What is Grade Inflation

In addition to their traditional low-tech repertoire of cheating methods, students are now compromising academic integrity by utilizing sophisticated high-tech innovations to improve their grades. The inexperience of online faculty can also contribute to students’ academic misconduct when instructors employ a course design and/or assessment measures that are more appropriate for face-to-face courses. This chapter discusses how easy it is for students to “fake a course” and earn a grade in an online class without acquiring knowledge if a combination of two factors are present: 1) Using pedagogical tools unsuitable for measuring online performance, and 2) Violations of academic integrity. The purpose of the chapter is to present new methods of utilizing multimedia technology, more specifically student video production, to reduce the possibility of academic dishonesty and to improve the quality of teaching and learning.