Student perceptions of peer cheating behaviour during COVID-19 induced online teaching and assessment

Figures & data

Table 1. Frequency of responses across the stages and disciplines of study.

		Frequency	Relative percentage
Discipline of study	Business	81	33%
	Psychology/Health/ Education	96	39%
	Science	42	17%
	Non-degree	27	11%
Stage of study	Pre-university	38	16%
	Undergraduate	157	64%
	Postgraduate	49	20%

Table 2. Mean responses across study DVs.

	IPTA	COTA
Willingness to cheat	2.26 ± 0.97	2.92 ± 1.2
Pressure to cheat	2.44 ± 1.1	2.68 ± 1.2
Engaged in cheating behaviours	2.15 ± 0.97	2.82 ± 1.2

Table 3. Major and minor themes.

More common (major) themes <5%	Responses	Description
Anonymity	59 (34%)	Disconnection from others; private surroundings; lack of oversight or supervision.
Access to material	20 (11.6%)	Access to notebooks, texts, online material, or other external resources.
Lack of consequences	18 (10.4%)	Ability to ‘get away’ with cheating without being caught and an absence of repercussions.
Pressure to achieve	17 (9.9%)	Increased expectation of achieving higher results in assessments from the self and others.
Access to people	13 (7.6%)	Increased access to peers, friends, family and external tutors for assistance, advice, or collusion.
Less common (minor) themes >5%	Responses	Description
Increased difficulty	6 (3.5%)	Overall increase in how challenging the material is an online format.
Inability to learn	4 (2.3%)	Increased cheating occurs as a result of lack of effort on the student’s part combined with greater opportunity in an online format.
Lack of instructor Support	4 (2.3%)	Limited input in both material and technological aspects of assessments conducted online results in students feeling lost and cheating to compensate.
Language ability	3 (1.2%)	A lack of ability in English combined with online assessment leads to an increased frequency of cheating.