Saturday, December 8, 2012
Blog Assignment: Plagiarism Detection and Prevention
• What plagiarism detection software is available to online instructors?
There are several plagiarism detection software’s available. We use http://turnitin.com/ at Walden. Each week we submit our information to this website and the information is scanned for similarities. It shows a certain percentage of information that is similar to other material submitted. This is a list of others:
1. www.duplichecker.com
2. www.plagiarismsoftware.net/
3. http://turnitin.com/
4. http://scanmyessay.com/
• How can the design of assessments help prevent academic dishonesty?
Many facilitators can design their assessments to incorporate collaborations and discourage cheating. Assessment should mirror real-life expectations.
• What facilitation strategies do you propose to use as a current or future online instructor?
I am going to use the strategy of making assessments a collaborative effort amongst the students. I also plan to use a lot of group setting and group discussion. This is my second Masters and I am convinced that I learn more by working in groups. I remember taking a Finance course and we worked together during the class as we answered questions. The professor allowed us to work together on our midterm and final exams as well. We decided to meet at a friend’s house after we each had worked separately on the test. We were able to compare answers and were assured of our answers based on the group interaction.
• What additional considerations for online teaching should be made to help detect or prevent cheating and plagiarism?
The facilitator role is to always educate the learner about copyright, fair use, plagiarism and cheating. Students need to be aware of what is proper documentation and how to correctly source material from the internet or even themselves as it relate to past work that you would like to use in a present course. Last, I believe facilitators need to trust students more and understand that there will always be a rotten apple that spoils the bunch but overall; every students is not out to cheat.
Reference
Video: “Plagiarism and Cheating” (approximate length: 10 minutes).
Dr. Palloff and Pratt discuss effective methods for dealing with plagiarism in distance education
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Edward -
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I agree with you that collaborative group assessments that reflect real-life scenarios are some of the best methods instructors can use to truly determine what content their students have grasped. Unfortunately, either due to time pressures or just an unwillingness to invest the effort, many instructors fall back on traditional assessments that lend themselves to cheating and plagiarism.
I also agree with you that most students are not inclined to cheat. However, given prime cheating conditions, combined with pressure to succeed, I think most of us would be surprised at how many students would cheat. This temptation should be warded off with a combination of well-designed assessments and plagiarism-detection software.
I agree that the type of assignment can help prevent cheating. I know that since my students in 8th grade have to take multiple choice state test I have to give a test for each unit to help prepare them. But I can also give authentic assessment or performance assessments that give me a chance to see what students know and can do with that knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI agree that not all students are out to cheat but some do not because they fear the consequences and others have no thought of cheating, but there are always those 5-10 students I get each year that cheat so I must be on my toes.