Cyber-Plagiarism
I attended a "Cyber Plagiarism" session yesterday, delivered by John T. Harwood. Plagiarism is a huge concern for academic institutions...a problem made more complex due to the ease of access to resources via the Internet. For more information see: elearnspace: Plagiarism
Some thoughts from the session:
- Penn State (typical of most institutions) reports a study where 17% of students admit to cheating on tests, and 44% to cheating on assignments.
- The real issues are ethical, not technical
- Many sites are available to assist students with cheating: LazyStudents.com, schoolsucks.com
- Problem: Students don't have a clear definition of what plagiarism is...many schools do not define it clearly
- Why do students cheat: cost/benefit, too many options, poor time management skills, too busy (working outside of school), etc.
- Tactics: use sites like Turnitin.com, Plagiarism.org, educate faculty about cheating, change the role of writing, require work to be submitted in stages (rather than only a completed product), redesign assignments ("make plagiarism more work than actually doing it"), educate students
- Resources: Understanding Plagiarism, Cyber-Plagiarism Detenction and Prevention
It's critical to look beyond the act of plagiarism and focus on the conditions that cause it...this is what really needs to be addressed. Certainly detection and prevention is important...but it seems so "reactionary". Ideally, the goal would be to address the problem itself rather than treating only the symptom. For students today, however, this is a real challenge. In every area of their Internet use, they have free access to content (songs, music, information)...and suddenly in an academic environment, they are not supposed to rely on this any more...and instead create their own original thoughts/content. Hard to do if you've come to see the Internet as a source of unlimited information.
Posted by gsiemens at December 19, 2002 10:43 AM