FASTNotes
 Preventing and Handling Cheating

Though no one wants to believe that their students cheat, studies find that a significant percentage of students report cheating behavior.

Prevention of cheating is preferable to punishment, and as Wilbert McKeachie writes:

"Dishonesty is less likely when students feel that the teacher and other students know them and trust them than in situations in which they feel alienated and anonymous" (Teaching Tips, 10th ed., 116).


Strategies for preventing cheating include:

  • Provide a variety of opportunities for students to demonstrate mastery of course goals instead of relying on a single exam
  • Make reasonable demands and write reasonable and interesting tests
  • Develop group norms supporting honesty in your classroom

Strategies for handling cheating include:

  • Be informed about university and departmental policies for handling cheating
  • Be willing to follow these procedures instead of "looking the other way"


For more information on what to do about cheating, see chapter 8 of McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers, 10th ed. (1999).

For information on plagiarism, see http://gateway.library.uiuc.edu/learn/orientation/plagiarism.htm.

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