Impact Of Academic Stress On Ethics And Learning

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Ethics and the Online College Student: How Does Academic Stress Affect Ethics and Learning?

The college experience has changed immensely over the last 40 years. In the past, college was synonymous with small campuses, large class sizes, and out-of-date text books. With the coming of the digital age, civilization saw class sizes shrink, college networks grow and even transcend physical boundaries with the introduction of the Internet, and saw access to information become only a click away. However the current system and the colleges of old have two key things in common. The first is that both place a fair amount of stress on the college student. The second is that both require the student to follow a code of ethical academic behavior. …show more content…

The answer to that question would have to be broken down into two parts. The first is how it affects the student. The obvious effect of this behavior is the student has effectively cheated themselves of real education. In most cases of academic misconduct, answers or materials are obtained with the sole intent of satisfying the task requirements, this requires little to no cognitive investment from the student. Therefore, no real learning occurs. Additionally if caught, there can be some serious consequences to academic misconduct. Though every learning institution is different, common penalties include; the relevant course being graded as incomplete, a failing grade on the assignment in question, and a failing overall course grade. In some more severe cases, academic misconduct may result in dismissal from the school and a negative notation on the student’s academic record. Negative remarks on the official academic record follows a student from school to school. (Columbia.edu, n.d.) The second element of academic dishonesty’s effect on learning is its effect on other students. As mentioned in the second paragraph, a student or a group of students cheating may motivate others to cheat in order to stay competitive, additionally if another student is caught cheating, The institution may choose to enforce policies that may inadvertently hinder legitimate studies such as placing restrictions on what sites and resources may be used on certain assignments and implementing more scheduled real-time

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