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Educator's Voice

Volume 6, Issue 5
May 11, 2005

Vaccinating Against the Plagiarism Plague: Design and Techniques

What if, instead of spending our time as online instructors detecting plagiarism, we could get a vaccination preventing plagiarism in our courses? We might well stand in line for the opportunity! Whatever level or course you are teaching, there is good evidence that your learners might plagiarize. No one is born immune! While no vaccination is guaranteed 100%, there are certain actions we can take that do reduce the opportunities for learners to plagiarize. Let's explore some specific methods of designing and teaching our classes that do just that.

The effective prevention strategies that we'll look at in more depth here fall into two major categories: 1) educating/ warning the students and 2) creating less plagiarism-prone assignments.

Educating and Warning Students

Educating. We can assume that some instances of plagiarism are due to students not really understanding what plagiarism is. Therefore, the first step to prevent it is to discuss the topic specifically. Provide detailed information and links about what it means to use material without proper references. You might put an announcement in the course and a section in your faculty expectations on plagiarism. You can start a discussion thread titled, "If you didn't write it, cite it," and require all students to post their understanding of what plagiarism is. For more links and suggestions, see the April 14 2004 article in Educator's Voice, titled Online Plagiarism: Copy and Paste or Cite and Paraphrase? In every course, do not assume that students understand when they are plagiarizing--tell them and discuss it upfront!

Warning. Another proven deterrent is the specific warning that you care and do actively check for plagiarism. Have consequences for plagiarism spelled out so that students know you take the matter seriously. Of course, the other half of that statement is that you do have to take it seriously.

You need to tell the learners that you specifically look for plagiarism. If you use a plagiarism detection service such as EVE2, Turnitin, or Mydropbox, say so! By the way, each of these services has an online Web site, but the services are by subscription. The final requirement on this matter is that you actually use the services, early and often. Catching a small post that has been lifted and rejecting it may send an excellent message that you are serious to not just that learner, but also potentially to others.

Educating and warning students are only the first steps of what you can do. Just by using the design of your online course, you can lessen the opportunities for plagiarism. Let's see some of the alternatives that you can build into your courses or your teaching methods.

Creating Less Plagiarism-prone Assignments

Traditional ways of assessment in classes make plagiarism too easy. The best ways to encourage plagiarism are:

1. require a single final paper worth most of the final grade--this raises the stakes for the learner.
2. give the student free rein to select a topic for a final paper--this allows plenty of opportunities to search for existing papers online.
3. ignore the final paper during your course and expect it to pop up freeborn at the end of the term--this gives the learner a lot of time to hire a term paper service to write the paper.

If any of those practices look like your course, it's probably time to consider how to change the final paper or project! Fortunately, to counter these plagiarism-prone assignments, a solid repertoire of alternatives is growing. We'll examine a few improvements in course/assessment design. These are 1) including portions of the final product in weekly assignments, 2) scaffolding the paper writing through stages, 3) making specific requirements about the final product, and 4) requiring supplemental supporting documents. These can be used in combination, but we'll look at each separately.

Weekly pieces of final product. This is sometimes referred to as the building block approach. This takes some sophistication on the part of the instructional design and the learner, but it is very effective for certain classes that cover identifiable intermediate work products from the learner. Portfolios or journals may be used in this way.

The advantage and disadvantage to this approach is that you can quickly check some or all of the weekly portions for originality. That may appear to be additional work for you the instructor. However, if a problem arises, then you can head it off early, that is, before the final paper is on your cyber desk. One more advantage is that you can require your comments or those of peers be addressed in the final product, thus both improving the paper, but also making originality the easier road for the writer of the paper.

Scaffold the paper writing through stages. This approach is a good instructional design for many reasons, not the least of which is deterring plagiarism. The goal is to see the paper develop before your virtual eyes. You may require an outline, an abstract, a list of references, the rationale for the topic, and/or a rough draft prior to the final paper. In the threaded discussions, you may have students critique each other and require that the learners specifically address any questions or issues raised in their final papers. Robert Harris notes, "Some of these parts can be reverse engineered by the determined cheater, but most students should realize that doing the assignment honestly is easier than the alternative" (2004).

Define specific requirements for the paper. Your imagination and knowledge of your subject can help you here. You might require the paper to include concepts or debates that occurred in the course room, citing other learners' posts. You could require a certain format, such as lists of pros and cons, for each section of the paper. You might provide a list of acceptable references that must be incorporated, or that recent references are included. The point here is to make an existing paper that might otherwise tempt the learner to miss the mark of what you require. This technique makes it easier for you to check for originality too.

Consider changing the final product from a typical essay, to another literary form such as writing it as a debate, a travelogue, a position paper for a politician, an article for the local newspaper, or a grant proposal, as recommended by Proctor at the University of Toronto. Whatever you can do that is germane to your course, but away from what is readily available online, can lead a student to create their own work.

Require supplemental supporting documents. This can be as simple as a reading list with sources cited, or an annotated bibliography that specifically explains how the source was useful in the final paper. The annotated bibliography can be intermediate work product for the scaffolding approach too.

A less popular, though perhaps an even more convincing supporting document, is a mind-map or a graphic concept map of the paper. There are a variety of software products, such as "Inspiration," that allow students to create visuals maps of their ideas. Not only is this good for preventing plagiarism, but it's a strong way for many students to organize their thoughts. You might use this technique in conjunction with the scaffolding approach to assist the learner in moving from idea to outline to draft by requiring various iterations of the mind map.

Conclusion

The disease of plagiarism is well recognized on most campuses, virtual or brick. What to do about it is often discussed in terms of recognizing symptoms and dealing with those who have succumbed to the disease. We have taken the approach here that the frequency can be lowered significantly by taking certain preventive measures. The easier measures are ensuring that learners know what activities are prohibited and how to keep from inadvertent plagiarism.

Even more effective methods involve designing or redesigning final assignments. The inclusion of partial or intermediate work products from the learners is a key step, as is requiring original supplemental materials. The good news is that these techniques not only work to prevent plagiarism, but also help the learner achieve success all along the way in the course. That makes these changes a win-win on both sides of the cyber screen.

Resources

Borden, J. (2004, April 14). Online Plagiarism: Copy and Paste or Cite and Paraphrase? Educator's Voice. Retrieved April 11, 2005, from www.ecollege.com/news/EdVoice_arch_0414.learn

Harris, R. (2004, November 17). Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers. Retrieved April 11, 2005 from http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm

Proctor, M. (2001). Deterring Plagiarism: Some Strategies. Retrieved April 11, 2005 from University of Toronto Web site http://www.utoronto.ca/ota/issues/plagiar.html

       –Charlotte A. Redden, Ph.D. teaches online for Capella University and Westwood College, and occasionally consults with eCollege.

TIP

Exam Builder Formatting Tip

Have you ever wondered why, when text is copied and pasted into the Exam Builder from a Word document, there are extra spaces between the questions and answers?

The reason for the extra spaces is because Word incorporates extra HTML into the code, so when the text is copied and pasted into the Visual Editor, the extra HTML is embedded as well. Included are a few instructions on how to copy and paste the text without embedding the extra HTML:

1. Copy and paste the test questions into Notepad.
2. Save the file as a .txt file (saving the file as a .txt file will strip the extra code from the document).
3. Copy and paste directly from the .txt file into the Visual Editor. The text will be copied without the additional HTML code.

Easy!

      – Theresa Turner