Academic Integrity of Tourism Students: The 2020 Experience

Introduction

The year 2020 was noted as the lost year in modern global history. It has been about one year since the novel coronavirus disease has appeared as a game-changing global crisis. This fatal contagious disease has caused the grievous decease of many people and many of those to suffer. Due to strict governmental restrictions, such as nationwide curfews and lockdowns, manufacturing and servicing industries have significantly shrunk their production and service. Many countries have tackled severe financial problems. A plethora of companies, particularly those in the travel and tourism industries, have been whether under drastic financial pressure or on the brink of bankruptcy (Donthu & Gustafsson, 2020; Baldwin & Weder di Mauro, 2020). Many people have lost their jobs, and governments have had to enact emergency bailouts to support suffering citizens and businesses amid the great economic slowdown (Bremmer, 2020; Meier & Smith, 2020; Susskind & Vines, 2020). Aside from that, the growing discussion suggests that coronavirus disease might cause widespread distress and emotional trauma and have a negative impact on mental health (see Holmes et al., 2020; Armitage, 2021; Editorial, 2021). All in all, the disease has deeply affected daily life across the globe in various aspects.

With the emergence of the disease, people across the world have had to adapt themselves to a “condensed” daily life outlined by common rules, such as wearing face masks, keeping social distance, refraining from crowded areas, and conforming to hygiene caveats and governmental restrictions, which overall is called the new normal. One of the critical issues during the new normal has been education. After the spring up of the disease, face-to-face education, from primary to tertiary, has been whether restricted or suspended in many countries. Meanwhile, many educational institutions have improvised virtual platforms and shifted to remote teaching almost overnight. With the help of information and communications technology, such institutions have tried to tackle the unprecedented educational problem and overcome the learning gap engendered by the crisis. Although the positive impact of online or virtual education underway is still unknown, there seems to be no extant alternative solution under such a course of abnormality. Online education and remote learning remain a central topic of discussion with all intrinsic issues. For example, studies, such as World Bank (2020), Ali (2020), and Czerniewicz (2020) have addressed some of the issues and concerns aroused by such a type of education. Some of the issues raised by the given sources, which need consideration, are sufficient digital infrastructure and the cost of building it, educational equity concerns, learning difficulties, lack of familiarity with the tools and process, student and teacher motivation and technological skills, adequacy of supplemental guidance, difficulty in applying the existing learning management systems to the online environment, the broad scope of academic subjects and activities, the role of policymakers and educational technology vendors in the process, datafication issues, and surveillance in teaching and learning. Note that such issues may vary by educational levels, i.e., primary, secondary, and tertiary education.

Apart from the issues given above, one of the focal points of virtual education has appeared to be the student assessment. There is no doubt that assessment has been one of the major practical concerns of educators, students, and their families during the new normal. This activity, when carried out online, poses a set of issues to be questioned closely, some of which are the adequacy and efficiency of technological infrastructure, grading on a fair basis, and the academic integrity of students. Under the pressure of serious concerns engendered by such perplexing issues, some educational institutions have preferred to cancel or postpone exams (Daniel, 2020) while some others willing to undertake risks have chosen to fulfill them. Both choices unequivocally bear intrinsic debilities.