Academic Integrity during the COVID-19 Pandemic

An online learning environment can be effective but presents additional challenges with regard to academic integrity compared to in-person education. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many institutions to an online learning environment with less than two weeks' notice. Even before migrating to the online learning environment, violations of academic integrity have been shown to be alarmingly prevalent in United States institutions. In an online environment where students have unfettered access to online resources, “availability” would be expected to be a substantial factor making cheating easier and, thus, more prevalent. The goal of this research is to analyze student perceptions of adherence to academic integrity rules before and after the initial COVID-19 response in Spring 2020, where classes were forced to an online learning environment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our university made a sudden shift from fully in-person instruction to entirely remote online learning with less than two weeks' notice to both students and faculty. This sudden shift left faculty scrambling to convert in-person lectures, which relied heavily on chalkboards and document cameras as the interface to communicate to students in the classroom, to an entirely online format using only computers from home. The faculty decided to survey the students to obtain their perspective to determine if students felt that they and their peers would adhere to academic integrity rules during this change to an online learning environment. Student surveys were administered during the first and last week of the change from in-person to online instruction for 12 engineering classes at an undergraduate institution, including civil, mechanical, electrical, and general engineering classes. Paired t-tests were performed to determine if students initially felt others would, and afterward did, adhere to academic integrity rules. Results indicate that while students had a positive perception of themselves adhering to academic integrity rules they did not feel that their peers would - with a statistically significant difference. These results are concerning since students may be more predisposed to cheat if they feel they are at a disadvantage because others are cheating. Also, grades are not an adequate assessment of learning objectives being met if students are not adhering to academic integrity requirements. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

Student Perceptions and Performance with Online Instruction of Sustainability during COVID-19 Response

Higher education in an online learning environment has been shown to be effective and appreciated by students. However, it does have limitations and requires several weeks of preparation prior to the start of class. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, most institutions around the world were forced to move to an online learning environment within a week with many faculty and students having no experience with this environment. Further, while students may appreciate an online learning environment when they choose it, perceptions of learning can change drastically when forced to an online environment mid-semester. The purpose of this paper is to analyze student perceptions and performance in the online learning environment for an undergraduate engineering course in sustainability in the Spring of 2020, where the instructor had no prior experience nor training in teaching an online class. Student surveys were administered in the first week of the change from in-person to online instruction as well as in the last week of instruction. The surveys were analyzed to determine if students thought the online instruction would be as effective as the in-person instruction, and then if students thought the online instruction was as effective as the in-person instruction. Grades were also compared to determine if students performed as well during the online instruction compared to the in-person instruction. Results indicate that overall students in this class felt that learning outcomes were achieved to the same degree as with an in-person learning environment. Also, no significant difference was seen in grades between material taught in an in-person or an online learning environment for this class. The learnings from this study could help in understanding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education as well as gaining some insight on when in-person learning should be prioritized. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021