Collaboration or Cheating? Creating Environments to Support Learning and Assessment
Purpose: Academic dishonesty is especially concerning in health profession students given its potential to negatively impact healthcare. This study examined attitudes, experiences and behaviors of nursing (RN), nurse practitioners (NP), physician assistant (PA), and physical therapist (PT) students towards academic dishonesty in the classroom, laboratory, and during clinical experiences.
Methods and/or Description of Project: Health profession students completed a survey in the last semester of the program. Students identified attitudes and behaviors for themselves and observations of peers that would be classified as cheating in the classroom, laboratory, and clinic based on 17 scenarios.
Results/Outcomes: One hundred and twenty students completed the survey; 29 RN, 11 NP, 51 PA, and 29 PT students. While the overall level of integrity was high, students reported higher incidences of academic dishonesty related to unauthorized collaboration on assignments (78%), sharing exam information with those who have not taken the exam (54%), and documenting clinical examinations not observed (28%).
Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme: Learning environments must promote collaboration and teamwork while employing strategies to protect the integrity of assessment processes. Faculty must communicate with stakeholders explicitly and design more effective and accountable assessment processes. Evidence supports group work and diverse assessment practices can positively impact learning and teamwork.