about GPAs. Not everything in life is about your GPA. Some people come from poor families and have to work while going to school, or get test anxiety, or have other personal problems. If they improve and show a good attitude toward learning - and enthusiasm for learning and problem solving - and are honest, hard-working people, then this is what should be taken into account. GPAs are so superficial, and it's this attitude up at SFU that your GPA is some kind of tell-tale end-all piece of information that the world should be based on.

The most creative types of cheating seem to have involved an entire group of friends in an exam situation who, through some kind of system, actually managed to all communicate the answers of one smarter person without being caught. . . . part of the reason why cheaters don't get caught in this type of situation is because everybody knows everybody else. If a student were to have a peer punished for cheating, they risk making a number of enemies really fast.

. . . [because] the prof's don't change the exams they usually don't give them back to students once they have been marked. So, all the students have to do is go to this student club and look through their print out of available tests and choose whatever tests they need. Once you make the request you pay $1 (per exam) and the club will photocopy the exams you want and you can pick them up the next day. It's that simple. Some teachers only change maybe 5-10% of the exam questions each semester. I have no idea how this student club gets a hold of extra tests, but they have them. The tests they have exist from every faculty. I witnessed this with my own eyes as a friend (who was of course a member of the club) and I went to the student clubs table in the AQ and we ordered 3 different versions of 2 term tests and a final, which were never supposed to be distributed back to students. . . . it turned out that only 5% of the questions were different on both exams.

Our program makes ridiculous demands on our students and often the only chance we have of finishing assignments or passing exams is to cheat. Cheating is something 90% of our students do in some form or another. Anyone who claims that they have never worked with someone on an individual assignment or made use of old labs and assignments is either a genius or just plain lying. I personally cheat to survive. I realized years ago that it is the only way I can stay in the program and get my degree. And as long as professors and TAs continue to turn a blind eye and the threat of getting kicked out for poor grades greatly exceeds the threat of getting caught, widespread cheating will continue.

Because there is so much pressure to do well, and SFU is a very tough school

Because of the emphasis on grades. Please don't overestimate the significance of GPA's, make an effort to show people the joy and importance of learning instead. (This goes to employers as well)

Grades. It's so cut throat at university. It's terrible, especially when it's extremely competitive. . . . when the professor uses the bell curve grading system. It turns everyone on each other. Not healthy at all.

I think students at SFU have demonstrated that, some of them at least, will do whatever it takes to attain the marks that their culture, their parents, and their university expect of them. Students are expected to demonstrate respect for their culture, love for their parents and especially pride in their school by demonstrating their willingness to seek excellence by continuing to "give 110%". In a high stakes game many miss the point of the metaphor. 100% is all there is. A racehorse is an efficient sprinter, but not for long, and most are never put out to stud. . . . Unfortunately there is never a state of grace for the losers. Those who don't believe that "winning Silver" (or Bronze, for that matter) constitutes "losing Gold" are left to generate their own opportunities and don't become the focus of the marketing department.

I believe that the university admits students who are not capable of university-level work but who are pressured by parents or others to attend and succeed. Many departments . . . engender a culture in which cheating is an accepted part of "getting ahead." Often policies, such as 'bell curves' in which a set percentage of students *must* fail, engender unrealistic competitive pressures, and many students believe that cheating is the only way to succeed.

I have attended two other post secondary institutions and studied in the same field and the work load at SFU is totally ridiculous. We do more work in 3 classes than students at other schools do in 5 or 6 classes. The amount of time we are required to put in is unrealistic. In addition, everything is pretty much scaled, which creates competition between students and it becomes all about beating the curve. Sometimes it is necessary to copy assignments and do them later just to survive some courses. . . . Basically, heavy workloads and the fear of not doing well because it is very difficult to do well due to the quota the professors have (i.e. only this many students can have A's this many B's). There have been classes I've gotten 90% in and ended up with a B. It is very frustrating and we are at a disadvantage than students at say UVIV when it comes to grad school or law school cause our letter grades are a lot lower when our percentages are not cause no one looks at percentages. It is actually the letter grade that affects our GPA. Thus, the competition to be even 1% higher than someone else is great motivation and incentive for students to cheat. It's almost like a black market forms at the beginning of every semester. People base what courses they'll take next semester based on the ones their friends have already taken cause they can get their work. Also people hustle to get answer keys, old projects/exams, whatever they can get their hands on. It's all about surviving. This is what really goes on.

I've previously worked in groups on extremely difficult assignments to be able to complete in time -The expectations in the program . . . in which I was enrolled were ridiculously high and cheating was relative to degree -Simply everyone was doing it to some degree -It was extremely disappointing -sometimes the bar is raised too ridiculously high and too many become too desperate

1.The thrill of cheating is alluring 2.Quantity of work is large, can't put full efforts into all of it, so put full effort into topics of interest and farm out other topics in exchange for something 3.Need to do well or pass a class where subject matter is not understood and subject is not related to field of specialty - it's just a hoop one has to jump through

The reason that I think that many students engage in cheating activities with the intention of getting credit for work that they did not do or for learning material that they do not know is that they place higher value on the numbers on their transcript than on what they actually learned. For many students, education is not a goal in itself, but rather a pathway to a high paying job/prestige or whatever. As such, it should be completed with minimal effort. Often this leads to crossing lines of academic honesty. In my experience, the penalties are light or mislaid. The people that I've known to be cheating have never been officially accused of it (even in cases where the prof is aware), while people who I know were not cheating have been publicly accused with little evidence. Therefore, for those who want only a high GPA, they have much to gain and risk very little.

Because people know that they won't get caught and it is easier for them to cheat than do the work, plus there is a lot of pressure to succeed, at any cost

Because they believe they won't get caught, and they don't think it is that wrong in the circumstances. Honesty is not that valued in our workplace culture generally, and so why should school be different? The internet makes it easier to do so, and instructors recycle assignments so they don't have to work as hard. Many people are here after a degree and are told they'll go nowhere without one. They aren't interested in getting the learning necessarily.

1) I once directly asked an International college student . . . about education in his homeland. He said that students learn by rote in the classroom during normal (presumably public) school hours then they leave the public school and go immediately after school to their "Tutor", who very possibly may be one and the same "public school" teacher for additional "instruction". I also asked this student what he thought his father's view was of his own education in his homeland and why the father thought it was necessary for his children to be educated in Canada. The student responded that his father did not talk much about his own education but that he did specifically say that the reason that he wanted his children educated in Canada was that he "wanted them to learn to think".

I believe strongly in working in groups on assignments and labs. I've never had a prof discourage this. However, if one had, I would probably have ignored him/her. Also, I regularly provide old exams and assignments to others for reference. I think learning from the mistakes of others is an excellent way to learn. Assignments and tests should not be reused as it prevents this.

I believe many instructors feel as if their course is the most important, and only course, students are taking, and therefore overload students with work. I have cheated during an exam even though I studied very hard, simply because there was so much information to remember that I knew I wouldn't be able to remember. What with the stress and time limit on exams, a student's ability to remember things doesn't necessarily indicate their knowledge in the subject.

[These students] probably know how easy it is to get away with it, so why not? And why should I turn them in? I'm not getting paid to invigilate the exam, I'm paying you for the privilege of taking the exam. It's the job of those people being paid to supervise these activities who should undertake the responsibility of reprimanding these individuals.

I hate moralistic people and I try to promote cheating as an afrontary. I have never cheated to better my own grades because I trust my own work the most. However, I will not hesitate to provide someone I know with "help" if they want it.

I have gone to outside sources for assistance on English assignments because we do not have the support of a writing centre at SFU.

I have not personally engaged in anything I would consider cheating. However, there are some courses . . . require an amount of work vastly disproportional to the amount of credit they are worth; when a professor has unreasonable expectations and time is short, students are a lot less scrupulous about cutting corners. (Particularly on "trivial" matters like sharing solutions to minor assignments.)

I have not, but I believe that some faculties . . . are extremely competitive - I have heard that some people actually rip pages out of library books to prevent the 'competition' from learning what is on that page. Another time I heard about people deliberately misinforming other students about tests and quizzes.

Students are not cheating because they do not want to do the assignment but because they don't have the time to get the assignment done while learning all the specific knowledge needed to complete it.

I think that you get disillusioned with all of the cheating/sharing of work that goes on around. I know it made me feel very bitter, I work so hard and I've been affected by this cheating. It really feels at times that people with integrity do not always win out in the end. I can't speak for people who cheat heavily, I wish i knew why it doesn't phase them because it really does affect us all.

I would say that the biggest rationale for cheating is the immense course load that accompanies some programs. . . . Some people barely have time to sleep at night, if at all.

If fabricating research data is cheating, than I have engaged in that activity. The rationale for doing so is due to the fact that our prof only gave us one week to conduct two focus groups and write a paper & I could not find enough participants to be a part of the focus groups.

I have seen MANY cases where the students are not capable of writing more than a sentence in English. I don't think the school has a high enough TOEFL requirement, but it may also be foreign students who manage to do grade 12 here and somehow go around the TOEFL hurdle.

Some of the assignments we are given are ridiculously long. For example, in one of my . . . courses, the prof posted the solution for the assignment, which came out to be 20 pages typed. We were expected to finish this assignment individually in 1 week. . . . we often pass around assignments and work on them together. Most of us don't view this as cheating. We all learn from each other and get the assignment done. We don't copy straight out. Each of us makes the effort to learn. We all learn more and faster by helping each other out. When you're taking 17-19 credits per semester . . . you don't have the 10 hours it takes to finish an assignment individually.

Why would I spend days writing a whole new paper when I can use research from old assignments and directly copy paragraphs from old assignments. The work is already mine and I did the research, so I don't feel as though I'm cheating, I'm just breaking the rules. It's like driving 60 in a 50 zone. It's illegal but it's not morally wrong as long as you drive safely.

"Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done." Also, senior persons at the University must set examples. Prof's who write articles/books, do research, lecture, must apply the same strict standards to their own work - this is not always done.

A few professors and teachers make mistakes in identifying academic dishonesty. Yet, if proven wrong, their mistakes are pushed aside despite tormenting students with their accusations. When dealing with academic dishonesty, there should be a different method which does not make the student who is falsely accused feel powerless.

Academic dishonesty is widespread, and I see it more where the demands are stricter. I have noticed it to be most widespread among . . . and I quite honestly cannot blame them. There is such a massive demand placed on them, so much work, so much money, so many classes, assignments, and exams, so many mandatory events they must attend... to do everything that is required of them for school alone (not including social activities, work, family, sleep, etc) would take well over 300 hrs per week. People with such demands placed upon them simply do not have enough time to do it all... the best way to make time ends up being to copy that math assignment, ask an outside source for help with your [project], share lab data with another team, fill in the extraneous data with better values instead of doing it over again correctly, and so on. Emphases of an education, especially a university education, must be moved away from getting good grades so that you will be higher up on the curve than the person next to you, and towards an environment open to collaboration and sharing where knowledge can truly be LEARNED and promoted rather than memorized and forgotten.

Admissions to graduate programs should require some academic dishonesty test, like a written test to prove writing skills or test knowledge of a topic explored by student in earlier work.

Bell curves discriminate amongst students, subsequently causing them take measures as cheating to perform better than the other students. Modifying grading system would promote due diligence, improve teamwork, and reduce academic dishonesty. How do they discriminate? For example, on a very difficult subject, where I put in a lot of work, I have earned a final grade of 93%. Due to the high quality of information the professor communicated, where students understood it and did extremely well in that course, it translated to a "B". From then on I developed "me vs. them" attitude. I stopped helping, sharing info with other students and resorted to different measures to be better than "them".

I believe SFU (and Canada) should embrace multiculturalism and the social and economic benefits it brings. But ESL students must be forced to learn the language of instruction.

I think that the type of student attracted to those [competative] programs the high degree of difficulty to get in and stay as well as issues with English all lead to problems with academic dishonesty.

I can't believe how prevalent it is. My first time at University in the 70's was a very different experience.

One thing that's very important for the university to consider doing is having all students go through a mandatory "class" on plagiarism upon being accepted at SFU.

I know that with tenure, this is an impossible dream, but could a teacher who doesn't follow the school's policy on cheating be punished? Could a teacher's exams be audited to ensure they change them from year to year? Not likely... The students are bad for cheating, but it is the lax attitude of the teachers in applying penalties that will ensure that it does not stop.

I think there is a difference between group work and cheating, but the difference is often hard to enforce and hard to define.

I think it's up to the instructors to ensure that exams are altered each semester and to create assignments throughout the semester that are done in class so that he/she can evaluate students' progress. This can even be achieved in Distance Ed. using the First Class system. There will always be cheating in school, but if instructors take the time to make the learning process interactive throughout the course, students will have less opportunity to cheat.

I think S.F.U. is doing a great job. For their first time cheating, students should be made to do community service (like helping the poor, picking up garbage) and not have the incident go on their student record (but only go on record internally for the university, and no other university, or third party). If the student cheats again, then BOOT EM out for good!