How many of you have had students use the ideas of others inappropriately? Plagiarism has become easier on the Web and many people are not aware of what proper behavior is. A nice collection of online tools for detecting plagiarism is available at http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com/online-teaching/plagiarism#q. These will be useful if you have made clear to students your expectations regarding copying and pasting–and even if you have no–because they enable you to find instances of plagiarism in student work. Then it is up to you to decide what to do.
Plagiarism Detection Tools
Thursday, June 24th, 2010 11:02 am
Written by: John Moore
Posted in Topics: Ethics, High School, Middle School, Teaching, Undergraduate
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This article from the New York Times describes one approach to preventing cheating and plagiarism (http://nyti.ms/bTSDyu). Given the ease with which students can copy material from the Web and the existence of sites where students are rewarded for uploading assignments for other students to copy and paste as their own, it is not surprising that more than 55% of institutions of higher education are using online services that detect plagiarism.
There seem to be two major approaches–at opposite poles. One is to go all out to prevent plagiarism and the other is to encourage an honor code where the entire institution is mobilized to prevent it. In some cases, changing assignments may be successful in making cheating less likely; for example, allowing students a card with formulas and other information they may need during an exam should lessen the temptation to copy. However, in other areas, such as when students are assigned to create an original work, there appears to be nothing do do except apply the best detection tools and/or rely on an honor system.
What is your experience with cheating? Are there good ways to improve learning and discourage cheating at the same time? What are they? Or is a strong police presence the only cure?