Cheating and the new moral compass Cheating and dishonesty seem to be all around us, with an ever-unravelling litany of athletes, bankers, manufacturers and politicians cheating to advance their own interests. The use of immoral means for self-advancement has long been a serious misdemeanour within academia world and the digital world offers more and more ways both to cheat and to uncover cheating. While staying within the rules (probably), this edition of eMT looks at cheating in medical education in a digital age and the ways in which it and we are changing as a result. Cheating Cheating is the use of immoral means to achieve certain goals, either by breaking explicit rules or deviating from tacit social norms, and then hiding the fact. When caught cheating, individuals typically set themselves outside the circle of trust that defines their domain of activity. The severity of cheating therefore relates to the domain in which it takes place. For example, cheating in a board game is generally less serious than cheating in an exam or when publishing research findings. Academic and clinical practices are conducted as collectives that depend on high standards of behaviour to ensure their rigour, reliability and trustworthiness. When these standards are not followed then the aberrant individual weakens the whole undertaking. For instance, if other participants observe or suspect an individual of getting away with cheating it devalues adherence to the rules and it may lead to others adopting cheating behaviours to stay competitive. Medical education is not free from such behaviour. A recent study of students in New Zealand found that "91% of students disclosed some form of engagement in copying, 34% in cheating, and 60% in collusion" (Henning et al. 2012) with academic dishonesty identified as a symptom of broader ethical behaviour issues. However, what constitutes cheating or its severity seems to be a grey area.
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