Analysis on the Problems of College Students Cheating in Examinations from the Perspective of Game Theory

Examinations are curial components of college education and an important means to evaluate lecture effectiveness and learning outcomes. Unfortunately, exam cheatings are not uncommon despite strict policies and procedures. Strategies to prevent exam cheating are vital for universities and education authorities to manage and foster academic integrity. In this paper, we use game theory to analyze the interactions between students and invigilators in examinations. The results show that students cheating is positively related to the expected benefits obtained by negligent invigilators, while the probability of invigilators being negligent is positively related to the consequences students face after they get caught cheating. Therefore, the solutions we propose are to increase the penalty severity for invigilators who failed to be vigilant and reduce the penalty severity for students' misconduct.