Avoiding Plagiarism in an Online Graduate Environment

Disclaimer

By C.B. Crawford, Ph.D.
Assistant Provost for Quality Management
Fort Hays State University
600 Park Street
Hays, KS 67601
(785) 628-5950

Presented at the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs Conference,

October 2002, Chicago, IL.

Online Ed. Jennifer Sauer

Prevention and Management of Plagiarism

Prevention techniques:

Nothing is foolproof. Every preventive method can be implemented, and plagiarism will still exist. But to the extent that plagiarism is "programmed" into our methods of instruction, a closer exploration of some of the common practices might lead us to a better understanding of what factors influence the decision to plagiarize.

Howard, Kelley, and McDonald (2001) make several suggestions about how educators can build a curriculum that discourages plagiarism, including:

• abandoning the open-topic research paper assignment
• requiring citation of all sources
• asking the class to design the assignment collaboratively
• specifying a purpose for every assignment
• providing details for assignments, in both expected content and format
• teaching citation, or providing ample resources for the student to learn it
• participating in the process of the paper (grade thesis statements and rough drafts
• giving students potential roles as researchers
• extending the assignment beyond the simple collection of research materials
• providing a real audience
• requiring copies of all sources

Harris (2001) takes a slightly different approach to his recommendations. Initially he urges the educator to adopt strategies of awareness about plagiarism. Those strategies include:

• understanding why students cheat
• educating yourself on ways students can acquire plagiarized materials (downloading free papers, buying papers from a paper mill, copying an article from an online or local source, faking citations, etc.)
• educating students about plagiarism (definition and penalties)
• discussing the benefits of citing sources
• making penalties clear

In addition to these strategies of awareness, Harris advocates that educators implement the following strategies as preventive measures to discourage plagiarism:

• make the assignment clear
• provide a list of specific topics
• require specific components in the paper
• require process steps for the paper
• require oral reports of student papers
• have students include an annotated bibliography
• require recent references
• require a metalearning essay

It should be obvious that an educator also needs to leave themselves the ability process the information thoroughly, since increased diligence regarding these issues requires more time than simply grading a paper.

Web resources:

Stunning: this word best describes the availability of term papers on the web, both free and for sale. But this availability cuts both ways. If students use free sites, then tracking those papers becomes infinitely easier. The Internet offers equal opportunity to both the plagiarist and the investigative educator.

While prevention strategies may be very effective in trying to control the tide of plagiarized papers, it can only be as effective as the most diligent professor and the least ethical student will allow. Plagiarized papers will be turned in even under the most controlled circumstances. Consider the following Internet resources as places that a professor may look to check the veracity of the materials submitted for grading. The table belowshows a list that is not comprehensive, but that may provide more than enough resources in order to find the original source of a paper that sounds too good to be true.

Table 1. Resources on Plagiarism