When teaching online, it is beneficial to provide information in your syllabus to help students become aware of course expectations for good online citizenship.  There are a variety of elements involved in good online citizenship.  Good online citizenship information may include specifics about plagiarism including a definition and penalties.  Plagiarism in the online classroom has evolved to include cyber-plagiarism as well.  Plagiarism itself is basically using someone else’s work as your own without providing any credit to the other person.  Cyber-plagiarism includes obtaining ideas from the Internet and using it without proper referencing.  It also includes downloading research papers, journal articles, etc. from the Internet and simply submitting it as their original work.

As plagiarism includes a variety of issues from submitting other’s work as your own, incorrectly citing others work and stealing others’ ideas, it is difficult to succinctly define.  However, it is important to make sure students understand what is and what is not plagiarism.  It is also important to be proactive in helping prevent such plagiarism, but it is also important to recognize that as an online instructor you will need to be able to detect and deal with such instances of plagiarism.

There are reasons why student may plagiarize.  It may be deliberate or it may be unintentional on the part of the student.  Either way, it can be seen as a “teachable moment” when it does occur.  Students may plagiarize due to the lack of

• understanding of plagiarism
• research and citing skills.
• understanding of how to evaluate the content of Web resources.
• understanding of public domain and copyright issues.
• ability to adhere to peer pressure.

Therefore, address these issues with students to help them understand how to become a good online citizen.