Attitudes Of Students

towards Cheating and

Plagiarism: University
Case Study
MA N A R H O S N Y A N D S H A ME E M FAT I MA
CO L L E G E O F CO MP U TER A N D I N F O RMATIO N
S CI E N CE S , K I N G S A U D U N I V E RS IT Y, RI YA D H , S A U D I
A RA BI A
 Research Question

Plagiarism:
• Do you know what plagiarism mean?
• Have you ever copied and submitted as your own all
or some parts of another work without citing any
reference?
• Have you ever used internet, printed resources as a
source of plagiarism?
• Do you thing plagiarism is ethical?
 Conti…

Cheating:
• Have you ever copy any answer from another students
sheet during exam?
• Have you ever been pressured by friend to give her
answer during exam?
• Have you ever used parts of body as a source of
cheating in exams?
• Do you think cheating is ethical?
 Literature Review:

The collaboration when doing assignment,

completely or partially copying an
assignment from another student, using the
internet as a source of help for solving
difficult problems, coping text from
another(book, internet etc) paying someone
to do assignment or using hidden resources
during exams(Sheard et al.,2003)
 Literature Review: Conti..
In general, academic dishonesty is divided into three
categories:
• Cheating
• Plagiarism
(Moon,2006)

Plagiarism involves passing off someone else work as

your own without acknowledging the
source(Carroll,2002)5
 Literature Review: Conti…..

• In general, Cheating is considered as an intended

violation of rules in order to acquire illegal
advantage or better academic result in exams or
similar forms of assessment. This may happen by
Stealing ideas and different materials from different
sources. (Mares, 2005; Dobrovska and pokory,2006)

• Both Cheating and plagiarism are considered as a

subcategory of academic dishonesty. (Howard,2000)
 Methodology
A study on the extent of Iranian language students engagement in
cheating was reported in Ahmadi (2012). The study examined
the attitude of students towards cheatings, and reasons and
methods of cheat. The study also examines whether the attitude
towards cheating differs with individual factor such as gender,
academic level, marital status and age. The methodology used
was a survey at Iranian universities in the department of foreign
language. 132 students participated, of whom 52 were males and
79 were females. The participants were from teaching of English
as a foreign language. The result showed that cheating is
common in Iranian universities. And the reason for cheating
were: not preparing for exams, lack of tie to study, carelessness
from instructors.
 Conti…
In this study two survey was used to assess attitudes of females
towards cheating and plagiarism in the college of computer and
information sciences at King Saud University, where females
students are segregated from male students. The Arabic language
was used to write both survey since almost all students are native
Arabic speakers.
The surveys consist of three parts:
• Frequency of cheating practice among students
• Possible reasons to commit cheating
• Question asking the students about their opinion about cheating
and plagiarism.
 Findings:
Cheating Practice:
The result of cheating survey indicates that 15.5% of
students have previously copied answers from
others during exam, 54.73% have been pressured at
sometimes to give answer during exam, 6.08% of
students have previously resorted to extracting hints
from instructor during exam, 21.62 have previously
paid som5eone to do an assignment for them and
8.78% of students have previously changed answers
after grading and claim an error in the marking of
exams.
 Conti….

Plagiarism:
• 72.17% undergraduates students indicate that they
know what plagiarism mean. Findings also revealed
that 11.30% have previously copied all or some parts
of another work and submitted as their own without
citing their references.
• 32.17% replaced words of someone with their own
words without citing any reference.
• 40% use exact word but they don’t use any quotation
or reference.
 Conclusion:
• We can reduce it by giving different types of test.
• A teacher can play important role by being alert.
• Academic institution can play their role by having
signed code of ethics by new students.
• Seminars can be held for awareness of plagiarism
and to avoid it.
• The weak point of this article is that in this studies
only female students were the population.
Reference:
Hosny,M., Fatima, S.(2014). Attitude of Students
Towards Cheating and Plagiarism: University Case
Study. Journal of Applied Sciences, 14(8), 748-757.
DOI: 10.3923/jas.2014.748.757
Thank You