On-Line Plagiarism: Fighting the Good Fight

by
Evelyn Beck

AS INTERNET RESEARCH becomes the norm and as the number
of on-line courses proliferates, more and more faculty and
administrators worry about plagiarism.

“We have had several cases of cheating involving on-line
aspects of courses, including group sharing of quiz questions
and answers and students copying others’ homework submitted
on-line,” says Jeanne Wilson, director of student judicial
affairs at the University of California, Davis, adding that
the overall “upward trend” of reports of suspected plagiarism
continues.

Given that plagiarism exists, how do faculty deter it? Some
use proctored exams to keep students honest. Robert Harris,
a retired professor of English at Vanguard University in Costa
Mesa, California, and author of The Plagiarism Handbook:
Strategies for Preventing, Detecting, and Dealing with Plagiarism
(Pyrczak, 2001), says, “The recommendation that proctored
exams add up to at least 30 percent of the course grade is
often made. That way if someone else is doing the homework
or writing the papers, then at least some of the accountability
will come from the ‘real’ student.”

Others make use of Web services that can track down cribbed
sources. The Plagiarism Resource Center at the University
of Virginia, for example, offers free software for detecting
plagiarism at its Web site: plagiarism.phys.virginia.edu/.
Some commercial services are TurnItIn (www.turnitin.com)
and Plagiarism.com (www.plagiarism.com).

But a more convenient approach is to design assignments that
make cheating nearly impossible. These include live oral “chat”
tests in which you question each student on-line about course
concepts. Or send out different versions of each test. And
you can increase students’ confidence levels–and suppress
the feeling that they must cheat to pass–by providing plenty
of opportunities for self-testing to let them know if they
have mastered the course concepts; for these kinds of tests,
use multiple choice, true-false, or matching so that students
can easily grade themselves.

For research papers, provide a list of unusual assignment
topics from which students can choose. Encourage original,
critical thinking by asking students to try to answer unresolved
questions such as “What is the best way to solve our current
energy crisis?” or “Why has the U.S. been unable to defeat
Saddam Hussein?” or “Which South American country would be
most suitable to host the Summer Olympics?” Or provide a specific
case study for analysis. Instead of simply gathering information,
students must use what they learn to provide their own insight.

Other requirements might include an annotated bibliography
or a particular documentation style. And for students with
poor time-management skills who feel pressured to cheat because
they run out of time, structure assignments in stages. It’s
also helpful to set a due date early in the semester, before
students are overwhelmed with assignments for other classes.

Harris says that he creates a “recipe” for each assignment.
One paper, for example, must include a table, photograph,
or illustration; a personally conducted survey or interview;
and eight sources, all within the last fifteen years and three
within the last five years. In addition, all sources must
be attached to the assignment.

Once a paper is turned in, ask students specific questions
about their topic and purpose and how they conducted their
research. You can also ask students to write an essay about
what they learned from completing an assignment. Or if you
prefer a less formal approach, require an on-line group discussion
about an assignment or request an individual response about
the assignment from each student via phone or e-mail. Another
idea is to require multiple short assignments in lieu of one
longer paper or test, making it more trouble for someone to
cheat.

It can also help to make clear to students how to use information
gathered on-line.

“It appears that many students do not know how to document
properly their use of words, ideas, and other material downloaded
from the Internet,” says Wilson.

Help them make use of the technology without copying it by
setting up their own database, which might include the source,
subject, keywords, and abstract. But perhaps the best way
to deter plagiarism in on-line classes is to get to know your
students.

“Students are less likely to cheat if they have a relationship
with a professor, if they know you by name and feel an allegiance,”
says Diane Warvold, executive director of The Center for Academic
Integrity at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. “That’s
difficult in an on-line environment, where relationships are
often limited, and the submission of work is anonymous. Those
students are more likely to be tempted to take shortcuts.”

She suggests finding a way to connect to students, such as
using bulletin boards regularly, calling students occasionally,
and requiring a written assignment from everyone at the start
of the semester in order to become familiar with each student’s
writing.