Plagiarism Detection and Prevention ---- A few Questions to Help Instructors

v  What is plagiarism?

Ø  Plagiarism is one type of violation of academic integrity. The Council of Writing Program Administrators states that “Plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) materials without acknowledging its source” (as cited in Quinn, 2006).

v    What plagiarism detection software is available to online instructors?

Ø  There are various plagiarism software available to instructors and students.  Below is a list of  a few of my favorites( 1-4 Higher Ed Assessment):

§   Google as checker:
http://www.google.com
Place quotation marks around a phrase and enter that into the search window. For best results, use key phrases rather than complete sentences.

§   The Plagiarism Checker:
http://www.dustball.com/cs/plagiarism.checker/
Straightforward application that utilizes Google API for the same results as searching through Google, but with an interface far less cluttered than a search page. Instructions are written with the teacher in mind.

§   Plagiarism Detect:
http://www.plagiarismdetect.com/
Instructions are written with the student in mind. The check can be made on text copy/pasted into a search box or on an uploaded file (.txt or .doc). Options for search areas are the web, PDFs, blogs, and books. Finally, the site offers "deep analysis" or "light analysis." The results include a percentage score (66.7% on my sample, which was a real case of student plagiarism) and a list of the sources found by the checker. By check-marking the sources, you can further identify the percentage by location. This site requires registration and log-in.

§   Copyscape addressing plagiarism from the other direction:
http://www.copyscape.com
Enter a URL and the checker will pull up other web pages that have the same text. Presumably, you would run the check if you think your own copyrighted material on the web is being plagiarized.

§   Turnitin

Leading academic plagiarism checker technology for teacher’ and students.  Online plagiarism detection, grammar check, grading tools and so much more.

v  How can the design of assessments help prevent academic dishonesty?

Ø  The expectation of academic dishonesty must be up front as an unacceptable practice that will not me tolerated.

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

Ø  As a current and for future online instruction staying actively involved in the class is key.   Responding and following up with students in a timely and ongoing feedback.

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

Ø  Instructors must be involved and active in their classes and discussion groups.  Luckily just as the internet grows and the draw to plagiarize on cheat so does the tools at the instructors hands such those listed above.  No longer is it left up to the teacher alone to detect these details. Today, increased Internet use makes it both easier for students to copy-and-paste from online materials and for instructors to detect infractions (Braumoeller and Gaines, 2001; Tenbusch, 2002). Free online search engines such as Google allow instructors to track down copied phrases, while commercially available plagiarism detection software and online services (e.g., EVE; Turnitin.com) compare individual student papers to Web documents and/or to essay databases to find and report instances of matching text(Jocoy & DiBiase, 2006).

Resources

o   Higher Ed Assessment Blog retrieve June 13, 2013 from: http://higheredassessment.blogspot.com/2009/01/free-anti-plagiarism-checkers.html

o   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.

o   Quinn, M. J. (2006). Ethics for the Information Age. Boston, MA.: Pearson.