[cgearhart]

Cheating is only rarely a proxy for failure. It has been my experience as a TA and instructor that cheating is more often considered an “accelerator” or “advantage” than an act of desperation. It’s not something that can be solved by academic support because the most brazen cheaters usually feel entitled to cheat—they view it as equivalent to doing the assigned work because it reaches the same end (a passing grade). For example, the student in the linked article admitted cheating, but had no contrition about it.