What plagiarism detection software is available to online instructors?
EVE (Essay Verification Engine) software, and Turnitin.com, an online detection service, are two of the most commonly used plagiarism detection software (Jocoy & DiBiase, 2006). They both compare individual student papers to Web documents and/ or to essay databases. This is done to find and report instances of matching text. Turnitin catches Web plagiarism and checks sources from students’ bibliographies for plagiarism, including articles that are unavailable on the Web. Free online search engines such as Google also allow instructors to track down copied phrases.
Course management systems such as WebCT and Blackboard help to limit access to a test for a specific date, in addition to a precise block of hours on that date (McNett, 2002). They also limit the time available for test completion to increase the difficulty of students searching for the answers. User-tracking functions make it possible for an instructor to determine the time that each question was answered by the student.
How can the design of assessments help prevent academic dishonesty?
Online assessments (or e-assessments) offers flexibility since they can be accessed from any geographic location, prevents schedule conflicts, and avoids wastage of resources. However, academic dishonesty is a major issue with assessments. Academic dishonesty is defined by cheating, plagiarism, and other covert methods to achieve high grades in exams, course assignments and projects. Instructors have to make the assessment a learning experience with “hard” questions, and avoid overly difficult or overly easy tests. It is also important for instructors to create assessments that mirror real-life situations, and can relate to personal experiences (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, n.d.). Employing a proctor for the assessment is also helpful. Proctors help to ensure that students take the assessment at a designated time, without collaborators and unauthorized materials (Rowe, 2004). Assignments can be designed to incorporate collaboration, including discussion posts and online group projects (Boettcher & Conrad, 2011). The instructor also has to be clear about the purpose and content of the assessment. Time limits should be set, along with low stakes (the questions worth few points). The assessments should contain clear definitions of what is considered cheating and plagiarism, including questions that can erase any misconceptions (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, n.d.).
What facilitation strategies do you propose to use as a current or future online instructor?
In watching the video, I discovered that one of the important functions of a facilitator is to educate learners about copyright, fair use, plagiarism, and cheating (Laureate Education, n.d.). Students should be informed about course requirements, and available support and communication (via syllabus, course announcements). Students also have to be taught to properly paraphrase and cite material, and should discuss their role as self-directed learners. I would also encourage students to make use of libraries and writing centers to learn about correctly paraphrasing and citing resources. I also believe that having TAs and tutors can also discourage cheating, by conducting sessions with students to discuss any questions or difficulties that they have with the course. I have worked with TAs at USF, and it was quite helpful to my overall understanding of the course and subject.
What additional considerations for online teaching should be made to help detect or prevent cheating and plagiarism?
In reading the resources and conducting research online, I discovered that there are several ways in which cheating and plagiarism can be prevented. Drawing questions randomly for each student from a pool is one example, helping to reorder multiple-choice answers randomly if possible (Rowe, 2004). Place one question per page when administering an exam. Placing one question per page when administering an exam or assignment is also helpful, as well as disabling printing and copying options, and requiring some short essay questions (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, n.d.). For the latter, students would apply concepts or material from the course.
CMSs as WebCT and BlackBoard have plagiarism prevention capabilities, which make it possible to administer a proctored examination online (McNett, 2002). Tests can be structured to require the input of a proctor’s ID and student’s ID, so that the exam can’t start until the proctor is present. It is also possible to limit access to a test to a specific computer at a specific Internet address, where a proctor can be present. Another technique that reduces cheating is the use of question banks. This entails use of several course-delivery software packages that supports databases of questions from which the software selects items, according to specific rules. These capacities randomize the sequence of questions, making it more difficult for memorizing and sharing the sequence of answers.
References:
Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and
practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Jocoy, C. & DiBiase (2006). Plagiarism by Adult Learners Online: A case study in detection and remediation. Retrieved June 13, 2013 from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/242/466
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). Plagiarism and Cheating [Video webcast]. Retrieved June 13, 2013 from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2818946_1%26url%3D
McNett, M. (2002). Curbing Academic Dishonesty in Online Courses. Retrieved June 13, 2013 from http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/pointersclickers/2002_05/
Rowe, N.C. (2004). Cheating in Online Student Assessment: Beyond Plagiarism. Retrieved June 13, 2013 from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer72/rowe72.html
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (n.d.). Desire2Learn 9.0: Tips to Ensure Academic Honesty. Retrieved June 13, 2013 from http://www.uwec.edu/help/D2Lv9/deter.htm
David,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. You stated "The instructor also has to be clear about the purpose and content of the assessment", I totally agree.
It is very important that clear guidelines and consequences for plagiarism be given early in the course and stated in the course syllabus. If a student is suspected of plagiarism they should be confronted with direct and specific details from the assignment that was detected as plagiarized. Many institutions have student handbooks that will allow the instructor to follow the standard rules and regulations of the institution.
Hi David
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
This topic of plagiarism have been an issue being discussed by many universities and many companies are listening by creating programs and different hardware for monitoring students. This is why some universities mandate online students to take tests onsite and for out of state students, the students are required to coordinate with a local university to proctor the test onsite. I understand the concern of some of these schools, however, that changes the definition of online learning to hybrid instruction. I read an article a while ago where some students are required to have a webcam pointing to their monitor for the professor to watch while the student completes the test. Imagine the professor doing that for each student, how much time consuming for the teacher who later have to spend time grading the test.
In your answer to the last question you suggested ways to prevent cheating by randomizing questions and offering one question at a time per page. I remember working on setting up questions like that using WebCT and Blackboard. There is also a program called “Lockdown browser” http://www.respondus.com/products/lockdown-browser/ that works in conjunction with the exam page on the internet that prevent students from going to the internet to search for answers. It is another method to prevent cheating in online exams, particularly in tests formatted with multiple choice and true/false questions.
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteOther than turnitin.com have you ever used any other plagiarism detection software? In undergrad we did not have to submit anything to a software platform like EVE or Turnitin. You mentioned, “Instructors have to make the assessment a learning experience with “hard” questions, and avoid overly difficult or overly easy tests.” Why do you think the questions need to be hard to decrease the risk of plagiarism?
I don’t think the quality of the questions need to change but rather the assessment and instructions prior to the assignments. Expectations need to be communicated effectively from the start of the course and reinforced with each assignment and throughout the course. What do you think?
Great post David!