A New Personal Record in Plagiarism Cases
I had a new personal record in plagiarism cases this semester: eight. With ninety-seven students total on my rolls at the end of the semester, that makes a little over 8%. To be absolutely clear, I am talking about open-and-shut cases. The burden of proof is on the professor, as it should be, so I never report any honor system violations based merely on my suspicions, no matter how strong they might be.
Some of the cases stem from this semester’s new bibliography project. In the past I had tried to craft integrative essay assignments that made plagiarism impossible or very difficult, but I had wanted to move beyond text analysis and writing to also cover research skills, which have proven to be a major deficit among many of my students. I had thought a bibliography project would invite less plagiarism than a straight research paper, since I have not seen bibliography essays for sale on the internet. I was right about buying a finished product, but not about preventing plagiarism. Feeling overwhelmed, a few students panicked and opted to copy and paste material they found on the internet. These examples were the clumsiest. I also saw some examples where students worked harder to integrate internet material than they would have had to work, had they simply opened some books and summarized their contents. I saw both types of behavior on the other essay assignments too.
What happens to these students depends on whether it is their first or second offense. The first offenses that I have seen have led to a zero for the assignment in question. Since these are often worth 25% of the course grade, students found guilty of their first honor system violation have to work hard just to earn a “D” in the course. Second offenses have led to failure of the course. Perhaps there were also other sanctions for second-time offenders that I do not know about.
The high number of plagiarism cases has made me wonder what I could change about assignments and assessment in future. Since I am not slated to teach this spring, I have some time to mull this over. Meanwhile, what are your thoughts and experiences?
Stoneman’s Corner
- Book Review: GDR and Consumption January 13, 2013
- Teaching Notes: Synthesis and Process September 29, 2012
- Hist 499-005: Gender and Class in Modern Europe August 18, 2012
- Reflections after Class July 3, 2012
- Requiring Students to Use Chicago Style (or Turabian or Whatever) June 14, 2012
- Military History Conference May 13, 2012
- Syllabus for Hist 606: Themes in European History II May 3, 2012
- Command Culture by Jörg Muth April 28, 2012
- Who Should Groener’s Schlieffen Plan Matter To? March 18, 2012
- Hist 499-003: Gender and Class in Modern Europe (Required Books) March 7, 2012
Those numbers are unbelievable. Perhaps posting the % of students who were caught plagiarizing in the past will deter others from engaging in the behaviour. Im stunned at the numbers.
8%… that is quite a lot! Sometimes I don’t understand why one would bother copying the works of others; first of all, it is most likely you would be caught. Secondly, if you manage to get through with it you have probably done more work than you would just writing your own text with equal quality, if not better.
I teach college students too, so I can relate to your article. Permit me to comment:
1. 8% seems low to me. I suspect that it’s more around 50%. The ones who don’t get caught are better at masking their acts or they write a blended paper that sufficiently disguises the plagiarized material.
2. The caught students are either too stupid to pull it off or simply lazy. As master counterfeiters know, it takes time to deceive and not get caught.
3. Are you saying that these 8% were confronted by you, labeled plagiarists and punished? If so, I am curious what their reactions were to the charges. My students, being future lawyers, would act offended and try to defend themselves. No matter, I still toss them head first out the window, so to speak.
4. In most of my substantive courses I don’t give them the opportunity to plagiarize. My tests are take home. While that sounds easy the final, for example, is 100 questions and multiple choice.
I announce to students that while having a 25% chance of getting a right answer is nice odds, unfortunately for them I spend hours making each answer, A-D, sound right. If one did not attend class, pay attention and take notes, they flunk.
The better students who got an “A” have said the exam took about three hours and was “a breeze.” Some who got a B or less said they spent three days on the exam and it was a bear.
5. I use the mid-term and finals as learning tools. I use the exams to emphasize the most important points of the class and also to present the material a second time, the first being class lectures.
It takes students hours to complete the exams because they have to research their notes, the book and the Net.
6. If there are essays or papers in a class the topics are not such that the students can use the Net to buy a paper or plagiarize. I specifically make the topics “original and controversial” to stimulate thought, but a side benefit of that is the students cannot resort to the Net to cheat. This forces the students to make their papers an original work rather than a compendium of well-written cheap shots of old material.
The 8% are for those I reported to the Honor Committee. I don’t bother confronting students anymore, since it gets in the way of teaching. I just report and tell the student that they will be hearing from the committee. In most cases the students don’t elect to go to a hearing, since they know the score and prefer to admit what they did to the office in question. Signing a waver is not possible for a second offense, however.
I try to design assignments to avoid plagiarism, but it’s not always possible. There is also the issue of teaching basic research skills, which opens up more possibilities.
I do not have as dark an image of human nature regarding the copying rate, though it’s clear that some were using Wikipedia more than the assigned texts. Their grades reflected that fact.
All of this is happening within a one-semester survey of Western Civilization. I had given up on exams because of the diffuse nature of the course, but I’m beginning to think I need them again, at least for a portion of the grade. If nothing else, they make the link between lectures and goals more obvious. That said, there is a definite prejudice in history against multiple choice exams. I share that prejudice, though sometimes I wonder if there isn’t a case to be made. It all depends on the design of the exam and their place among the other course assignments. I’m also thinking along these lines only for a large course with no TA.
Wow, that’s almost unbelievable; I’m inclined to agree with you Mark that human nature can’t be so bad that 50% are cheats! Surely not? Maybe that’s just the law students. (Hmm..slightly worrying thought!)
I can’t really understand the desire to cheat (knowing the risks) at this level of education. Are the perpetuators those who might possibly fail anyway? In which case I guess it’s no big deal…perhaps they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
When I wrote essays at university (which was rarely- I was lazy- which I now regret) writing up what I learnt was the fun bit..trying to show History in a new light with new words. I enjoyed the challenge to make my script different from all the others. To cut and paste an essay? I would have been ashamed. Maybe this sort of cheating is just indicative of our modern quick -fix world. Do these these students just want a piece of paper so they can go off and earn big bucks? I don’t know, I’m amazed really.
Multiple choice for History – I’m with you all the way Mark – Laughable. At degree level? Might as well just give them a spoon!