Plagiarism
Plagiarism is on going challenge in the online environment. My school has a zero tolerance. I am very careful to read the sources they site. The first offence is treated as a mistake, something they were not aware of, they get the assignment back, they are given tow days to fix it and the directions to fix it best. They are also given several resources to assist them with the APA format style required by our institution.
The second time, they are given a zero on the assignment with reminders of the information they were given with their first offence. They are also referred to their academic advisor.
The third time, they are given a zero for the class and referred to the program chair for possible dismissal. Thankfully, it has never gone past level one.
Once I even had the student cut and paste the entire website dialog and pass it off as their own. Even to the point of defending my accusation that it was cut and pasted.
How do other schools handle this? What has happened if you had top confront the student?
Hi Alice,
I like the steps of repercussions you give your students. At my institution it can be anywhere from a talk, to a zero on the assignment, to failing the course. I like your cut and dry system.
Patricia Scales
I think a lot of times students think if they just site the source & put quotation marks around it they're not plagiarizing. They don't see the line between quoting & copying.
My school has a policy for a zero on the assignment for the first offense and then it escalates from there including failing the class and expulsion from the school. I have failed a student in the class because of repeated incidents, from copying internet information to copying another student's work. The school administrators were also made aware of the situation.
I like to do short in-class writing assignments throughout the term so I have a good idea of a student's writing skills before they turn in a paper. Then I pay closer attention if their writing style doesn't match what they have submitted before.
