The impact of technology on cheating and plagiarism in the assessment – The teachers’ and students’ perspectives

Constantly emerging new technologies have a significant impact on higher education – both positive and negative. One of the negative aspects of using technology for education and especially for assessment is its potential to support academic dishonesty, namely to facilitate students in cheating and plagiarism. On the other hand, it provides an opportunity for academic staff to control academic dishonesty. These opportunities have not been researched enough and the contexts in which technology is able to prevent cheating and plagiarism have not been clearly determined. To address academic dishonesty, the European Commission funded TeSLA project has defined and developed a system which ensures the authentication of learners’ identity and authorship in online and blended learning environments. This paper investigates the impact of technology on cheating and plagiarism from the perspective of teachers and students from Sofia University (Bulgaria) related to both aspects of facilitation and prevention/control of such behaviour. Two online surveys with 100 academic staff and 239 bachelor and master degree students from Sofia University were conducted. The results revealed that the technology affects the opportunities for dishonest behaviour in assessment differently in the three studied contexts: 1) face-to-face exams; 2) submission of paper assignments, prepared in the absence of a teacher; 3) submission of online assignments prepared in the absence of a teacher; but mainly modifies the means of cheating rather than encouraging academic dishonesty. Technological solutions for dealing with cheating and plagiarism proposed by the respondents also appeared to be dependent on the assessment context.