Educational institutions have a fear that their students will engage in academic dishonesty. This fear seems to increase when they consider distance education and online classes. However, research shows that academic dishonesty occurs at similar rates in both face-to-face and online learning environments. In other words, students are not more likely to cheat because they are in engaged in distance learning (Lange & Towey Schulz, 2014).
Nonetheless, academic dishonesty does exist, and educators are always seeking ways to detect and discourage the behavior. There are several strategies being used by educational institutions to spot plagiarism and authenticity of work, such as proctored exams, retinal scans, typing pattern indicators and plagiarism detection software. However, if truth be told, these tools are not full-proof, can be cumbersome, and in most cases, do not deter those students who don’t know or understand what cheating really is, or what is considered cheating in that particular environment (Palloff and Pratt, 2010).
So, what should educators do to avoid cheating and plagiarism from their students? A good way to encourage academic integrity by students is to give them information about what constitutes plagiarism and cheating and to clearly explain the expectations for your specific institution. Giving learners clear direction at the beginning of class sets the bar for the duration of the course ensuring that they understand the rules (Farisi, 2013).
Another important strategy is to design authentic assignments and assessments that require research and application of the covered content like case study analysis, practical application projects, investigations, etc. These tools are much more efficient at keeping students honest and are also useful for evaluating their capacity to apply what they have learned (Palloff and Pratt, 2010).
Although a myriad of technology tools exists to help educators detect cheating, and can be useful to a certain point (i.e., detecting plagiarism of full texts) nothing works as well as giving students meaningful assessments that showcase their level of performance and require personal application examples.
References:
Farisi, M. (2013). Academic Dishonesty in distance higher education: Challenges and models for moral education in the digital era. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 14(4), 176-195. Retrieved from: http://dergipark.ulakbim.gov.tr/tojde/article/view/5000102263/5000095362
Lange, T. & Towey Schulz, M. (2014). Higher education’s role in academic integrity as it relates to technology. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2014 (pp. 1084-1089). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved from: http://www.learntechlib.org/p/148883
Palloff, R. M. and Pratt, C. (2010). Laureate Education (Producer). Plagiarism and cheating [Video file].
Julie Designs Learning 
Great post, Julie. I remember a time when a classmate was very upset because of a poorer grade on a paper we had to write. She’d gotten heavily dinged for improper citing. She had unintentionally paraphrased and when the professor discussed it she realized she had relied on course material to write her paper instead of putting her knowledge into her own words or citing the sources.
She also didn’t realize it was plagiarism if she didn’t use the exact wording but heavily paraphrased without citing.
Do you think having clear instructions to cite sources, links to the tutorials for citing, and rubrics measuring proper citations is sufficient or should more be done? And what do you think could be done?
Amy
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I agree with your assessment. Dr. Pratt also spoke of when students go out into the working world and will have to research and perform case studies, that they will not cite academically correctly the resources where they get information. He spoke of setting up his students to understand what plagiarism and to set the expectations of citation.
I have personally seen where research is conducted to gather information to create learning in the corporate setting and the research is not always cited in the learning. After attending the Masters program, I find it interesting that I do see lack of citation in the leadership learning I have been privy to seeing.
References:
Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Plagiarism and cheating [Video file].
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I absolutely agree that the best way to curb plagiarism is to teach how NOT to plagiarize. I remember the first (and only) time an instructor informed me that my paraphrasing was edging close to the dishonest line. I was genuinely gobsmacked! I truly had no idea that I was in the wrong. The instructor also provided a quick reference for me to look at and some examples of the right and wrong way to paraphrase (I think she guessed that in my righteous indignation I would dismiss her comments as the opinion of a crazy person without supporting documentation). She helped me without accusing me and gave me information so I could avoid the situation in the future (and I have taken pains to do just that). That’s how you avoid plagiarism. Great post!
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Hi Julie,
You mentioned Educational institutions have a fear that their students will engage in academic dishonesty. I remember watching this part of the video and kind of laughing to myself, because I have heard this over and over again in many different ways about how online learning is set up for the cheating student. It usually comes from the very ill informed and from those who have not experienced the online environment.
I also mentioned authentic assessment in my blog. I agree that there are many different ways that an assessment can be used. I am really curious about the “investigation” I have not heard of that type of assessment, but it sounds rather interesting. Engaging read!
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