March 19, 2024

Rettinger Discusses Grade Obsession, Cheating with Bakersfield.com

Professor of Psychological Science and Director of Academic Integrity Programs David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science and Director of Academic Integrity Programs David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger weighed in on a recent article on Bakersfield.com (California) on how focusing too much on grades can often lead to cheating.

It’s been a rough year for authentic learning. High school and college cheating levels are skyrocketing — or, at least, more professionals are looking for cheating and finding it. “I’ve seen 100-200% increases,” says psychology professor David Rettinger, who is director of academic integrity programs at the University of Mary Washington. “There are a lot more reports of student academic misconduct.”

This is not surprising. When students feel the odds are stacked against them, they do not respond with heartfelt engagement and honesty. “If students don’t think that it’s possible to learn something, or they think the situation is inherently unfair, they say, ‘Well, it’s not reasonable to expect me to do the work fairly because the situation is unfair,’” Rettinger says. Read more.

Rettinger Discusses College Student Cheating on Brookings Podcast

Professor of Psychological Science and Director of Academic Integrity Programs David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science and Director of Academic Integrity Programs David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger, who is director of Academic Integrity Programs at UMW, participated in the Brookings Institute TechTank Podcast, discussing “How Universities Deal with Student Cheating?”

The COVID pandemic forced many schools and universities to remote education where students logged onto video calls for their classes. At one level, technology was helpful in giving students opportunities to continue learning despite being limited to their homes. Yet during the pandemic, there was a startling increase in the use of online monitoring software designed to prevent student cheating on exams. To discuss these issues, host Darrell West is joined by David Rettinger and Lindsey Barrett. David is a professor of psychological science and director of academic integrity programs at the University of Mary Washington. He also is the president emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity. Lindsey is the Fritz Family Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center and the author of a paper entitled “Rejecting Test Surveillance in Higher Education.” Listen here.

Rettinger Quoted in Forbes Article

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger, who is also director of UMW’s Academic Integrity Programs, was quoted in a Forbes.com article entitled “If You Can’t Stand the Cheat, Get Out of the Kitchen.”

As David Rettinger of University of Mary Washington noted on The Key, “If you’re going to give a 50 question multiple choice test, that’s pretty much the most cheatable possible assignment online. Even if you just change that to 10 five-question multiple choice quizzes, you’ve made it less likely that students will cheat, because you’ve reduced the stakes and the pressure.” Read more.

Rettinger Comments on Cheating During Remote Learning in Teen Vogue

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger, who is also the director of Academic Integrity at UMW, recently contributed to a Teen Vogue article about remote learning and the rise of cheating.

“I call it a game of whack-a-mole,” says David Rettinger, president emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) and director of academic integrity at the University of Mary Washington. New sites are constantly rising in popularity, he explains, making it harder for professors to prevent students from seeking answers online, especially now. Read more.

Dr. Rettinger also offered comments on the West Point cheating scandal:

West Point Honor Code Under Scrutiny as the Military Academy Grapples with Another Cheating Scandal (WSHU)

Most of the West Point Cadets Who Cheated on A Virtual Exam Will Be Allowed to Remain Enrolled (WVIK)

Rettinger Comments on Cheating Incident at Canadian University

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger, who is director of Academic Integrity Programs at UMW, offered comments to The Ubyssey for an article on a cheating incident that occurred at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan, in which students used the homework-sharing site Chegg to answer questions on a final exam.

While cheating may have increased during the pandemic, there isn’t any hard data to prove that yet, David Rettinger, a professor of psychology and director of academic integrity programs at the University of Mary Washington told Chronicle of Higher Education in October. At UBC, no such data is available. Read more.

Rettinger Discusses Cheating on Enrollment Growth University Podcast

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger, who is director of Academic Integrity Programs at UMW, was a guest on the Enrollment Growth University podcast. According to the podcast’s website, he discussed “changing the incentives altogether and prevent the very need for online cheating in the first place.” Listen here.

Rettinger Comments on Cheating in Online Courses

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger, who is also Director of Academic Integrity Programs at UMW, commented in an Inside Higher Ed article entitled, “Best Way to Stop Cheating in Online Courses? ‘Teach Better’.”

“Ever since the first monks were saying, ‘Oh, those new styluses are allowing them to illuminate those manuscripts much more easily, that’s clearly dishonest,’ there’s been somebody who thought the new technology makes [cheating] so much easier,” David Rettinger, a professor of psychological science and director of academic programs at the University of Mary Washington, said during the Wiley webcast. “The reality is that there has always been people using technology for good and for ill. I don’t think the internet is an epochal technological change — it’s just another in a series of the wheel turning.” Read more.

Rettinger Comments on Course Hero in Chronicle of Higher Ed Article

Associate Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

Associate Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger

David Rettinger, Associate Professor of Psychological Science and Director of UMW’s Academic Programs, recently commented on an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education on Course Hero, an educational technology company that recently saw its value top $1 billion. The website allows students and faculty to share syllabi and other academic resources online.

Higher education is evolving “to be more collaborative and dynamic and less lecture/exam/research paper-based,” Rettinger adds. And when that happens, he says, “technology and pedagogy will come together in ways that really benefit students.”

Right now, though, “there’s a very serious gap between those things, and in my experience, faculty in the U.S. are largely naïve and unaware of the tremendous problem that technology is creating for contract cheating and file sharing.”

Rettinger’s other relevant role: president of the International Center for Academic Integrity.

He goes out of his way to say that he isn’t anti-technology, and he says he believes “there’s certainly a lot of legitimate learning that goes on on Course Hero” and other sites. (He acknowledges that his daughter, an elementary school student, “uses Quizlet all the time” to find extra problems to drill on.)

The philosophical premise behind sharing websites like Course Hero — and behind getting a higher education, for that matter — is that “there’s some pedagogical learning value that comes out” of exploring the educational materials you might find on such sites, Rettinger says. Read more.

Rettinger Quoted in Article on Plagiarism

David Rettinger, associate professor of Psychological Science

David Rettinger, associate professor of Psychological Science

Associate Professor of Psychology David Rettinger was quoted in an article on the ethics of plagiarism. “It’s a particular problem in academia because we care so much about the process,” says Rettinger, who is also the president of the International Center for Academic Integrity and director of Academic Integrity Programs at UMW. “I say this to my students all the time: I don’t care that you give me a [clean] paper. I care that you write a paper. The point is … it’s like sending someone to the gym for you. It completely defeats the purpose.” Read more. 

 

Rettinger interviewed on Good Morning America

David Rettinger, associate professor of Psychological Science

David Rettinger, associate professor of Psychological Science and director of Academic Integrity Programs

David Rettinger, associate professor of psychology and director of Academic Integrity Programs was interviewed for a segment that aired on April 3 on Good Morning America entitled “We tried buying a college admissions essay online, here’s what happened.” “Contract cheating has grown a great deal over the past ten years,” said Rettinger, who is also the president of the International Center for Academic Integrity. “Students are willing to use internet sites, family members, friends and other technology to get contractors to do their work.”

Read more.