Applying the Multidimensional Ethics Scale to Examine Student Behavior when using Technology

This study contributes to the discussion on student perceptions of questionable academic behavior. Students evaluate behavioral scenarios to see whether they judge the behavior as ethical and to examine potential predictors of that judgment. The scenarios used isolate academic integrity decisions that involve the use of IT. The respondents were given items to examine the influence of moral equity, egoism, relativism, contractualism, and utilitarianism on three dependent variables: individual intention, peer intention, and ethical awareness of students in an academic-setting. This instrument incorporates dimensions from traditional ethical philosophies to determine which reasoning affects ethicality. This research aims to bridge the gap between faculty and student expectations by gaining a deeper understanding of the students’ decision making in a theoretical framework. The results suggest that students incorporate a number of philosophical frameworks in judging a specific behavior. Moral equity was the theory that was employed most frequently by the subjects.