Online Cheating and Plagiarism

As an instructional designer for a non-profit trade association, how concerned about online cheating or plagiarism should I be? Citing from The Council of Writing Program Administrators, Jocoy and DiBiase reported that “Plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) materials without acknowledging its source” (2006, p. 2). On line cheating behavior, on the other hand, usually refers to students “cheating on examinations followed by estimates of total cheating, [or] cheating on homework” (2006, p.3). As I design online courses to be taken by professionals in my field, should I take into account that some learners may not practice the highest levels of academic or professional integrity in their studies?

Well, although plagiarism detection software is currently available on the market, it probably will not be of much use to me. Turnitin, for example, is such an application. Turnitin evaluates written work submitted by students and identifies sections where there is potentially matching text. Turnitin compares the student's submission to an online web-based repository of research/term papers and other published or unpublished resources. Learners who take online courses I've designed are not asked to submit research or other academic papers. Instead, they are frequently required to review case studies and provide answers to specific questions using critical cognitive skills such as evaluation and synthesis. Still, the potential to plagiarize exists, even under those circumstances. However, in the real world of business and commerce, perhaps we are less concerned with plagiarism and more concerned with a learner’s ability to construct and integrate knowledge, and apply that knowledge directly to his or her work.

What about cheating? Well, again, there is that possibility. The assessments that I design are not objective assessment instruments such as you might find in academia with multiple choice, true/false or yes/no options. The assessments that I prefer are designed to evaluate learning through instruments aimed at evaluating core competencies. So, I might use activities such as the construction of tables or checklists for learner evaluation.

In a video presentation titled “Plagiarism and Cheating” Palloff and Pratt discuss strategies they’ve used to prevent academic dishonesty. They discussed their practice of encouraging learners to conduct extensive and robust web searches in order to thoroughly explore course topics and content. Both reported concerns about, and occurrences of cheating or plagiarism, but maintained that the best prevention strategy is to design open book or collaborative assignments and assessments. They also stated that assignments should be designed with application-type questions . . . pointing out that these types of questions require students to apply information learned directly into the assessment or assignment.

Online facilitators certainly need to be aware that students can and do cheat and plagiarize. Facilitators should be on the look-out for such behaviors. I believe that the strategy of designing collaborative activities for learners can be highly effective in preventing cheating and plagiarism. Of course we know that learner collaboration is a best practice in the online learning environment. So, this solution – online collaborative projects – appears to be a win-win.

References

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.

Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (2010) Plagiarism and Cheating. Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved April 7, 2011 from: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4894963&Survey=1&47=6223382&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1