I believe the main issues related to online academic honesty are:
* Peer pressure: Having friends or family that have studied similar subjects can be difficult and helpful at the same time. If you express your frustrations to them, they might suggest helping by doing your work for you since they’ve already done it once before.
* Online cheating: There are so many websites that allow you to buy essays and reports from previous students. It is extremely easy to find answers to academic questions online.
* Test taking: Because we are in an online learning environment, anyone could be sitting in front of your computer pretending to be you and take your tests or quizzes for you.
Although there are many ways to be academically dishonest in your online classes, I believe the following steps can be taken to avoid the problems listed above:
* Peer pressure: If a friend or family member offers to do my homework for me, then I would remind myself that they must not have my best interests at heart. The only way for me to truly learn is to do the work myself.
* Online cheating: While there are many websites available to copy other people’s work from, there are also many ways to get caught doing this. Programs such as Plagiarism Checker and Turnitin.com were developed to check our work against that of others. If we don’t use citations correctly, it looks as if we’ve copied someone’s work and turned it in as our own.
* Test taking: While it would be easy to have someone else take my tests for me, there would be no satisfaction in doing so. The only way to learn and grow is to study on my own and take my tests knowing that I worked hard for the grades I receive. This is the only way to have true pride in my own work. Knowing that I worked hard for something that I earned, makes it so much more valuable.