Technology and Plagiarism
I was surprised that this course didn't spend more time addressing technology and plagiarism. Anyone who has been in a school in the last 10 years knows this is a very serious problem for all instructors, at all levels. I was wondering how other instructors have addressed this issue as I am always looking for new strategies.
Two things I depend on to reduce plagiarism are homework assignments that are open-ended questions that demand critical thinking by applying knowledge and constantly changing quizzes, tests. It's more work. I feel a lot of teachers don't call students on plagiarism, though they might suspect or even know they have cheated, due to laziness. That makes it more difficult for teachers who do. Thoughts?
Kathleen,
this is great as it gives a very thorough understanding to the students of what you are expecting & how they can meet those expectations.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I teach my students myself, proper quotation, paraphrase and summary techniques, how and when to cite their sources, what plagiarism is and make it very clear that I will be checking for it--it's cut way down on the amount of cases I've seen over the years in my English classes. I don't rely on any prior knowledge, so there's no excuses.
Linda,
excellent point made here, especially in regard to the knowing how to do these things. Too often we fall into the trap that since so much information is out there, these students automatically know how to do these things.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
From a Career Services perspective, plagiarism is showing up in our world too. I've had student turn in resumes for review and approval where it's obvious to me they have copied the job responsibilities straight off a job posting from the Internet. I have no problem calling attention to it and then we work together to craft a resume that actually reflects their experience. I really do believe that most students just don't know how to go about starting a resume or talking about themselves. And since resume have such a specific format to follow, similar to an APA format paper for instance, cheating by copying from the Internet is easier and quicker.
Plagiarism, is one of a number of dangers that are associated with the use of technology. Specific guidelines need to be established reference the use of technolog,for example, the use of cell phones. You certainly don't want the students text messaging each other the answers during an assessment or "googling" the answers to the test. A common sense approch to technology should help avoid these pitfalls.
I use a power point presentation in front of class as a final. This way they can not cut & past. Second we discuss the topic post presentation. It takes a while to get it done, and I have the luck of having small classes (20 to 15)
Everything posted on this subject so far is true. Sometimes I think our best hope is just deal with it since it won't go away. Lots of explanations about the behavior of these Gen Y people have been kicked about, but there are no real answers. As for solutions, one size does not fit all. Students I have spoke with honestly don't understand the problem...." if I find the answer why does it matter where I got it..?" One could argue ethics, but is that the answer? To be trusted in the workplace one must know right from wrong, acceptable and unacceptable. And do I see these definitions changing in front of me?
Changing the thought pattern of an entire generation is not easy. Maybe not possible. So do we just try to do the best we can with some new tools and hope for the best? Right now I know several industries that are pretty good at weeding out folks who don't fit, but some day...well, do you suppose their way of thinking will become the norm? "How I did it or where I got the info isn't as important as the fact that I did get it..."
Bryce,
you make a great point as it is harder to find an answer to copy when it is more an open-ended, opinion type question.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Plagerism can be tough to deal with I think that by adding homework assignments that are open-ended questions it will make the student work that much harder on the particular assignment.
I think the best method of addressing this issue I saw from one of my college professors was to have each student not only write a paper but orally defend it while being questioned about its contents, either in private with the professor or in front of the class. This limited the temptation to use someone else's work because students were forced to imagine how they would discuss coming to particular conclusions. Some students found this method terrifying, but all came out feeling better about their communication skills.
There's a site that our school uses to help lower plagiarism: turnitin.com.
Plagiarism can be more rampant with the use of technology. I have had student copy and paste entire papers from different Web sites. They did not even bother to make the entire font of the paper match and take out the hyperlinks. Fortunately for instructors technology has also made finding plagiarism easier.
Using open ended questions and home I have found work. Also when writing papers or such having them email it to me and use a site (I like plagiarismcheck.org) to check for plagiarism, it take about 1- 1 1/2 min per paper and will tell you how much of their paper was plagiarised.
I think some lessons on what plagiarism is would be beneficial. A teacher needs to set the expectation and keep it. If a student plagiarizes, use it as a teachable moment and make the student complete the assignment again doing it the right way. The lesson an be life long and end the cutting and pasting into the powerpoint or into the paper that is so pervasive.
I think for written papers and assignments things like turn it in help a lot and having a mix of graded assignments. You need both objective and subjective assignment responses so you can best grade students.
I like this approach and hopefully it can be incorporated in my next class .Getting their personal input or Interpretation of the subject matter instead of just a report would make a difference. This occurs in the bachelors and master level but in the associates or diploma level it can be lacking. Even if you had students use this approach for part of the assignment or the conclusion would be beneficial.
Nedialka,
yes I think we simply must do what we can to try & prevent plagiarism as much as possible.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Plagiarism is indeed very serious problem and I try to prevent it by assignment that require personal input. In my opinion this helps but not a lot...
WE use open ended questions the students have to write themselves. I also blank out their computers where they cannot look anything up. All they can use is their book.
