Cheating
& Plagiarism In Distance Education
Plagiarism -
Promoting Academic Integrity is an Instructor Obligation
Research
and Facts
Research projects conducted by Donald
L. McCabe of Rutgers University (founder and first president
of CAI), have had disturbing, provocative, and challenging
results, among them the following:
- On most campuses, over 75% of students admit to some cheating.
In a 1999 survey of 2,100 students on 21 campuses across
the country, about one-third of the participating students
admitted to serious test cheating and half admitted to one
or more instances of serious cheating on written assignments.
- Academic honor codes effectively reduce cheating. Surveys
conducted in 1990, 1995, and 1999, involving over 12,000
students on 48 different campuses, demonstrate the impact
of honor codes and student involvement in the control of
academic dishonesty. Serious test cheating on campuses with
honor codes is typically 1/3 to 1/2 lower than the level
on campuses that do not have honor codes. The level of serious
cheating on written assignments is 1/4 to 1/3 lower.
- Internet plagiarism is a growing concern on all campuses
as students struggle to understand what constitutes acceptable
use of the Internet. In the absence of clear direction from
faculty, most students have concluded that 'cut & paste'
plagiarism - using a sentence or two (or more) from different
sources on the Internet and weaving this information together
into a paper without appropriate citation - is not a serious
issue. While 10% of students admitted to engaging in such
behavior in 1999, this rose to 41% in a 2001 survey with
the majority of students (68%) suggesting this was not a
serious issue.
- Faculty are reluctant to take action against suspected
cheaters. In a 1999 survey of over 1,000 faculty on 21 campuses,
one-third of those who were aware of student cheating in
their course in the last two years, did nothing to address
it. Students suggest that cheating is higher in courses
where it is well known that faculty members are likely to
ignore cheating.
- Longitudinal comparisons show significant increases in
serious test/examination cheating and unpermitted student
collaboration. For example, the number of students self-reporting
instances of unpermitted collaboration at nine medium to
large state universities increased from 11% in a 1963 survey
to 49% in 1993. This trend seems to be continuing: between
1990 and 1995, instances of unpermitted collaboration at
31 small to medium schools increased from 30% to 38%.
- A study of almost 4,500 students at 25 schools, conducted
in 2000/2001, suggests cheating is also a significant problem
in high school - 74% of the respondents admitted to one
or more instances of serious test cheating and 72% admitted
to serious cheating on written assignments. Over half of
the students admitted they have engaged in some level of
plagiarism on written assignments using the Internet.
Citation: Center
for Academic Integrity: http://www.academicintegrity.org/cai_research.asp
(Top)
Why
Students Cheat and List of Plagiarism Sites
- Fear of losing competitive edge.
- Belief that everyone else is doing it, so it is acceptable.
- See others cheat without visible institutional consequences.
- Desire for better grades.
- Lack of time/preparation for proper study.
- Convenience of paper mills, etc.
- The assignment in question is only a small percentage
of the course grade.
- The assignment seems to lack any relevance or is too long.
- Society values outcomes over process. (Learning for the
sake of learning is no longer valued by society at large.)
(Top)
Plagiarism
Sites:
…and many more, unfortunately.
(Top)
Why
are faculty often reluctant to enforce academic honesty policies
and prosecute cheaters?
- Pursuing possible acts of plagiarism takes time away from
research agenda.
- Instructors dislike confrontation and wish to avoid it
at all costs.
- The "nightmare case", in which the students,
although found guilty, are exonerated by administration
and the instructor is viewed as "wrong".
- Instructors do not feel it is their duty to seek out plagiarizers
and cheaters.
- Instructors are afraid finding and reporting plagiarizers
will reflect poorly on their teaching.
- Instructors are afraid of the consequences that a charge
of cheating may have on the particular student.
- Instructors are uncertain of their institutions' policies
concerning plagiarizing and cheating.
(Top)
Plagiarism
Detection Services and Websites:
(There are concerns in academia
that these sites save submitted papers for future comparison.)
(Top)
Prevention
Tactics
- Students and faculty should be aware of the FHSU policy.
- Students should be aware of any specific course and classroom
academic honesty policies. List these in the course syllabus.
Also, discuss these policies in class and make certain students
understand EXACTLY want constitutes plagiarism, cheating,
paraphrasing without citation, and other forms of academic
honesty.
- Let students know that you are internet savvy, or that
you have enough skills and knowledge to detect plagiarism
from websites and essay mills.
- Require a one-page writing sample. This will help you
assess a student's writing skills, writing patterns, etc.
(For example, students often prefer either active or passive
voice, simple or complex sentence structures, or other "giveaways"
that are somewhat unique to that student. The writing sample
is not foolproof, but it can give the instructor an idea
of a student's tendencies. The writing sample can also help
instructors gauge the capabilities of the student or the
entire class for course projects.)
- Make certain that all instructor handouts are properly
cited.
- Follow through when you detect academic misconduct. Don't
"let it slide, just this time."
- If plagiarism is suspected, try a "google" search
of key words and phrases from the submitted assignment.
Type the suspect phrase in quotation marks in the internet
search engine text box.
- Assign topics with specific guidelines and specific to
course content. Avoid open-ended topics and assignments.
- Clarify to what degree students can or cannot collaborate
on their projects and assignments.
- Require multiple drafts of papers.
- Require specific formatting. Formatting that is different,
that has strange page breaks and multiple fonts may indicate
plagiarism.
- Require photocopies of all references.
- Require electronic copies of all papers. (Electronic copies
are needed for most Internet Plagiarism Detection Services.)
- Require oral presentations of assignments (in class, or
in student/instructor "mini-conferences").
- Assign interesting, personalized papers that require students
to integrate their own opinions.
(Top)
FHSU
Academic Honesty Policy and Procedures:
FHSU Academic Honesty Policy (from catalog)
http://web.fhsu.edu/universitycatalog/gen/academichonesty.asp
FHSU Academic Honesty Policy Procedures (from
catalog)
http://web.fhsu.edu/universitycatalog/gen/procedures.asp
(Top) |
|
|
