Posted: 07/26/2012 9:48 am
Cheating and grade inflation have been longstanding issues in education.
Tales of years past tell the stories of days when As were much harder to come by. Researchers Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy revealed last year that 43 percent of all letter grades given to American college students were As, representing a 28 percentage point increase since 1960 and a 12 percentage point increase since 1988.
Studies published by the University of British Columbia and education technology site Common Sense Media concluded that the prevalence of technology -- particularly smart phones -- has led to a huge increase in cheating cases at schools.
But as more K-12 schools go online, and as some of the country's top universities begin to offer courses via the Internet -- online education company Coursera launched last week with 12 college partners -- concerned parties are asking, do online students cheat even more than those in traditional learning settings?
In short, OnlineCollege.org found that 73 percent of online students admit to cheating, compared with 56 percent for blended learning. And in a study of 635 undergraduate and graduate students, 32.7 percent of online students admitted to cheating, while 32.1 percent admitted to cheating in a live class.
Check out the infographic from OnlineCollege.org below for more:
