Class Activity: Cheating Discussion

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Lead an in-class discussion on cheating and plagiarism. Ask your students to brainstorm, either as a group or individually, about how they would define cheating in an academic setting. Ask the students to consider different scenarios that constitute cheating, including topics like plagiarizing from books and the Internet, using papers or homework turned in previously by other students, and cheating during exams. Try to encourage the students to think about situations in which they were unsure about the difference between cheating and “borrowing” ideas from books or other sources. Lastly, ask students to present some ideas on why students might feel the need to cheat and brainstorm ways to avoid academic dishonesty as a class.