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?
Summer,
it would have been nice to be able to cover this topic in depth, however the course really was meant to be an overview of reaching Gen Y learners & space would not allow to cover all of the concerns. The ethical & proper use of technology continues to be a serious issue & one that instructors should be encouraged to discuss in their professional peer groups.
Dr. Ryan Meers
I dont think we will ever stop the texting in class problem,and when we involve the use of this technology in the class it will only get worst,they always tend to get board with the task and then off to another sight off target.not caring about the trouble or down grades they will get,the grades just dont seam to mean as much to them as it did in our day.I do have alot of good respectful students but the ones that dont,you could send them home every day and it would not phase them one bit,they say its the instructors fault.they say their social life is more important.so you have to pick your battles very carefully,and is it worth the fight.
i agree! with the use of technology becoming more integral in the class. We are seeing a big rise in plagarism. The students do not see it as such because it is AVAILABLE to every one.... they dont learn how to rephrase and put the content into their own words
I know that plagiarism is a serious concern for English instructors with term papers. But we have even had students plagiarize on journal entries that are supposed to be just writing about their own wwekly experiences or on the weekly discussion questions. Is is laziness, lack of interest, or ignorance that causes these situations? Our school has a plagiarism policy posted in every class and a video from the Dean of General Education discussing the topic that is placed in every class online. We also incorporate a book on how to write a term paper as required reading for students in Composition 1 where plagiarism is part of the curriculum. But never has a quarter gone by that we have not had numerous students caught plagiarizing.
Billie,
to me this sounds like laziness. When your school has covered plagiarism this much, it seems that there is no reason for ignorance on their part.
Dr. Ryan Meers
The small group learning that the Ygen prefers does not help with this Plagiarism/cheating problem. We have to work in lab groups due to the training aids required for our classes. Almost all lab sheets from a group are identical even though they are separately turned in as individual. We have a final test that involves explaining your answers, on your own and this is when we really see who was not really working with the group. I have often been surprised to find a particular student really has no idea what's going on when his/her lab work seemed to indicate otherwise. Failing this test can often mean failing the entire course. Knowing this does not seem to discourage the cheating.
Plagiarism is a big problem today. Everybody looks things up via a search engine and then proceeds to cut and paste other peoples work.
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.
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...
Nedialka,
yes I think we simply must do what we can to try & prevent plagiarism as much as possible.
Dr. Ryan Meers
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
There's a site that our school uses to help lower plagiarism: turnitin.com.
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.
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.
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.
