ABSTRACT This study investigated the impact of teacher's immediacy on the cheating behaviors of students at Illinois State University. It was found that many students do not cheat, but they say it is easier to cheat when a professor is not there. Also many students say that having a teacher who uses humor in class to engage the students deters them from cheating. This study used a questionnaire, and was given to approximately 250 students.

Research Questions One of the first things that I wanted to look at with this research is if females with higher GPAs tend to cheat more or less than males with higher GPAs. Another factor that I wanted to look at is if having a teacher who has a lot of nonverbal cues deters students from cheating. The last factors that I want to look at is whether or not having grad students and the professor in the room while taking a test deters the students from cheating.

Analysis All of the 250 surveys were used in the findings. I used SPSS to code all resuluts, and also to analyze the data collected, and chi-squares to prove statistical signifigance. After running the analysis on the research questions stated above, it was proven that there is no huge difference between males and females and their GPAs, and their decisions to cheat in college. It is proven that males are more likely to cheat if the opportunity was there. In all of the catergories of cheating, males had the higher amount of people agreeing to cheat. Another factor that i looked at was whether or not having graduate students in the room with the professor during the exam would deter students from cheating. It was found that more males and females were both likely to not cheat with the addition of graduate students in the room. I also found that most males and females say that they don't cheat. The other side of this question though was if there were only graduate students in the room would that deter them from cheating. On this question, more males said that it would not deter them from cheating, while the females remained around the same numbers. The last idea that I looked at was whether or not having a teacher with more non-verbal cues deters a student from cheating in his/her class. The majority of males and females said that having a teacher who uses humor in class has a positive impact on learning, thus detering the cheating.

Introduction Cheating has always been an issue throughout Academia for years. There are many different factors that can play a role in why a student chooses to cheat. Many have researched these factors. One may be that the teacher does not have complete control over his or her classroom which then leads to behavior problems, which can include cheating. Also, a teacher's policy on cheating may have an impact on whether or not students choose to cheat or not. In studying teacher immediacy and cheating, researchers may be able to find ways in which teachers can reduce the amount of cheating that goes on in the classroom. Researchers may also find reasons on why it is that students feel the need to cheat. All of these areas will be discussed further.

References Bozkaya, M., & Aydin, E. (2007). "The relationship between teacher immediacy behaviors and learners' perceptions of social presence and satisfaction in open and distance education: The case of Anadolu University open education faculty." Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 6. Burroughs, N.F. (2007). "A reinvestigation of the relationship of teacher nonverbal immediacy and student compliance-resistance with Learning." Communication Education, 56, 453-475. Crump, C.A. (1996). "Teacher immediacy: What students consider to be effective teacher behaviors." Firmin, M.W., Burger, A., & Blosser, M. (2007). "Cognitive responses of students who witness classroom cheating.

Discussion This study was a step toward bridging the gap between teacher immediacy and students' cheating behaviors. At the start of this project it was thought that cheating could be a possible problem on the Illinois State University campus. In all actuality, it really isn't. The results indicated that males and females alike do not cheat as much as expected. Having a teacher who is motivating and uses humor in class really deters cheating. It is hard for every professor to have the kind of personality that is humorous and easy going, but if professors really tried to open up, it could be one step closer to detering the cheating that is happening. There were many strengths of this study. I think the fact that the questionare held questions of formal and informal immediacy and cheating questions really helped to make some comparisons between the two. Also, using the convenient sample for our study was a strength because it was the Illinois State University students that we were looking to study anyways. There were some weaknesses as well. Using the SPSS program, some researchers ended up coding some of the questions wrong. These surveys ended up being thrown out. As researchers, we will never know if those surveys could have made a difference with our study. Future researchers should focus more on the non-verbal immediacy and cheating when continuing to bridge the gap bridge the gap between the two. I think that having a teacher that is not monotonous, or has a dry sense of humor could what we are looking for in professors for the future.

Literature Review Verbal and nonverbal immediacy has been shown to impact students' affective learning. Charla A. Crump (1996) states that teacher immediacy is a positive teaching strategy that can be learned and used by teachers everywhere. She goes on to say that the primary effect of teacher immediacy is the student motivation. Motivation acts as a mediating variable between teacher immediacy and student learning (Crump, 1996). Motivated students are easier to teach and are willing to do and learn more. "Research indicates that immediate teachers are viewed by students as being more positive and effective, which, in turn, leads to increased affect toward the instructor and course" (Crump, 1996: p. 5). Teacher immediacy behaviors are critical in student learning and the idea of cheating. Students respond positively towards these behaviors, and student-teacher relationshipcan be improved. Most research in the area of immediacy has focused on the informal/nonverbal side of it. Nonverbal cues include: friendliness or smiling, gesturing or a dynamic delivery, eye contact with students, decreased physical distance with students, socially appropriate touch, vocal variation, and spending time with students before and after class (Crump, 1996). Cheating is too often practiced among college students, and research shows that is on the rise. Michael W. Firmin, Amanda Burger, and Matthew Blosser state that students using cheat sheets increased from 34% to 68%, and students allowing other students to copy rose from 58% to 98% over a period of 1969 to 1989 (Firman et. al, 2007). Although students and teachers agree that cheating occurs far too much, students say that cheating happens more than teachers know. Some educators lay some of the responsibility for cheating on the educators themselves saying that teachers should not set up situations in which students feel the need to cheat, but sh0uld set up safeguards against it. A lot of research regarding cheating has been on the characteristics of the student. "Gender differences do not seem to exist at the elementary level, but at the high school and college level, more boys that girls admit to cheating behavior" (Firman et. al, 2007). One way that students have a lesser chance of cheating in with smaller class sizes because of the ample space between seats, and it is easier for teachers to watch over smaller classes to deter cheaters. This research is important because once we are able to figure out why it is that students feel the need to cheat and ways that they are doing it, then it may be easier for teachers to deter cheating from happening in their classrooms.

Methodology To gather the information that we needed for this study we used a closed-ended survey of 88 questions. The sample we used was a convenience sample of about 250 Illinois State University students. Students were varied in age from 18 to the oldest 65 years old. Most of the subjects were undergrads, but there were some graduate students. The survey used mostly yes/no questions and likert scale questions. The research was run by the IRB and was approved. Each researcher conducted 7 surveys. All the information was put into SPSS to be analyzed. Sample Questions What is your gender? What is your current GPA? If I knew for certain that I would get away with it I would cheat on an exam? Have you ever cheated on an exam or quiz while in college? He/she is animated when he/she talk to people. He/she has a relaxed body position when he/she talks to people. He/she has a bland facial expression when he/she talks to people.