Helping Students Understand Plagiarism

Two of my esteemed colleagues, Pamela Carroll and Peter Patsouris, presented to the academic division on Friday. The topic was plagiarism. The exercise involved dividing those in attendance into relatively random groups and providing them with case studies. The case students contained detailed accounts with shadings of suspected plagiarism in each. This outstanding exercise revealed to us that we have no detailed consistent policy  for handling such cases, that there are three different ways that we are handling plagiarism, that we each see the offending students in different lights, and that the stakes vary depending on the course and/or program of study.


Our exercises did not address distance learning but since this is my niche at the college, I began to think how cheating online generally plays out. Our courses, which are the standard heavily text-based variety, require students to post answers in text to a discussion board, assessment or assignment. Our online student, feeling the pressure of deadlines, work and family obligations, and perhaps the additional pressure of educational developmental weaknesses, take a short cut by copying, pasting and failing to attribute. Typically, the online student is given a zero and not allowed to make up the score. The student also is usually admonished and reminded of the stated policy for academic honesty in the syllabus. Then if this was not the final exam we move forward, assuming that the matter is settled. But is it? Did we just make the point, or perhaps a better question, did we teach the student anything about the consequences of cheating?

Our students in particular come from differing backgrounds with differing attitudes about how to get ahead in life. They have been exposed to images and events in the media and politics that suggest that cheating works if you are clever enough about it. I don’t know that you change this kind of perception by exacting even the heaviest penalty, failure of the course or dismissal from the program. It may even be somewhat unfair to some of our students who may not be articulate enough to explain their rationale to us, the educators. Because of the way we work online, it may be even more impersonal and the student again may be learning nothing about personal integrity and honesty.

Perhaps in the past at the college level we have not been traditionally in the role of instilling culture as our high schools colleagues but the growing enrollments and a growing concern with the practice of teaching at the college level is perhaps signaling that change is nigh. Maybe it will be some sort of stepped approach aided by a software application—I don’t have the answer—but I do believe that we need to develop methodology for moving a student down the path of academic honesty and ensuring that they understand that it is foundational to many other aspects of successful adult life.

Prep Pandemic Classes Online

Another large storm moved up the east coast threatening to bury every town in its wake with snow this past week. This after a storm that crippled the mid-Atlantic states with feet of snow the weekend before. The first storm missed Connecticut when it turned out to sea but the forecasts predicted that on Wednesday we would not be so lucky. In preparation colleges, schools, and businesses announced their closures as early as a day before. Parking bans were put into effect. Those businesses that did open Wednesday morning closed early. The governor worked with major employers to stagger employee releases so that the highways were not clogged and that everyone had the opportunity to get home safely. However, the storm on Wednesday was seen by many as a bust as most of our towns received only a few inches of snow, which prompted many of us to wonder if all of efforts were warranted.

It reminds me of the issue we faced with preparing our colleges for the H1N1 flu. Last summer in our institutions there was a great deal of discussion about contingency plans in the event that many of our students suddenly were not able to come to classes. Although there are other good reasons that should provide impetus to have solid contingency planning, primarily, we were attempting to prepare for a potential H1N1 outbreak. We did not want to have our students severely set back in their educational goals by losing a semester. We dealt with the pieces of the problem we thought needed to be addressed in our prep work. We discussed probable numbers of classes that could be affected. We looked at the numbers of faculty and staff members that could be affected. We developed updated our contingency plans for moving course content online in a short period. We developed training workshops to prepare our faculty to conduct at least part of their classes in Blackboard. We attempted to work affectively to convince our staffs and faculty that the planning was worth the extra energy.

Although the year is not complete it appears to be far enough along that much like the storm that missed, H1N1 appears to have missed us this academic year too. Some are saying that their extra effort was in vain or that their lack of effort to prepare was justified. Some suggest that the man-hours of all the intelligent, educated professionals could have been better invested resolving some of the numerous issues facing our colleges.

In general I feel that prep-time is never wasted. In this case, we should like at the larger picture. Preparing for H1N1 has improved the technical knowledge of our faculty. Preparing for H1N1 has forced us to make sure that we are contractually and technologically ready to handle larger numbers of students online. Preparing for H1N1 has given us a better contingency plan that we can use regardless the cause that students are not able to come to the physical campus. Over the last couple of years schools and colleges in Connecticut have closed due to regional electrical power failures, water main breaks, grieving of tragic happenings, investigations into health of conditions, and violent events. For the most part we have been able to cope reasonably well when bad things happen but the work that we have done has prepared us for the worst.