SESSION 9: Plagiarism and Cheating

1. Thinking about an online class you teach or might teach, what is the most likely issue related to plagiarism and/or cheating with which you would anticipate dealing?

Am now beginning to realize how I have also been a victim of accidental plagiarism. Many times I have found myself not knowing when and how to cite, not knowing how to paraphrase or summarize. I got shocked when I submitted my assignment paper to "SafeAssign" and was rated at 50% that is when I started paying attention to critical issues about paraphrasing as discussed in Purdue owl. In an  online class, this is something I can anticipate dealing with "Accidental Plagiarism." When students learn how to cite and paraphrase, this will be a stepping stone to minimizing plagiarism and cheating.

2. Identify and explain the steps and measures you would take to reduce the occurrence of plagiarism/cheating identified in item 1.

• Inform students about plagiarism by allowing them to learn how to credit the sources of their information. A tool I would use is Purdue owl (Online writing lab) to help them when writing https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/
•  Train students to manage their time very well so that they don't rush to meet the deadlines by taking shortcuts, which has been identified as one of the reasons why student end up cheating.
• Design assignments in a way that will help to minimize cheating. For example I can use Dr. Newberry tactic of letting students attempt the assignments through reflecting on what they have learned or providing their own understanding about the topic. This site provides more information http://wpacouncil.org/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf
• Explain to them what plagiarism is by sharing any policy on academic dishonesty, let them understand the implications of plagiarism/cheating.
• Report any cases of plagiarism/cheating.

3. What does research tell us about the reasons students give for plagiarism/cheating. Remember to cite your sources!

The following are reasons why students cheat as provided by Point Loma Nazarene University: http://www.pointloma.edu/experience/academics/centers-institutes/center-teaching-learning/faculty-resources/academic-honesty/reasons-students-cheat

-Performance concerns: students want to get good grades at whatever cost.
-External academic and non-academic pressures i.e. semester workload too heavy, others’ cheating puts me at disadvantage, professor/text did not adequately explain material, too many tests on one day. Non-academic pressures include; pressure from parents, job leaves no time for study, illness prevents adequate preparation, GPA for athletic qualification, financial aid depends on GPA or good grades needed for job or graduate school.
-Unfair professors who offer unfair tests to fail students or unreasonable workload in the course.
-Lack of effort on the students’ part .e.g failure to attend classes or study.
-An opportunity which prompted the student to cheat e.g. an examiner not being watchful.

4. Evaluate your participation in the discussion this week. Provide at least one quote from the discussion that supports your evaluation.
I found the discussion forum to be very interesting and I shared about ways of preventing online cheating as follows:
Moten, Fitterer, Brazier, Leonard, & Brown (2013) have identified the following methods to prevent e-Cheating: Students to sign and return an academic dishonesty statement. Use of multiple testing centers. Use of a non-related proctor. Use testing software that prepares randomized questions so no two exams are exactly alike. Protecting test bank access and creating multiple versions of each assessment.

5. Identify the student you think was the most important participant in the Blackboard discussion. Explain why and provide at least one quote from that student's contributions to the Blackboard discussion.
Laura did a good job by identifying a list of online sites which provide “services” to their clients about the easiest way to get a paper. This has been an eye opener about how wide and deep cyber cheating is practiced.

6. Reflect on what you have learned this week. What have you learned that has the potential to inform or influence you or your practice of online learning going forward? Explain why.
It's amazing to learn how the issue of plagiarism/cheating is widely spread to an extent that we have companies specialized in writing academic papers for sale. It is good for students to be informed about it so that the reason for accidental plagiarism is dealt with and what remains is the intentional reason which should be handled as discussed before.
I have learned about a plagiarism checker turnitout in addition to what I knew before “SafeAssign.” The following site provides 10 free plagiarism detection tools which can be sued to minimize plagiarism: http://elearningindustry.com/top-10-free-plagiarism-detection-tools-for-teachers.
The readings gave me an opportunity to read more about CSUSB policy on academic dishonesty.

REFERENCES.
Moten, J. J., Fitterer, A., Brazier, E., Leonard, J., & Brown, A. (2013). Examining online college cyber cheating methods and prevention measures. Electronic Journal Of E-Learning, 11(2), 139-146.