Preventing Cybercheating/Online Plagiarism
"Professors have to work with students to help them appreciate the intrinsic value of knowledge and abilities that come through learning." GW faculty member, GW Hatchet article, 10/14/02
GWU Code of Academic Integrity Definition of Plagiarism
"Plagiarism - intentionally representing the words, ideas, or sequence of ideas of another as one's own in any academic exercise; failure to attribute any of the following: quotations, paraphrases, or borrowed information." GW Code of Academic Integrity, Article II, Section I.B.3.
Many college students do not understand what constitutes plagiarism. Some do not know that there will be serious consequences if they are caught plagiarizing. As a faculty member you can alleviate most of these potential problems and provide a fair and supportive learning environment for your students by following these steps:
On the first day of class:
- Specify exactly what constitutes plagiarism and what the consequences will be if they are caught.
- Explain plagiarism from the context of fair use, copyright and academic integrity. Students will understand why plagiarism is unacceptable in the University community if you use this approach.
When creating an assignment:
- Change class assignments each year. Previous students will not be able to share or sell completed assignments to the next year’s students if you change the assignment.
- Specify what types of research sources are acceptable. Possibly require that they use a variety of sources, some print and some online, to limit cut-and-paste plagiarism.
- Require students to create an annotated bibliography or turn in copies of sources used when writing the paper.
When discussing an assignment with students:
- Teach students to incorporate and attribute Web sites and online articles in their writing.
- Encourage students to follow a process for writing. Ask for a thesis statement, an outline, a first draft and grade and comment on each. It is harder for a student to reconstruct these elements from a completed paper than to create their own work.
- Be open about the existence of term-paper mills. Download a few papers, discuss their strengths and weaknesses as a class.
- Let your students know that you know what is out there – and that most of it will not meet your criteria for a good paper.
What help can the library provide?
- Gelman librarians can assist you in designing active learning experiences that show students how to select appropriate information sources, assess the quality and authority of sources, and apply critical thinking to the information seeking process.
- Faculty can schedule instruction sessions with librarians that can be tailored to specific assignments.
- Working in collaboration with faculty, librarians can work to build an information literacy component into key courses within a department.
For assistance in setting up instruction sessions with Gelman librarians or to talk more about what Gelman librarians can assist you with regarding research with your classes, please contact Jennifer Nutefall, Instruction Coordinator, (202) 994-9863, jnutefal@gwu.edu.
The above information on preventing plagiarism was adapted from the Univerity of Texas at Austin's Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism web site and is used by permission of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.
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