SKERG Seminar with Dr. Manar Hosny on September 8, 2015. A synopsis of this seminar is available at https://skerg.ksu.edu.sa/Plagiarism Paper is co-authored by Dr. Manar Hosny and Ms. Shameem Fatima, reporting on an exploratory survey with students in King Saud University.

1. Manar Hosny
&
Shameem Fatima
Investigating Students’ Attitude towards Cheating
and Plagiarism
SKERG Seminar
September 8th, 2015

2. Outline
2
 Introduction
 CheatingVs. Plagiarism
 Combating Cheating and Plagiarism
 Current Study
 Cheating Survey Results
Recommendations
 Plagiarism Survey Results
Recommendations
 FutureWork

3. Introduction
 Academic dishonesty at
universities is a common
phenomenon among students of all
ages and specialties.
 Academic dishonesty is defined as
3
The students’use of illegal activities,techniques,and forms of fraud
during their examination or evaluation processes,usually for the
purpose of achieving better grades

4. Cheating Vs. Plagiarism
 Cheating  intended violation of
rules in order to acquire illegal
advantage or better academic results.
 Plagiarism  passing off someone
else’s work as your own without
acknowledging the source.
Plagiarism may or may not be
intentional
Plagiarism may not always be
considered as cheating.
4

5. Cheating and Plagiarism
 An increasing number of incidents of cheating and plagiarism
are being observed daily.
Electronic communication through handheld and other popular
devices makes it easier for students to copy and transmit
information both inside and outside the classroom.
 Factors for making students cheat or plagiarize
 Getting better grades
 Peer pressure
 Playing smart
 Making fun of the instructor
5

6. Combating Cheating and Plagiarism
 Academic community is giving a lot of attention
to increasing the awareness of students about
ethical issues.
Publishing ethical codes of practice and
teaching ethics courses
 Studying students’ attitudes may help increase
consciousness about the danger and consequences
of such acts.
6

7. Current Study
 In our college the phenomena of cheating and plagiarism are
rather noticeable.
 It is important to study the attitude of students towards
cheating and plagiarism
The extent of the spread of academic dishonesty
The reasons behind committing it
7

8. Research Methodology
 Two surveys were used to assess our students’ (females in
CCIS) attitude towards cheating and plagiarism.
 The cheating survey consists of three parts:
Part 1: Six questions to assess the frequency of some cheating
practices.
Part 2: Seven possible reasons for committing cheating.
Part 3: One question about whether the cheating practices are
ethical or not, and giving the reason for the answer.
8

9. Research Methodology
9
 The plagiarism survey consists of three parts:
Part1: Knowing the meaning of plagiarism, and assessing the
frequency of practicing some plagiarism acts.
Part2: Most common sources of plagiarism.
Part3: Opinion regarding the ethicalness of such practices and
giving the reason for the answer.
 The target sample was undergraduate students in levels 3 to
6.
 148 students anonymously answered the cheating survey, and
115 students answered the plagiarism survey.

10. 10
Survey Results

11. 11
1. Cheating Survey

12. Frequency of Cheating Practices
12
15.5%
54.6% 5.9% 49.2% 21.5%
8.7%

13. Reasons for Cheating
13
 When asked whether cheating is ethical, 11.5% of students
believed that it is ethical!

14. Cheating Survey Results Summary
14
 The majority of students (85%) have never copied answers from
someone else during the exam.
 A large percentage (55%) were pressured to give answers to
someone during the exam.
 Most students did not resort to using body parts to hide written
answers during an exam, and the majority also did not try to
change the answer after grading.
 Extracting hints from the instructor during the exam was
relatively common, where approximately 50% of students had
done this before.
 Paying someone to do an assignment seems to be a common
practice among our students, where approximately 22% of
students have admitted committing this act.

15. Cheating Survey Results Summary
15
 Most relevant reasons for cheating
Lack of time to study
Difficulty of the exam
Importance of good grades
Not preparing for the exam
 Less important factors
Helping a friend
Having a lenient instructor
Playing smart

16. Cheating Survey Results Summary
16
 Approximately 12% of students thought cheating it is ethical.
 Reasons given for being ethical are:
“I am not very religious”
“I have to do it because the distribution of grades is not fair”
 “I have to do it to succeed”
 65% of students who believe cheating is unethical indicated
that cheating is forbidden in Islam, and against Islamic values.

17. Recommendations
17
 Copying and giving answers, and extracting hints from the
instructor during the exam is relatively common
 We recommend that proctors be vigilant during the exam
and avoid answering unnecessary questions by students.
We should discourage the proctoring of the exam by the
instructor of the course.

18. Recommendations
18
 Paying someone to do the homework
The instructor get more acquainted with the students to
recognize their individual levels
Having assignments of incremental nature
More interesting assignments that need creativity and discussion
after submission
 Importance of grades, competition with peers and
expectations of parents are among the factors that can lead to
cheating.
Trying to motivate the students to learn and giving rewards that
are not dependent on grades

19. Recommendations
19
 To increase the awareness of students
Teachers as well as parents should stress that cheating is
unethical
 It is against religion
 It is a form of fraud
 It is harmful for the society
 Policies against cheating and relevant punishments should be made
clear at the introduction of every course, and implemented
seriously by all faculty members.

20. 20
2. Plagiarism Survey

21. Plagiarism
21

22. Sources of Plagiarism
22
83.4% 62.6% 51.2%
 When asked whether plagiarism is ethical, 34.75% of
students believed that it is ethical!

23. Plagiarism Survey Results Summary
23
 The majority of students know what plagiarism means.
 Most common practices
Copy exact words without citing the source
Paraphrasing without citing the source
 Sources of plagiarism
Electronic resources
Printed resources
Work or ideas of a known person

24. Plagiarism Survey Results Summary
24
 35% indicated that plagiarism is ethical.
However, reason given was irrelevant
E.g. “if the source is mentioned or it is an open source it is
OK to use it”
 Other reasons given for being ethical:
“To help me”
“It doesn't hurt to make use of some text in my research if I
write it in my own way”
“I may have to do it because of lack of time”

25. Plagiarism Survey Results Summary
25
 Reasons given for believing that plagiarism is unethical
“It is like stealing the work of others”
“It violates intellectual property rights”
“It is against Islam”
 “It does not help me learn”

26. Plagiarism Survey Results Summary
26
 From the results of the plagiarism survey, it seems that
students think that it is less serious than cheating during an
exam.
Lower percentage of correlating plagiarism with being‘anti-
religion’ compared to cheating.

27. Recommendations
27
 Students should be made aware of the seriousness of
plagiarism.
 Students should be warned about legal issues that may be
involved.
 Proper citation and referencing methods should be taught.
 Students should also try to improve their language and
writing skills.
 Introductory research methods and writing courses should be
given to all students starting from the undergraduate level.
 Plagiarism detection software should be used.

28. 28
http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/2015/04/symptoms-of-plagiarism.html

29. Future Work
29
 Examine whether the level of study is related to cheating
and plagiarism.
Whether students at introductory courses cheat more
or less than students who are approaching graduation.
 Whether there is an effect of gender on the tendency and
prevalence of cheating.

30. References
30
 Manar Hosny and Shameem Fatima,“Investigating Female
Students’Attitude towards Cheating and Plagiarism:A Study
in King Saud University”.The 2013 International Conference
on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer
Engineering, LasVegas – USA, 2013.
 Manar Hosny and Shameem Fatima.“Attitude of Students
Towards Cheating and Plagiarism: University Case Study”.
Journal ofApplied Sciences.Vol 14 (8), PP. 748-757 March
2014.

31. 31
ThankYou!
SKERG Seminar
https://skerg.ksu.edu.sa/Plagiarism
September 8th, 2015