Cheating and Plagiarism

Cheating and Plagiarism Detection

What plagiarism detection software is available to online instructors?

There are many plagiarism detention software programs available. They vary in the price and the services available. But all allow work to be checked for plagiarism. Some of the most popular services are listed below (2012).

• Turnitin - the system that we use here allows students to submit work to be check and it can be submitted to insturctor at the same time. It works on a contract.
• Grammarly is free to the student to check for plagaiarism and gramamar. It does not collect work for instructors to grade.
• Copycatch is a a software that compares that work against work collected from a selected group of students.
• Other highly reviewed software are plagscan, checking for plagiarism, ithenicate, plagarism detection, academic plagiarism and the plagarism checker.

How can the design of assessments help prevent academic dishonesty?

As an instructor I can create assignments that encourage collaboration and are designed in such a way to discourage cheating. Palloff and Pratt (2012) explained that assessments should be designed as authentic assessment. They require the students to show what they have learned by applying their understanding of the content. These types of assessments are hard for students to cheat on.

If their needs to be exams I need to utilize test making software that reandomizes test questions and answer choices so the test is different each time it is accessed. There are also exam programs that allows to create a set number of questions but only use part of them for each test. For example I could created 50 multiple coice questions and then only have 25 randomly selected for each exam. This creates exams that do not all have the same questions so it is very difficult for students to cheat off each other.

What facilitation strategies do you propose to use as a current or future online instructor?

I would start off with assessments and assignments that include clear instrcutions so students understand what to do and not feel the need to try and plagarize another's work (Jocoy & DiBiase, 2006). Any information can be found on the internet so I would design assignments that require studnets to apply the knowledge they learn and not just give me back facts that they can easily copy from the internet.

It is also important to clearly define to students what cheating and plagiarism is. Many students are not clear where the line is and often plagiarize without an intention of cheating. I need to provide tools for students to help them understand how to summarize information in their own words and how and when to cite resources.

What additional considerations for online teaching should be made to help prevent or prevent cheating and plagiarism?

It is important to understand your students. If necessary I would need to provide a lesson on cheating and plagiarism to bring attention to it and help studens prevent becoming involved in the practice. Some students may need more help in this area and this is where knowing your students come into play.

References.

Overview of plagiarism software (2012). retrieved from http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/03/plagsoftsumm1.html.

Jocoy, C., & DiBiase, D. (2006). Plagiarism by adult learners online: A case study in detection and remediation. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 7(1), 1-15.

Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database.
Palloff, R. M. & Pratt, K. (2012). Plagiarism and Cheating. Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1971765_1%26url%3D