The reason for the increase during the Covid-19 pandemic was not merely the fact that teaching was being conducted remotely – it was also down to new ways of cheating: sharing notes, sites with answers for old exams such as StuDocu and a lack of clarity around students reusing their own work. With the breakthrough of generative AI in autumn 2022, the issue became yet more complicated.
The pilot project ran between 2022 and 2024 with the goal of strengthening the ability of the learning environment to prevent cheating and to develop procedures and materials for the work going forward. The focus was primarily on assisting teaching staff and their support organisations (such as directors of study, programme directors, heads of department, study counsellors), rather than to teach students or alter administrative processes.
“I would like to say that half of the students find learning easy and are good at following the rules, while a third find learning more difficult and risk being tempted to cheat. A very small proportion cannot or have no intention of learning and cheat regularly as a result. As more and more people study at universities and higher education institutions, the need for support will increase. Support resources such as student health services, study skills workshops, language teaching experts and libraries need to be dimensioned accordingly. Without these resources, cheating will increase, particularly since more people are continuing into higher education. The brief training in teaching and learning in higher education that teaching practitioners receive teaches them to take advantage of the students’ ability to assimilate knowledge rather than to teach them the basics,” explains Elin Bommenel, the project manager.
The aim of the project is to raise the quality of education, reduce the number of reported offences and make the processing of cases more efficient. In the long term, it is hoped that students’ understanding of academic integrity will be strengthened. By training teaching practitioners and their support functions in how to prevent and report, the number of reported offences will be reduced and efficiency in processing cases improved.
The role of teaching staff in preventing cheating
During the project, it emerged that cheating is a complex behaviour affected by pressure, a lack of preparation and unclear expectations. Work to prevent it needs to combine clarity and the opportunity to refresh their knowledge as the students progress academically.
It is particularly important to offer support to reduce procrastination, multitasking and the stress that results from those practices. Teaching staff are central to this work but need organisational support and policies aimed at teaching and learning.
“I would like to say to the teaching staff: you have four years of research education and five to ten weeks of training in teaching and learning in higher education. No one could ask more of you. Your job is to make sure that students are academically prepared for assessment and that the tests are fair and secure. The rest is to be taken care of by support resources with different expertise to yours. The support materials we have developed are to cover the areas that you are not expected to have knowledge of,” says Elin Bommenel.
She also points to the legal information available on the Staff Pages. It offers excellent support for teaching staff, see the link below.
“I would like to say to study counsellors and programme directors: make sure your syllabi, exam information and exam include written instructions about integrity. Students are to have the opportunity to practice : once per semester for freestanding courses, once per year for study programmes. This is the responsibility of the organisation,” says Elin Bommenel.
The report recommends that the University continue to develop clear integrity policies, make information compulsory and ensure that advancement is built in to the programmes. A recurring survey is proposed to follow-up development.
What type of support is in demand?
The most important results of the project are the comprehensive learning resources that have been developed for Canvas Commons: videos, reflective writing assignments and workshop materials in Swedish and English. The materials are designed to be used directly with students while simultaneously giving teaching staff members knowledge without extra training initiatives.
Support materials to help prevent cheating
The materials developed during the project can be downloaded from Canvas Commons by all teaching staff who have an LU account, and include:
- Videos for students, seven in Swedish and five in English, covering the value of academic integrity, reference management grey areas such as self-plagiarism and the connection between procrastination and cheating.
- Seven Swedish and five English reflective writing assignments för students with study planning exercises and discussions about right and wrong.
- Four workshops in Swedish and four in English that can be led by teaching staff/librarians together with students, dealing with the reflective writing assignments, values and right and wrong, setting boundaries in grey areas and planning one’s time.
Go to Canvas Commons and search for “Academic integrity – Lund University”.
Feel free to ask your contact librarian if you have difficulty finding or downloading the material.
- Legal information for students: Cheating, disruption and harassment | lu.se
- Legal information for employees: Disciplinary matters