USING AGENT-BASED MODELLING FOR EER EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: PRELIMINARY VALIDATION BASED ON STUDENT CHEATING BEHAVIOURS

This paper is an extension of our CEEA-ACEG 2019 paper on the use of agent-based modelling for preliminary engineering education research design. The motivation for this work is to help researchers gain an understanding of the system being studied (e.g., classroom, program, etc.) before embarking on a full study. For this paper, we report on an extension of our agent-based model that allows cheating behaviour in the context of homework completion to be studied. Comparisons of our simulation results with observations from the literature on academic integrity support the use of this modelling approach.