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Other forms of academic dishonesty

In addition to breaches of academic honesty discussed previously concerning plagiarism and collusion, other breaches include the following.

In tests or exams:

1. communicating, whether by speaking or some other means, to other candidates during an examination

2. bringing into an examination and concealing, forbidden material such as textbooks, notes, calculators, mobile phones or computers

3. attempting to read another student's work during an examination 

4.  writing an examination or test paper, or consulting with another person about the examination or test, outside the confines of the examination room without permission 

5. engaging another person to complete an examination in place of the student, whether for payment or otherwise 

6. completing a test or exam in the name of another student 

7. accepting the offer from someone else to complete a test or exam in your name 

8. fabricating a doctor’s certificate for a test or exam.

Outside of tests and exams

• recycle submitted assessment tasks between units of study
• engage another person to complete an assessment task in place of the student, whether for payment or otherwise
• complete an assessment task in the name of another student
• accept the offer from someone else to complete an assessment task in your name
• fabricate references, quotes or data for a written assessment task
• seek an extension or consideration by fabricating a doctor’s certificate
• copy directly from a fellow student, even if you make an effort to understand what you have copied

In the same way that academics can be alerted to detect for plagiarised text, they can similarly detect cheating in spreadsheet assessments or word-processed essays. These detection methods include

• Setting different datasets for each student. 
• Designing the spreadsheet to contain hidden cells to help identify students.
• Password protecting the student data in the spreadsheet.
• Constructing the spreadsheet so that copying formulas will produce different results in different spreadsheets.
• Using electronic detection methods such as Google

Legitimate cooperation for spreadsheet assessment tasks

• You discuss the elements required for the spreadsheet formula together and then you both write your own independently.
• You have difficulties with a complex spreadsheet problem and a friend provides you with general advice on the main issues required to solve it but without examining your spreadsheet attempt. 
• You and another student work at adjacent computers with the same problem and discuss difficult issues when they arise, to make sure you are both keeping things on track.

In research projects unacceptable data fabrication practices include:

• Opting to alter a few data entries to make them fit the desired outcome for an assessment task.
• Collecting only a partial data set for an assessment task and ‘filling in’ the rest by using averages

What would you do?

You are studying one of the core units of study in your degree and see a note circulating in the lecture hall about a student who is selling answer sheets for the tutorial assessment tasks. (This student completed the unit of study last semester.) The unit of study is not particularly difficult so far, but the assessments are taking a fair amount of time to complete and are quite boring to do.

Here are some good reasons to reject the offer to purchase an answer sheet. Which one would be most persuasive to you?