MODELING CHEATING BEHAVIOR IN ONLINE EXAMS: A THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR (TPB) BASED APPROACH

Abstract

Cheating in higher education has been widely studied, yet findings on its prevalence across traditional and online learning environments remain inconsistent. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a sudden global shift to online education and examinations, amplifying concerns over academic integrity. Empirical evidence from this period suggests a surge in cheating behaviors; however, most studies lacked a robust theoretical framework to explain this trend. This paper develops and validates a theoretical model of online cheating, grounded in Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and enhanced by Bandura’s concept of moral disengagement. To capture the unique dynamics of online exams, we refine the traditional TPB construct of Perceived Behavioral Control into two distinct dimensions: Regulations (REG), encompassing institutional policies and monitoring technologies, and Enabling Technology (TEC), referring to digital tools and platforms that facilitate misconduct. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with survey data from students at three Vietnamese universities in 2022, our findings confirm the model’s explanatory power in identifying factors that contributed to the surge of online cheating during the pandemic-driven transition.