Plagiarism

Plagiarism-What can we do to prevent it?

1. EDUCATE yourself AND your students about plagiarism. www.plagiarism.org offers definitions, tutorials and resources.
   
   
2. Recognize it; acknowledge that it may happen in your course; and get tough! Your attitude as an instructor may make a big difference.
   
   
3. Take a look at your course and consider making some adjustments. Think about the reasons why a student might plagiarize in your course. Take this online quiz to determine the ‘cheatability’ of your course. http://learningfield.org/cheat/
   
   
4. If you have a midterm and final exam, try to rotate quiz/exam questions each term; Rotate paper topics; Change case studies each year or term as well; You may even consider changing discussion questions slightly, from term to term.

Plagiarism.org suggests these guidelines for educators in preventing Plagiarism:
http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/preventing_guidlines.html

1. Explain to your students what plagiarism means
2. Explain what is wrong about plagiarism
3. Make consequences clear
4. Start your course with clear expectations
5. Assign specific questions or topics; the more particular the questions or topics the less likely the students will find papers already written on them.
6. Require students to submit thesis statements, introductions, outlines, drafts and resources {during the process of the assignment}
7. Have students annotate their bibliography; but let them know that it should be in their own words and NOT the abstract they may find with the source.
8. Ask your students to describe the process of researching and developing their ideas.
9. Require recent and/or specific sources;

One issue with plagiarism is that it is often 'accidental,' because students just don't know how to paraphrase or cite properly. I highly recommend that you share this website http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/paraphrase.html where students can practice and learn about how to paraphrase.
Another great resource to share with your students is the OWL (online writing lab) at Purdue University. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/ Again, there are excellent resources for your student with regarding to writing well and avoiding plagiarism.
Some instructors here at Regis who teach online are using Turn it in software. Turn it in is an originality detection software.

On May 28th, I will be hosting a round table discussion on methods and strategies for preventing or reducing plagiarism. Email me for more information or if you have questions.

Nicole