Plagiarism in your discussion threads?

Could your students be plagiarizing in the discussion threads? An article review.

Olt, Melissa R. (2009) "Seven Strategies for Plagiarism-proofing discussion threads in Online Courses,” MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 5(2), 222-229.

Just this past June, MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching featured a great article on the topic of plagiarism and discussion activities. I applaud Ms. Olt for sharing this important topic and possibly causing a few instructors to pause and reflect upon this issue.
I always say that discussion activities are the meat and potatoes of an online course. Probably 95% of all our fully online courses feature discussion interactions in order to engage students in the course content.

Olt suggests these seven strategies for Plagiarism-proofing discussion threads:

1. Ensure that discussion questions encourage higher-order thinking skills.
We want to see questions that will really get your students’ wheels turning. I like to say give them a question they can really sink their teeth into, as opposed to summarizing or regurgitating content from the textbooks. Try a question that involves brainstorming and generating new ideas. Encourage students to follow up with Socratic questioning.

2. Relate discussion questions to the course as a whole.
Tie the questions to things that will help them prepare for another course assignment, for example a paper. In other words, ask students to think about their paper topic and their main ideas and how it relates to that week’s concept/topic. “Assignments that are unique, meaningful and have value beyond its mere completion are effective deterrents of plagiarism (McLafferty & Foust, 2004; Willen, 2004).

3. Rotate the curriculum.
I suggest rotating the discussion prompts every term you teach. Create a bank of discussion questions for each week to choose from. Little do you know, students may be recycling or sharing discussion responses.

4. Encourage interactivity
We want students to go beyond their original response posting and actually interact with their peers. Encourage your students to use Socratic questioning and also to response to the students who may ask them questions about their original posting. By gauging how a student actually is able to discussion a concept and react to questions about their own postings may give instructors a glimpse of their understanding of a concept. If their original content was plagiarized and they really don’t have a clue as to how to respond to a question about their post this may be a dead give-away.

5. Ensure that instructors take an active role in online discussions.
As I have mentioned this already two or three times, I feel that the role of Socratic questioning is an effective method of engaging students with critical thinking. Instructors can jump in and prompt students as needed. Sometimes students find it challenging, especially in the first few weeks, to loosen up and get the ball rolling with good interactivity, so the instructor can set the pace and a good example of how to do it. Obviously, there is a delicate balance of instructor involvement in the discussions and you want to be careful. Too much involvement may stifle student expression, and too little involvement may leave students wondering if they are on track and being noticed. It is ok to at least let your students know that you are reading their posts and you may not jump in unless you feel it is needed (for example if they are getting off track/topic or the discussion is in need of some stimulation).

6. Ensure the workload is manageable.
Probably in the top 5 reasons why students feel the need to cheat is when they experience an incredible amount of workload especially when balancing with a full time job. Review your course and think about the workload. Typically one discussion activity per week is ideal. I think that any more than that you will be getting into information overload. Read your end of course evaluations carefully. If you see several comments about the stress and difficulty managing the workload this may be a red flag. I have even seen some students specifically point out that they desire to dive into a one course concept deeply but they were not able to because the expectation was to address too many concepts quickly in one week, where they were unable to process the information in their head.

7. Assess discussions and provide feedback.
When an instructor confirms to the student that they are on the right track with their thinking this will add to the students’ overall learning experience and will contribute to successful achievement of outcomes. Providing timely feedback may identify student misconceptions of a concept early enough where they can work it out before moving on to the next week or course unit.

These strategies are excellent best practices to guide your discussions whether you suspect plagiarism or not. Anything we can do to prevent plagiarism from occurring and to encourage a satisfying learning experience is ideal.


McLafferty, C.L., & Foust, K. M. (2004) Electronic Plagiarism as a college instructor’s nightmare—prevention and detection {Electronic version}. Journal of Education for Business, 80(3), 186-189.