Relying on Technology for Countering Academic Dishonesty: The Impact of Online Tutorial on Students’ Perception of Academic Misconduct

Abstract

Over the last several decades, the issue of academic integrity has emerged as one of the major concerns of higher education institutions throughout the world. Amongst different strategies for combating academic dishonesty, educational interventions in the form of online tutorials are becoming increasingly popular. In this paper, we empirically examine, using a sample of Montenegrin students and the matching method, the relation between online tutorials and four forms of student misconduct, namely cheating, plagiarism, fabrication or falsification, and aiding and abetting academic dishonesty. In addition, we examine whether students that received the certificate after passing an academic integrity test in online tutorial perceived different forms of academic misconduct more seriously than students who participated in the online tutorial but did not receive the certificate. Our results indicate that online tutorial can be useful for enhancing students’ awareness of certain types of academic dishonesty (cheating, fabricating/falsifying, and aiding/abetting), while for others (plagiarism), it remains ineffective. Similarly, we found that getting a certificate after completing tutorial did not amplify students’ attitudes towards certain dishonest behaviors (cheating or fabrication/falsification), but it enhanced students’ perceived seriousness of plagiarism and aiding/abetting dishonesty. The result of this analysis may have important implications for university managers and policy makers when designing strategies for combating particular types of dishonesty in academia.