Technology and more collaborative learning styles have created a grey zone in academic honesty.

Tricia Bertram Gallant is our guest for this discussion. Dr. Bertram Gallant is the Academic Integrity Coordinator for the University of California, San Diego. She received her bachelor and masters degrees from the University of Guelph in Ontario, and her Ph.D. in education at the University of San Diego. She is Chair of the advisory board of the International Center for Academic Integrity. She wrote Academic Integrity in the Twenty-First Century: A Teaching and Learning Imperative and is co-author of Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do. Photo courtesy Dr. Bertram Gallant

Tricia Bertram Gallant is our guest for this discussion. Dr. Bertram Gallant is the Academic Integrity Coordinator for the University of California, San Diego. She received her bachelor and masters degrees from the University of Guelph in Ontario, and her Ph.D. in education at the University of San Diego. She is Chair of the advisory board of the International Center for Academic Integrity. She wrote Academic Integrity in the Twenty-First Century: A Teaching and Learning Imperative and is co-author of Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do. Photo courtesy Dr. Bertram Gallant

For instance, is buying a "corrupted file" service to buy you time with your prof cheating?

Recently, a Ryerson student nearly got expelled because he started an online study group.

Do teachers need to change how they grade and design assignments?

What's acceptable, what's not?

For those on Facebook, you can follow the discussion thread. While the discussion is officially closed now, you are, of course, welcome to continue it if you have strong opinions on the topic.

Here are a few summary points, based on the Facebook discussion:

While she doesn't see evidence there is actually more cheating, Dr. Bertram Gallant says that "there are a greater number of opportunities for cheating to be discovered and thus it feels like it has increased." (And, it's easier to detect, several participants add.)

She adds, "I think there may be some middle ground between dropping everything we know and have learned about education (because technology has changed "everything") and denying that technology has no affect on education and we should continue as if it is the 18th century."

She elaborates: "Actually the definition of cheating has remained the same in its basic sense - it means "deceipt, trickery, fraud, or dishonesty." But the behaviors that we label with the word "cheating" change or expand depending on the educational era, situation, or academic assignments in question. So, for example, "unauthorized collaboration" did not seem to be appear in the cheating lexicon until the 1970s when a greater number of students were enrolled in higher education and a greater number of assessements were given outside of class time. As forms of assessments change and new technologies are introduced (when the calculator was invented, educators experienced the same panic that they are now experiencing over "smart phones"), discussions of cheating ramp up."

She makes a point from an article on cheating that "students more readily admit to engaging in behaviors that they do not define as cheating, or only define as 'trivial cheating.' "

Prof. Michael Bowen says, "To me, the focus on 'cheating' is too much on students themselves. The reality is that their ways of understanding and making sense of the world are shifting quite considerably ... and a lot of teaching and evaluation methods are not being adapted to accommodate those shifts."

He says he actually designs many of his assignments to encourage collaboration and idea sharing so, ultimately, in many of his assignments "cheating" is not possible.

Student Steve Anderson says what is cheating and what isn't is quite clear: "The ideas of using your phone during a test to search, text a friend or check notes are clearly cheating and students who don't believe so are the ones who are giving a bad image to the integrity of students today."

And student Kevin P. Siu adds that "The education system is set up like a series of milestones, and many students do not feel that university is a place of learning - rather, in many instances, just another hoop to jump through to get that degree at the end of 4 years. This is more so in the 'professional' streams like engineering, life sciences, and commerce. There is no real incentive to 'learn', and the emphasis is inherently on grades, leading to a prevalence of various methods of advancing oneself."

Dr. Bertram Gallant says, "in our attempt to understand and stop "cheating," we have focused predominantly on the students. When we have moved beyond them, we focus on the professor and her complicity in the issue by not constantly improving her teaching or creating new and challenging assignments. We very rarely, however, take a look at the instituions, systems, and society in which all of this is occuring."

And, she suggests, "We have seen some problems of late around the world and in other systems (economic, political, etc.) that suggests we SHOULD be concerned about ethics and corruption."