The rhetoric used by educators has crystallized the motive for receiving good grades over grasping an understanding of the concept at hand. This epidemic – pushed primarily by educational institutions – allows students to temporarily understand a concept strictly for upcoming assignments, then forget everything they have “learned” once coursework shifts from subject to subject.
This leapfrog mentality first took root during the COVID-19 crisis, where students attended class within the comfort of their own home. Alt-tabbing between tests and Google had never been a viable option before, and students took advantage of it.
Studies show that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of cheating in online exams surged significantly. In a 2024 study, “How Common is Cheating in Online Exams and did it Increase During the COVID-19 Pandemic?” authors Phillip M. Newton and Keioni Essex found that self-reported cheating among university students increased from 29.9% pre-pandemic to 54.7% during the pandemic.
Students claim the reason for this unprecedented growth in cheating was simply “because there was an opportunity to do so.” Additionally, tools like MindTap, an online learning platform, give students multiple attempts to complete the same question, encouraging them to guess and check. Although this digitalization of schoolwork benefits educators, as it eliminates the burden of manually grading assignments, it creates a clear pathway to easy grades, minimal effort and lack of true understanding.
To better understand coursework, students should pursue personal projects relating to the given subject. This might include drafting a research paper, developing a case study, creating a detailed presentation or working on hands-on experiments and projects that apply theoretical concepts to real-world situations. These types of personal projects allow students to understand the topic beyond just earning a grade.
Although the workload may be challenging, this effort is crucial for standing out to employers, as simply completing curriculum-based work without additional projects reflects a lack of initiative. Hence, a 4.0 GPA alone isn’t enough in today’s competitive job market.
As COVID-19 shut the world down, educators unknowingly contributed to a silent crisis, allowing students to focus more on grades rather than truly understanding the material. A reversion to in-person tests, assignments, and greater teacher engagement – though it may seem demanding – should lead to deeper student understanding and mastery of the coursework. Until these changes are made, the pursuit of personal projects seems like the best option for students to stand out to peers, employers and society.
