Cheating and academic misconduct are challenges that most college administrations acknowledge are ongoing, regardless of efforts to combat them. However, with the switch to distance learning, these actions continue to increase – and create billion-dollar empires in their wake.

The online cheating industry is proving more than lucrative, enough for a recent Forbes article to highlight their troubling prevalence. One of the more popular sites is Chegg.com, a tech company enjoying explosive growth due to COVID. Akin to Googling, “Chegging” allows students to search among the site's 46 million textbook and exam problems for in-depth test answers.

Regardless of the time of day, there is always someone ready to help a student find answers for the low price of $14.95 a month. The company works with tens of thousands of freelancers worldwide to accommodate student schedules, but most are in India.

Chegg's founders claim that they are aware of the issue but that the site's purpose was not to facilitate cheating.

Administrations Fighting Back

Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig mentioned that education must change to accommodate technology and that students should be able to “binge-watch [their] education.” In a statement to Forbes, Nathan Schulz, a Chegg president, claimed that the company is investing heavily to address and prevent cheating.

So far, their efforts are not successful, forcing college and university administrators to pay millions of dollars to combat academic misconduct themselves.

Administrators are investing in counter-websites that proctor students remotely. While these sites successfully reduce cheating, they also come with significant drawbacks like privacy concerns and unfair flagging.

Consequences of Online Cheating

Part of the strategy to combat online cheating is creating new policies that warn students of academic misconduct implications. In addition to the consequences students face from their administrations, they also risk having a permanent “mark” on cheating detection programs.

The mark makes the monitoring process more stringent and can cause undue stress for the student. The impact on their education and their graduation prospects is both harmful and long-term, necessitating a legal advisor's help for a favorable outcome.

The main implications of cheating include:

• Receiving an F or failing grade
• Retaking the test
• Failing the course
• Suspension
• Loss of privileges
• Removal from honor roll status
• Scholarship refusal
• Retaking a class
• Expulsion in severe cases

The penalties are enough to set students back and even prevent them from graduating. The real problems start when students receive a cheater label, despite not engaging in academic misconduct. With AI and proctoring programs prone to error, mistakes are inevitable, but an honest student pays the price.

Call the Lento Law Firm - Experts in Student Defense

Attorney Joseph D. Lento works with students nationwide to help them fight charges of academic misconduct.

Whether the incident was an honest mistake or a temporary lapse in judgment, you don't have to suffer for years or wait longer to graduate when you have the right defense strategy.

If you face academic misconduct or cheating charges from your college or university, call the Lento Law Firm now for expert consultation at 888-535-3686.