Academic Integrity and Cheating
Melissa Olt quoted a study in 2003 that named three possible approaches to minimizing (online) cheating and plagiarism was recommended: first, there was the virtues approach. The virtues approach sought to develop students who did not want to cheat.
Second, the prevention approach, the goal was to eliminate or reduce opportunities for students to cheat and to reduce the pressure to cheat.
The final proposal was the police approach, with the objective to catch and punish those who do cheat. He said that policing, when employed consistently, could also serve as a preventative measure (Hinman 2000).
My question (s): Is there a problem with online learners feeling comfortable cheating?
Do you see turnitinin.com as policing, preventative and working?
Good points - thanks for sharing! - Jon
"My question (s): Is there a problem with online learners feeling comfortable cheating?"
Your question is difficult to answer because surely there are students across the spectrum here. Some cheat because it's easier than completing the work honestly. Some cheat because they've never been taught how to avoid it. Some cheat because cultural norms or linguistic challenges that make it useful for them to paraphrase or quote material without citing it. And many students simply do not cheat.
"Do as I say, not as I do," doesn't carry much weight with today's student, and there's also the fact that students see adults cheating with increasing frequency in our society playing into this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/education/11cheat.html?hp
So my answer for your question would be an emphatic yes, no, probably, sometimes, and maybe.
Overall, however, I think students cheat mainly because we focus too much on them learning for the sake of passing exams or assessments instead of learning for the sake of gaining knowledge that will allow them to be successful in whatever they choose to do.
Really interesting article - thanks for sharing! - Jon
I do agree with John on the point of the students not being tough how to write and compile a research paper early on, so when they enter a college they are unprepared.
It also seems as students get easily discouraged if they received a bad grade and are under pressure to "put something together" without really thinking through what they are trying to accomplish.
I try to show them a different perspective on the given subject and encourage them to think how they will approach the topic. I ask them to create an outline of what they will need to cover and only then look for information to support their writing.
I found that if they step back for a minute and "think outside the box" it inspires them to write more in their own words expressing their opinion and sharing the information they have learned versus blindly copying material from the internet.
So to answer your question: yes, students feel a lot more comfortable cheating these days, but many factors contribute to that and all we can do is keep inspiring them to be thinkers and not cheaters :)
It's even deeper than that. This NYT article takes up the argument that large swathes of the current generation of students (brought up in the era of Wikipedia and sharing media files through bitTorrent) have radically different ideas bout what is considered "authorship" and "intellectual property".
Bottom line: it's not that they think they can get away with it. They may actually be surprised when called out for plagiarism...because they don't consider it cheating!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html?scp=1&sq=plagiarism&st=cse
Dan,
Really interesting article - thank you for linking to it!
Best,
Jon
In today's world, a large component of students are strivers. That means their perspective is to good from point A to point B in the shortest time. The education is a means to an end. Therefore plagiarism software is a deterrent to keep the honest - honest and prevent others from simply copying and pasting. Think what society would be without a type of police force. Much of the education from the professor side is to training how to use ones own words and how to improve writing skills. As a for profit educational institution, our second customer after the student is industry. We do not want to send students into the workforce who cannot write nor think how to take large amounts of information and digest into a readable format.
I really do have to say that you hit some really important key points on why some decide to cheat. During my experiences I have noticed that some of the courses are just not interesting enough for the students to actually want to learn the material. Now in this case I will have to say that it is up to the instructor to make it as interesting as possible. Include some personal experiences having to do with the subject and examples also help. Now the students see that they may be exposed to whatever the topic may be and they become more interested. Now speaking of online learners, I feel that they probably feel free to cheat since they figure they can't be cought.
I have to agree with this 100%. I recently had a study turn in a paper in which she copied and pasted paragraphs from a few different websites and then cited them. I suspected these were not her words, since there were many different font formats, as well as no real flow to this paper. I submitted it to www.turnitin.com and sure enough, it came back 67% plagiarized from the Internet. I contacted her about it and she didn't seem surprised to be caught at all. She rewrote the paper and it still was not that great. I do not think that the concept of original work or how to properly write a research paper is being emphasized enough in English Comp classes. At my school, students complain that they have to take 3 different English courses, but I am starting to feel that it isn't enough.
Do you feel that students do not want to do the work or do you think it could be the other technology we use? Instant messaging sure does hurt grammar!
Shelly,
I agree that current students who are attached to their phones at all times think it's ok to post abbreviations on discussion boards. I am shocked at the projects and discussion board posts that some students submit. I have had fellow students call them out on their discussion board posts a few times. As far as the cheating, I agree that as long as they cite the reference it seems to be ok to copy and paste paragraphs of information from webpages. In my experiences this seems to be the norm, I always remind students that a few sentences here and there is acceptable but anything more is plagiarism.
Becky,
Oh so true! I see many discussion posts that are not school worthy. Make sure that when you introduce yourself and you class expectations that you add "make sure your work is college worthy"!!
Shelly Crider
This was an interesting article and an interesting topic, thanks for sharing. I talk to students prior to completing a research brief and students still grab whole paragraphs off of the internet. I think they sometimes expect to try it the first time and plead a misunderstanding. I make sure I am clear about plagiarism at the beginning of each project and what the consequences will be should they choose to take information directly off websites from the internet. It doesn't stop it completely but it helps put everyone on the same page.
Theresa,
I think you are correct and I like the idea of you talking to your students. Excellent job!
Shelly Crider
