Students’ perception of academic dishonesty in programming courses

Plagiarism in programming assignments is a common and current challenge. However, insufficient studies have examined plagiarism in the Middle East region. Thus, this research surveyed 422 students from a middle eastern university. It primarily purported to assess the students’ perception of plagiarism in writing programming assignments. Additionally, this study reported the changes in students’ perceptions of plagiarism in programming assignments between 2018 and 2021, the extent of this dishonest behaviour, and the demographical factors that influence it. A comparative analysis of the data from the 2017–2018 and 2020–2021 surveys of students specialising in Information Technology-related programmes found that those in the latter survey considered plagiarism less acceptable. In addition, the female students and those with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) higher than or equal to three also considered cheating and plagiarism behaviours in programming assignments to be less acceptable. Furthermore, these findings did not report a substantial perception variance related to student class standing or specialisation.