Preventing Plagiarism

The issue of plagiarism in online courses has gotten the attention of instructors, administrator and students.  The assumption that students taking online courses have greater access to documents on the internet and will thereby be more likely to engage in plagiarism has not been confirmed.  Rena Palloff stated (n.d.) in an online interview that rates of plagiarism in online courses and traditional courses are about the same.  Jocoy and Dibiase’s review of three empirical studies investigating plagiarism reported a plagiarism rate that ranged from 3% to 21%.  Regardless of the total rate or the comparable level of plagiarism across online and traditional courses, the need for a system that facilitates ethical learning and performance is needed.  There appear to be two roads for which to achieve the goal: 1) plagiarism detection software, and 2) authentic assessment that encourages collaboration.

I have been able to identify three plagiarism detection software for online instructors: 1)  “turnitin”, 2) plagiarism-detector, and 3) academicplagiarism.  Turnitin is the self proclaimed global leader in plagiarism detection software.  All of the instructors I know who use such software, use turnitin.  While there appears to be some consensus in my academic community regarding which plagiarism detection software to use, other educators suggest that the need for such measures are minimal or unnecessary when course evaluation is designed effectively.  Educational consultant, Keith Pratt, suggest that  instructor’s have the opportunity to create collaboration in course performance activities to reduce the need for cheating.  Furthermore, the integration of authentic assessment, that reflects the requirements of the real-world, requires fewer limitations on access to information or peer support.  It appears to me that there is more value for the student and the instructor when performance is evaluated through authentic assessment.  Now we only have to train instructors on how to create effective authentic assessment.

Lastly, if plagiarism is as Rena Palloff suggest, mostly based on a student’s unawareness of appropriate rules governing plagiarism, then the most effective strategy is to educate the learner about copyright, fair use, and cheating.  One of the most helpful resources for such training and support resides with the institutional library support staff.  Instructional modules and typically located at the library.  Writing centers also contain may of these resources and often make them available via their website.  These resources and other are clearly available at the beginning of a course or as needed during the course.

Jocoy, C., & DiBiase, D. (2006). Plagiarism by adult learners online: A case study in detection and remediation. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 7(1), 1–15.
Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database.

“Plagiarism and Cheating” (approximate length: 10 minutes).
Dr. Palloff and Pratt discuss effective methods for dealing with plagiarism in distance education.