Plagiarism - Caught in the Act!

One of the assignments in a recent class was to review and critique another class member’s work. In doing so, I found many of the passages had cliques that didn’t fit in the paper. I decided to take one of these lines and put it in a handy search engine. To my surprise, I found that the entire paper was copied from a newspaper…. word for word.

First, what would you have done???

Well, I will give away my own punch line. The assignment was to be a 3-4 page critique, so I simply put: “I can not review this paper due to ___ (Stated the student handbook code number for plagiarism)." I then put a link to the news article. I received full credit for the assignment.

I knew I did the right thing, but I have come to find out nothing was done to the student and this person passed the class with flying colors. Now for the real question, what would you do now? Nothing? Ask the teacher what was done? Ask the Dean of our program what was done? Confront the student?

I am puzzled....

 

What college or university did this happen at?

 

A royal stink

Knowing what I know now -- if the Dean or Professor did nothing (after I pointed out the plagerism) -- then I would "just let it go" and I would not do anything else.

Why bother?

Sure, it would upset me that a plagerist passed the class with flying colors, but it would be out of my hands. Why make a royal stink of it?

 

You have done what was required, but I would have some concern fro the validity of the course. Seeing the dates in your degree list, I would wait until the ink was a little dryer on the degree, and then drop a note to the department chair asking about their policy on plagiarism. Based on that response I would then either drop it or supply more information.

 

Re: A royal stink

I have not told the Dean, and the Professor is out on sick leave this semester, so I was unable to ask her how it was handled.

 

Mike - You are very perceptive - and that was my same concern, though I can't pinpoint why I would be worried. I did nothing wrong, and I am only asking the question of what was done, but, yes, this is why I ask. I graduate in one semester, but may wait, since one never knows who is connected and what retaliation is ahead (though I may not mind).

 

Wow, students cheating, professors uncaring. Shocking!


Maybe universities do prepare students for real life. Welcome to the apathetic world we live in.

I suggest you do what you think is right, then go home, crack open a cold one, and forget it.

 

I teach In the Ontario High School System. As a routine I always put Independent study units (ISU) through a Google search for plagiarism. Occasionally I find an ISU that is completely plagiarised; The whole thing not just an un-cited idea. Commonly up until about three months ago students would fail the course for plagiarism. However, we were called to a staff meeting where the principal told us that the provincial ministry policy had changed. Students who plagiarise now only have to rewrite the assignment with no penalty. I assumed it must be part of the Ontario provincial government's policy of improving standards and 'raising the bar.' The outraged academic in me wanted to resign on the spot, but I like the money and holidays too much.

Roy Maybery

 

They have to rewrite? How about an A for ingenuity. Mind you they did get caught. Wasn't the penalty for blatant plagiarism usually expulsion?

 

Plagerism = Entrapment?

I remember when plagiarism was taboo and was an automatic "F." But with the advent of the internet, plagiarism has become "too easy." Maybe we aren't "failing" plagiarist anymore because we know that the temptation to plagiarize is too easy?



Times change, people change and morals change. When I was young, the President of the United States didn't smoke dope. Today, President Clinton admits to smoking dope, but says he didn't inhale.

We see a gradual decline in morality along with a commensurate decline in academic standards e.g. plagiarist are no longer expelled or flunked.

As an interesting example in law enforcement, entrapment has two elements:

• 1) Encouraging someone to do something that they would not ordinarily do.
• 2) Making the temptation too easy so that an ordinary person would not be able to resist it.

Are we entrapping people to commit plagiarism by offering them the convenience of the internet? In the case of plagiarism, I think that element #2 applies.

I personally do not care for plagiarism. It is a sign of weakness, sloth and low moral fiber.

 

I remember about ten years, the Canadian government heavily advertized how they simplified tax returns. It was so simple, I (accountant) doubled the number of tax returns I did that year.

(Insert Goebbel's quote)

 

It is difficult in the extreme to expel. High school students in Ontario have the legal right to a free education until they are 21. When we kick them out of one school another school in the board will have to take them. At the end of it they all get a grade twelve diploma. The Ontario government was going to end this practice using a provincial grade 10 literacy test that students have to pass to graduate. However, they are backtracking on this, various suggestions are flying around including an alternative portfolio of work etc.
Of course employers complain that students come out with grade twelve and can't read etc. However, if the employers were a bit more savvy and showed even minute interest in education they would check transcripts instead.

Roy Maybery

 

Re: Plagerism = Entrapment?

I hope not, but I know you are right. I just keep fighting the fight.

 

Kristie, you did the right thing. I have caught students plagiarizing and follow the college policy. It is reported and gets put in their file once validated. The college's policy in my case is:

First offense: failure of the assignment
Second offense: failure of the course
Third Offense: dismissal from the program

Standards must be enforced to insure the academic integrity of the course and the program.

John

 

Absolutely. I make it known up front. I state in my syllabus that papers must be submitted in an electronic format, and that they will be run through a plagiarism detection service. Although I wish I didn't have to do it, it seems to work quite well.

 

Plagiarism threaten DL

Plagiarism threatens DL because it is now near rampant at on campus universities, which have adopted the 'continuous assessment' pedagogy.

Supposedly introduced to be 'fairer' to students who are 'stressed' by formal examinations, continuous assessment has inverted itself because we do not know who we are assessing - the student whose name is on the assignment or the author(s) who wrote the piece theftuously acquired from the Internet.

If the provenance of an assignment, project, essay, etc., is uncertain then nobody is being continuously assessed, and in that case the formal examination part of the final mark, 30, 50 or 75 per cent is actually 100 per cent of the mark, and because the formal assessment is shorter in this regime, the student is being assessed by dumbed down syllabi, choice of questions, which are unrepresentative of the content of the programme.

Now, if this is happening on campus - in schools, colleges and universities - the replication of this false pedagogic assessment regime into distance learning seriously threatens the integrity of the assessment process and the credibility of amybody assessed by it. If everybody passes on plagiarised work then nobody has passed. The attestation of fitness role of the awarding body is worthless.

The argument is moot that if the institution somehow makes it 'easy' to cheat and plagiarise, the institution is also to blame. It certainly is to blame if the institution forswears detection of plagiarism, does not take action when plagiarism is discovered and leaves faculty in a moral vacuum over the issue - 'everybody does it, so why make a fuss?'

The answer for DL institutions is to re-institute tough and secure exam regimes that minimise plagiarism (3hrs, closed book, no choice of questions, independently invigilated, graded by the awarding institutions, Externally Examined by senior faculty from other comparable awarding institutions, one re-sit only, non-zero failing rates, etc.).

Those brought up in soft assessment regimes, looking for quick degree programmes ('past experience' and and cheap too), and in the 'victim' culture of modern pedagogies, probably will recoil in horror at this stance. Those concerned with the eventual value of their degree awards may take time to reflect, soberly, on how their best interests will be best served.

 

Re: Plagiarism threaten DL

Does this imply for a degree to be authentic it has to be expensive? I thought that part of good business practice was judicious buying. A good way to defeat plagiarism, and much easier than proctored exams, would be to make the degree so expensive that none could afford the fees. Perhaps one could enroll for the distance MBA at Queens University in Ontario. Last time I looked (about two years ago) the course fees were $64,000 CDN they of course argue that there is a necessary connexion between fees and quality.
Roy Maybery

 

Roy Maybery wrote:

> Students who plagiarise now only have to rewrite the
> assignment with no penalty.

Do students who submit no assignment at all get an automatic extension of the deadline? Or are students who submit plagiarized work actually treated preferentially versus students who submit nothing?

 

Roy

That was not my point. I was referring to some people who are looking for 'fast and cheap' (which often equates to 'cheap and nasty') and who have been brought up in a soft exam culture. Occasional sightings of these people are made on this board. Quality does not have to be expensive - EBS MBAs are in the bottom quartile on costs with comparable quality MBAs and it has one of the toughest of exam regimes in the MBA world.

Some of the more expensive MBAs are notorious pioneers of soft exam regimes - even 'no exam' regimes - using money as a surrogate for rationed entry. Others use soft exam regimes to attract money on a volume market approach.

It is the culture of the 'easiest', 'fastest' and 'surest' approach to the illusion of excellence, with least risk and effort, that is in my sights, which I would have thought was in this Board's too.

 

Yes indeed, exactly why I wiuld choose Herriot Watt over Queens anyday, that is if I were in the market for an MBA. My current forey into higher education is to water the gardens of my mind rather than to further my career.
I do appreciate that your argument centred around the maintenance of high academic standards, that cheating is difficult under the regime of invigilated exams and objective marking with limited opportunity for re-sits.
By and large I do aggree. though plagiarism has never been my vice. I am far too pompus to use somone elses arguments and ideas. When I see a good argument I try to think of a better one. Thus distance ed courses that focus on essays suits me fine, (though perhaps not in other circumstances.)
I am doing Imperialism and Culture at Sheffield Hallam, they are urelentingly predatory and rigourous with the marking and never give more than 70% (as is usual in Britain) it is great fun! My next MA will be at my local University McMaster in Hamilton where I will have wonderfull Exams. Incidentally, I now a really good way of smuggling information into exams. What you do is prepare during the term and the night before, and take the information into the exam room inside your head. I recommend this method to all my students!

Roy Maybery