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January 10, 2020
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FAB Cheating and the Internet
Cheating, plagiarism, falsification, cribbing, appropriation. When working in academic environments, the battle against cheating is ever-present. Add in online learning components and cheating becomes even more complicated. New paper-buying sites pop-up regularly.
For this discussion, let's take a moment to share what we've all seen in the class in terms of cheating. What new sites have you discovered to provide the students with papers? Are there unknown sites to help with DQs? How do you keep DQs from being plagiarized?
My name is Dr. Stacey Elsasser, Full-Time faculty in CDS, and I will be facilitating the discussion in this thread which is being sponsored by the Faculty Advisory Board (FAB). This discussion is presented as a part of the Faculty Training & Development Faculty Culture Initiative.
1 Conclusion
Lisa & Frank,
Can you please repost the link to Turnitin? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Thanks so much,
Joanna Lugten-Hysler
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Hello Stacey:
Yes, I have seen I kinds in my courses (face to face and online). Chegg and Course Hero are just two recent cheating sites for students' where these sites give students' plagiarized access to completed work which students' have to pay for. The two sites legitimize this by saying it is helping students, but these sites incur students' to falsify what they are doing. In the last incident I had to report the student to GCU through a Class Incident Report.
From my perspective, I do need help identifying plagiarized DQ's. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Joseph Kennedy
Dear Stacey, With Joseph, I struggle with plagiarized DQs and also with cheating on DQs. It appears that some students wait for other students to respond to the DQ and then use those DQs as the basis for their answer. I have had students occasionally reporting that "x" copied their post as their DQ response. Some are clever enough to do some paraphrasing or changing a few words to look like they are not copying a classmate.
I realize that there are a limited number of correct answers to a DQ, however, it is disheartening to see students do this especially at the graduate level I teach at.
Any thoughts?
Ron
Hello Colleagues:
Is there a way in Loud Cloud as faculty to only have students' submit their intial answer to the discussion question without students' seeing the other students' remarks? I know when I used other learning management systems faculty had a way of setting this up. After the student submits their initial answer to the discussion question, they are able to see all of the remarks from their fellow students.
Joseph
Thanks for the great conversation so far! This discussion hasn't even been announced yet! One of the things I do with DQs is if there is too much similarity to another DQ, I will "hide" it and ask them to do it again. If they are doing it repeatedly, then I will ask them to submit it first in the Private Forum and I'll run it through TII. At the very least, I will take a sentence and copy it into a Google search and see what it produces. There is not a way to have them post a DQ only to you.
One way to combat the lack of originality in DQs is to post CATS (Classroom Assessment Techniques) or Optional Participation Posts so the students have something else to talk about. I will often put something that I heard on the news or read somewhere and have them respond. They love responding to TED talks or YouTube videos as well!
Stacey
I assembled this list of cheating website at least six years ago. I find Chegg.com to be the most offensive of all because they rent textbook solution manuals to anyone that will pay for them, for $15 per month, and yet they hold themselves out as a textbook re-seller.
Also, I have seen the issue of the apps that let students "drop" files while just walking in the vicinity of another phone. So one student would take a picture of a test question then send the file to another student without having to do anything but sit there. Frustrating.
Colleagues, isn't the Lopeswrite supposed to pick this up? I don't understand if 0% is acceptable at GCU, why are students riled when I point out their scores? If we all teach them to write the gist, to cite, and to reference, then why are they annoyed with us?
Dr. Stacey Elsasser mentioned using TED Talks and Youtubes as CATS. I especially like the Flipgrid for these and ask students to talk instead of writing. Not only are they more original, but they do more composition work - it's better quality. Has anyone else tried this?
Stacey,
Do you still have access to TII? I do not and there is no separate LopesWrite tool outside of our classes, unless we are also students. At this time, instructors cannot access any of the plagiarism tools separately, which would be helpful, especially when class ends or a student has an I and needs to submit outside of the class platform.
For DQs, I do use the trick to copy and paste a sentence into Google and that works like a charm!
Lisa, LopesWrite is not used for DQs, so, no it cannot pick up plagiarism in the forums. That is a problem a lot of times.
Additionally, LopesWrite will not catch a student who uses a paper from another source and then uses the synonym feature in Word to change *just enough* to make it undetectable. It is crazy the work the students sometimes do to avoid doing the work.
Plagiarism sites are a pet peeve of mine and there are so many. One may get shut down and another pops up. I think we really need to be holding the person who uploads their paper to these sites as accountable as we do those who use the papers on these sites. Often, you can only gain access for these sites if you have uploaded work, so it is a vicious cycle.
Sites like CourseHero are also stealing academic property of universities when they upload syllabi and assignment details.
This is going to be a valuable discussion! I look forward to it.
Kimber
Hello again,
I saw Flipgrid mentioned and it is a HUGE part of my teaching. I like to use it for many things, from get to know you posts to build rapport, to actual assignments. Flipgrid is the best! I am on the Student Voice Ambassadors Flipgrid Board. I use it daily, and would love to pass on to Flipgrid that you all love it, too. I agree it allows for more originality and creativity, as well as allows a fresh way of participating in online classes.
Kimber
Edward,
Thanks for the great list! Very helpful!
Kimber,
I can still access TurnItIn, but haven't tried to use it. Thanks for sharing about FlipGrid as a way for originality in the DQs.
Everyone,
Another trick for DQs is to look at the websites/non-classroom resources used and see if any of the language is taken straight from the resource.
Stacey
All,
Another point of discussion..... What do you do when you find plagiarism? Give them the benefit of the doubt if it's the first time or always report?
Stacey
Stacy,, I am online adjunct and it is difficult at times helping students understand they can’t copy and paste everything. I give benefit of the doubt and often face time students to review the similarity index and discuss lack of citation and plagiarism on the first written paper. I will send papers back and have them make corrections I also teach the last class of the BSN and have reported students for plagiarism when no resolution could occur. I’ve had students say it’s their work from previous assignments and it wasn’t. I will look for answer but sometimes the answer is they are just using the works of other
I thought as faculty, now that LopesWrite is being used, we don't have access to TII. I've had students take articles from online and then run them through a synonym generator so it doesn't even come up on a plagiarism checker, but it's sooooo obvious. My favorite example: instead of George W. Bush, the paper said "George W. shrub".
Hello Stacey and All,
I recently typed in one of my courses that I teach and found a "study site" related to it. Some of the information appeared to be from a course before it was revised.
I am seeing more students who do not use quotes for exact words or language. Sometimes they cite and use references, but state that they did not know to use quotation marks.
I occasionally see students supply a list of references, but no in-text citations and possibly some exact words that do not use quotations.
I once caught a student re-posting another student's post. I had one student submit another student's assignment that had the class prior. I had a student who was to create a survey and copied the example from the textbook.
In an August 13, 2019 email from Faculty Training and Development (FTD), the email stated: "Please note, if a student has attempted to cite and included citations or references within the paper but has done so incorrectly, it is not considered plagiarism. That scenario would be considered an APA error that should be addressed in assignment feedback." This quoted statement is contradictory to what I was taught. For example, I was taught, if a student used exact words or language (quoting) without the use of quotation marks that this was plagiarism even, if there is an in-text citation and a reference. However, given the guidance from FTD. I am giving the students the benefit of the doubt more and reporting less, if the student has attempted in-text citations and/or references. I do address it in the feedback and send a message. In addition, I typically make them go back and add the quotation marks, especially if the error was repeated more than once.
When students submit work from another class in part or in whole, it is considered self-plagiarism under GCU policy. GCU allows students retaking a class to reuse assignments for the class they are retaking, but does not allow students to reuse DQs. However, there is no way for an instructor to monitor whether they are reusing DQs or not.
I am not sure how to really keep DQs from being plagiarized. For example, what if they get DQs from a friend who has had the class before and the questions have only been posted in the classroom forums, so those questions would not be subject to a search.
I think that a lot of DQs are open ended enough where students do not really need to plagiarize, because there is not necessarily one correct answer. Because DQs do not go through LopesWrite, we are limited in our plagiarism detection tools. I suppose we can Google, if we suspect plagiarism.
We could require students to write a certain number of words, provide an in-text citation and a reference for each DQ, if we announce the expectation in the Announcements. We could require this for substantive posts as well.
Phillip
Hi All,
I once had a student that I thought used a paraphrasing tool website. You type in a passage and the tool paraphrases it for you. The student used the word "understudy" for "student" in her writing that tipped me off that was something was off. There were also a lot of awkward and inappropriate word choices. It was like she took a passage in the text and changed most every word to a synonym or related word.
Phillip
Hi Stacey and All,
For online class: I see students cutting and pasting from other sources and giving credit. I normally notice it when I see a change in their writing tone. When I find it, I follow GCU Plagiarism process by first giving the student the benefit of doubt. Next, inform the student that I have to report it to the Office of Academic Compliance, and provide coaching to avoid future problems. Most of the time, students are doing it unintentionally and coaching has helped them out in the process.
For online class, I have noticed students using resources from the Course Hero website: https://www.coursehero.com/sitemap/schools/176-Grand-Canyon-University/courses/4625391-PHY102/
I take off points and include comments when students copy and paste word for word. It is really disturbing, as more and more students are relying on these external sources.
I have been teaching online at GCU since 2008. I have seen my share of student attempts to use others essays and comments. One student attempted to justify copying a DQ answer of another student by stating "she said what I was going to say."
In reading the comments of others in this forum I can share the frustration many have added here, and it is obvious that many students go to great lengths to avoid ethically completing both Forum posts and essays. Sadly, if they were equally as diligent in ethically completing the work we might not have the need to have this type of discussion
Kim I went to TII and could not access it. So I used the Google search trick. Only had a few students who copy n' paste - it is annoying when they see me as the bad guy and tell me other faculty are fine with this - not that I believe them but it annoys nonetheless.
A student just submitted the topic selection paper and a paragraph of 170 words (not APA format) is referenced with that of a GCU student and she is using his papers as references. I have not had a student do this before. I would not accept the topic without clarification. I cannot assess the student paper and not sure where it came from. Searched library, course hero, etc.. This is a new one for me. Has anyone else seen this problem to this degree.
Hi everyone,
I teach NUR 699, on line, which is an evidence based proposal project as the end of their Graduate program. I have lots of plagiarism issues. As to an earlier post, the University policy needs to be followed, in my opinion. You can give a warning on a DQ, not in a written assignment. If you do that, the student may take another course and do it again. My biggest issue is a student who uses a published research publication or a dissertation for their Evidence based proposal. They submit Sections each week. I look carefully at the plag. report in the first 3 weeks. Additionally, if they are using older references, it can be a sign it is from a published document. I also have a clue if, they do poorly on the drafts, and all the sudden ask to change their topic completely. I have, unfortunately, reported a few students to the University. I look at it this way: it is a great disservice to the students who are working diligently to create an original piece in a Graduate program. Thankfully, I have a great Course lead whom I consult with to vet my perception of what is going on with a particular student, prior to the decision to report.
All:
I could log in to TII but I couldn't use it. I wonder if there are other sites, like TII that we can access for originality?
Google Education has an originality search: https://edu.google.com/products/originality/?modal_active=none I think it's different from an actual Google search.
Are there "tricks" to get around the LopesWrite scores? I've heard that students will insert 2 spaces between words to get around the originality report. Any other ways around that you know about or have heard about?
Stacey
This is so relevant to me right now. LopesWrite is not as good as TII, it used to be but I’ve never seen so many 0% similar papers as I get now. I even had a paper a few months ago where the tone the student used abruptly changed for a paragraph, I ran a Google search and the whole paragraph was a word-for-word match and LopesWrite did not catch it.
The DQ forum is far more difficult, but I’ve found the “Linear Display” is better as you see posts in the order they were put in. This way, if one student is copying another, their post is at the bottom and it will look familiar to me. I rarely check the posts online, I have to suspect something first, but plagiarisma.net is my go-to for checking that. You can paste a whole paragraph in the search box and it’s a free site. However, usually other students tell me when they see plagiarism in the DQ forums, that is how most are caught in my classes.
I almost always give everyone one warning before reporting. It has to be pretty bad for me to report it the first time I see it. If a student copies another student in the DQ forum, I automatically report it, that has to be so frustrating to the other students. I also hide those posts. I struggle with what to do with those papers that replaced words with synonyms, like the George W. Shrub (very funny). I don’t report them, but the papers are so bad that they fail the assignment and I won’t let them redo it.
Phillip mentioned not using quotation marks. I get some that will have a citation (usually without a page number), no quotation marks, but it is clearly a quote. I just make them revise it and point out that I cannot award points for a paper full of violations like that. I personally believe it is plagiarism, but it is unintentional, so I coach them instead.
Nancy, I have had students reference themselves and other students in papers. I just point out that it is not a scholarly source. If they are quoting another student, that is appropriate, but otherwise, no.
My issue with the process is: I filed a code of conduct on Dec 6, then another about 10 days later, on a student for copying in the discussion forum, it was very obvious but time consuming to research thoroughly. The student did not respond until January 8, and they did not deny anything to me. Academic Compliance sent them a letter in the meantime (I saw this in CRM). The student denied everything to their SSC, the SCC contacted Faculty Development and said the student did nothing wrong, they wanted to go over the whole process of filing a code of conduct with me and wanted my chair to review it with me (everything was filed correctly, I am still unsure why anyone was looking into this). Then they told me they supported me, but I really didn’t feel supported in that, several times I asked what the issue was but got no response. Then the SCC wanted to review it with me, I responded that doing so was a violation of policy. My issue is: if I were an adjunct instructor instead of full-time, that may have been the last time I filed a code of conduct. Shouldn’t we let the counselors know that the Academic Compliance team will handle it?
Thank you Kyle for your response. I do understand students can reference themselves and other students in papers but if a student is quoting the works of another student, the instructor should have access to the paper/s the student is utilizing. I have no idea if said student is accessing the information from the library, course hero or where? I do not have the student paper the information was taken from to review. I asked the student for more information before accepting.
Oh, in my example, the student used something another student said in the discussion forum. They quoted the student, which is fine, and I just pointed out that their peers are no scholarly sources.
I get frustrated when students have entire papers copied word-for-word from sources, but because they include those sources in a reference list (even without citing any of the information), I am told it isn't plagiarism. Isn't plagiarism presenting someone else's words as if they are your own? And if you present larges amounts, even entire papers, consisting of other people's words (even if you reference it), isn't that the definition of plagiarism? Unfortunately, I think a lot of schools are saying they are against plagiarism, then winking and nodding as they turn a blind eye because they want to retain students. It hasn't always been this way. That's just been my experience lately.
My thoughts on giving one warning before reporting is not as effective as reporting. Why? Imagine the student continues to get by with one warning or not get caught in each class the end result will be the student is going to experience challenges in writing his/her dissertation or graduate and never have a record of plagiarism with the belief that it is okay to plagiarize.
The most common copying that I see is in the discussion board. I see there are comments before mine about that too. With a simpler question that just asks the student to restate information from the weekly reading, once 1-2 students provide a complete answer it seems that others are able to use that instead of completing the reading themselves. I'm not sure how to bypass this considering that students need to see other people's responses in order to "clock" their substantive posts.
We no longer have access to TII and unfortunately LopesWrite is not available outside of LoudCloud. That is a functionality that is being worked on. For now, as Kimber suggested, you could copy/paste into google and see if there is a match.
I love the idea asking them to video their responses. I am also a proponent of posting a lot of prompts myself, so that my students are not just repeating the same responses to each other.
I had an interesting scenario a week ago. An instructor was reviewing the LopesWrite report and wondered why the report had different content than the student's paper. We selected the entire document and changed the student's font to black. That allowed us to see that there was something there but we couldn't see what. We than changed the font size to 12 and noticed that the student had copy/pasted text, changed the font to 1 and made the font white - all to increase her word count! Yay for LopesWrite!
Georgette
Kyle, I'm interested in your experience, as I think it is a one-off situation. I'm a faculty chair with Faculty Training & Development and what you are describing is not the norm. I'll contact you offline to get more information. We don't want to discourage anyone from filing a code of conduct if it is necessary. Thanks for contributing to this important conversation. I'm very happy that so many people agree that it is important to discuss! Georgette
Hi,
I would like to add to the comments about reporting. I spent 2.5 hours on the required documentation to report a student who plagiarized by using a published work as their original project. Very burdensome. I taught at another University in an online program for 8 years and it was not so cumbersome.
Additionally, as far as the SCC, what is allowed to share with them? I was instructed to just send a message that the student would receive a failing grade (the final incident happened in week 7/8) and referred the SCC to speak with the student. I was instructed by my lead to only share minimal information for FERPA reasons and when you file, it is an accusation, not upheld yet.
I'm certain the experience I described in my initial response was unique. However, it was not the first time that a counselor contacted me about a code of conduct. I think that they need to be trained in how to deal with the situation.
I've had the same thoughts about giving a warning that Araxi posted above, but I still give a warning.
Jennifer posted about students copying word-for-word but having references and citations. I see that as plagiarism and I would (and have) reported it. My thoughts are if I suspect plagiarism I report it, and let Academic Compliance make the call. I have reported several papers that had citations and references.
Thanks everyone for continuing to share your experiences. I think it's very helpful to hear what other faculty are going through related to this topic. Students can be so creative getting around the system instead of using their creativity within the system! LOL!
Stacey
Georgette,
If the student who whited out the text to make it look like her paper met the word count would actually just have used that creativity to write her paper, she would have probably done a great job! I never thought to look for that for my assignments that have a word count requirement.
I have also felt the same way Kyle where I've spent an inordinate amount of time reporting plagiarism (I don't just mean a little bit of non-original material...I mean almost the entire paper with a really high percentage), only to be shown a letter from the student saying it wasn't plagiarism with the student demanding I adjust the grade. It can make you feel unsupported and like academic integrity isn't a priority for the university. I still report though. I think it would be helpful if we as instructors knew the outcome of the university's decision.
Jennifer
Jennifer, since I've been teaching the same course for a few semesters now, I know how many pages each assignment should be, so I don't find it necessary to check for the white count unless a paper is unusually short. I agree, I wish they would direct their creativity to the assignment itself.
As for the process, I think that it might be a good idea to develop some training on that! I'll look into that.
Georgette
I tried pasting into Google before and it would not work. Does anyone have suggestions to help. I spoke with Faculty Training Support concerning TII, it was a cumbersome process to use outside of the course.
Joseph
I spend more time dealing with students who cheat, drop the course and give me horrendous feedback then with those who try. I have numerous CATs that give students something else to talk about but I have found those who cheat elect not to complete them. Copy and paste of facts is easier than answering ? I see posts like.. Nice post, " quoted definition or statement from a web site " no reference or citations. I note that in an intro and notes to me the student has poor spelling in grammar but in DQ and replies has the skills of an Pulitzer prize winning editor. A simple Google search of a phrase usually points out the source. I have a TII account, but I received a note that we should "not run student work through TII" as it will mess up Lopes Write. ( Lopes does not even recognize verbatim text from our new E Text books in my courses) So many scores of zero since we are not in a larger data base, likely makes students feel safe.. when one can quote directly from the courses text and get a zero.. why not use a paper from Course Hero ( which has dedicated forums for all of our courses and has for all of the four+years I have worked here. The students who share or sell to the sites do not even take their names off the paper; I think they perceive and seem to be accurate that GCU is not looking for cheaters. Our policy sounds very strict, mentioning students can be kicked out and that the punishment can be retroactive imapacting past grades or degree. Our weak plagiarism checker and cumbersome, time consuming reporting procedure are in opposition to the tough language. It would be interesting to see the stats on reported plagiarism and action taken. Plagiarism, copy and paste, use of purchased and past essays is rampant here. I do not see the level of blatant cheating in the other online universities for which I teach. I have students cheating on our unit on preventing plagiarism, that is frustrating.
Now one potential solution. In the first week of all of my courses I post a CAT on preventing Plagiarism with a link to GCU Presentation and information and a link to Turn it In document that describes types of plagiarism and a link to their web site that describes it in more detail (See Attached). The CAT asks that they discuss two things from each source / what they learned. I also respond in this thread with tid bits like " Yes, copy and paste is the most common type of plagiarism, in this course any copy and pasted posts will receive no credit." "Let me know if you notice peers using any form of plagiarism"
I feel this helps them recognize what plagiarism is, makes them aware that I am aware of all of the tricks and ideally deters them. However it never deters everyone .
Has anyone ever taught a GCU course in which no students plagiarized? I have not.
Attachments
Another potential solution.. allow teachers to report a plagiarized post directly from the discussion forum post just as we do a conduct post. The 2+ hour process requiring zipped files or purchasing Adobe or another pdf creator is a deterrent to reporting. Why do we require educators to submit pdf files and not provide Adobe Acrobat so they can create them? Does GCU want educators to catch and report plagiairism? If so the reporting process should be simplified and more efficient and our plagiarism checker should be more accurate and available to educators.. I would love to see a link to check a post for plagiarism in the discussion forums. My courses with CLC groups have the option in their forums, so it is completely possible.
Joseph you can highlight a phrase or few sentences , right click your mouse and choose search with Google from within the forum. It will complete the search in a new tab. You cannot copy and paste a whole document as Googles search has limiters, but often simply checking a paragraph will lead you to verbatim text from a source . Lisa
Thank you for the information Lisa!
Yes, I copied a few sentences from the student's work into Google, but it did not work, I will follow what you provided.
Joseph
Joseph, there are free plagiarism checkers that will let you paste more than Google, I like http://plagiarisma.net/
That one is free, I think you can use it 5 times a day
I've had a few students use white text before. Now, before I grade, I just Select All and change the color to black. On the last student, highlighted what they tried to hide, which was sentences about how sneaky and smart they were, and pointed out this is not relevant to the paper, that's why they got a D. They apologized and pointed out they wouldn't do it again.
I do like Lisa's point about the group forums having LopesWrite. I don't know why it isn't in the discussion forums. I also like that Lisa encourages the students to point out issues, I'm going to start doing so.
All:
Thanks for the continued great conversation. To move away from the policies related to plagiarism, let's talk about culture. Have you noticed that students from different cultural backgrounds have different attitudes toward cheating/plagiarism? Have you noticed any other trends related to plagiarism? For instance, I noticed a trend early in my time at GCU that students from a certain school were more prone to plagiarism. Thoughts?
Stacey
Thank you Kyle!
I will definitely use this the next time I have a student concern. I do agree, LopesWrite should be used for the discussion question forums as well. My last Class Incident Report on a student was based on the student's plagiarized discussion assignment which was copied and pasted from Chegg.
Thank you everyone!
Joseph
Hi Stacey,
Discerning culture is rather difficult online, I think it is going to be hard to say their culture is leading to plagiarism. I rarely look at someone’s demographic information in CRM anyway, and names are often misleading. I have noticed a common issue with someone who is not a fluent English speaker struggling with paraphrasing. They often believe paraphrasing=rewording. Coaching helps, but I point out that their writing will improve as they advance their education.
Hello Kyle:
I agree with what you stated, "I rarely look at someone’s demographic information in CRM anyway, and names are often misleading. I have noticed a common issue with someone who is not fluent in English struggling with paraphrasing. "
Regards,
Joseph
I am an online instructor for NRS-430 and NRS-490. In my 430 course I often have student set up appointments to review how to use LoudCloud. I teach them how to use the Library to find resources. What I have learned is many students from other countries such as India did not have computers when they went to nursing school, thus GCU is their first experience with taking an online computer class and it is very difficult for them. Many mistakes made is not from cheating but from not understanding what is needed from them. It is a challenge for them. The Library has a wealth of information on citations, references and APA but it is challenging for new students. They will often copy and paste because they think that is what they are supposed to do.
There is such diversity of adult learners that I have to stop and think, "Who needs what." Some are 25+ year nurses going back to school because they have to, so they can keep their jobs. Others are in their early 20's and are well versed with a phone but not a clue what to do with a computer. Its just a challenge for the students and then someone comes along and says, "Hey use this great website, we all do it."
Is there a way to coment or reply to individual posts in this thread? The conversation would be much more pleasant if we could reply to individuals, and in my view I am only able to like someones post. Is this a feature the moderator could enable?
To address some things that I scrolled through..
I have had a student use another students paper and argue it was a reference. Like studying the answers to a test?
I have had students utilize the thesaurus in Word to change words.. making it impossible to understand. I did not suspect they were changing words of copied text, just that they felt bigger words were better.. in retrospect it may have been cheating
I open my courses with a CAT on preventing plagiairism and specifically address copy and pasting, over use of quotes, (so the students in my courses are aware that copying ans pasting and other forms of plagiairsm are). I simplify by informing "I want you to describe things in your own words". I have included their answers to the CAT question with my reports to the office of academic integrity.
I teach a nursing course that covers plagiairism and its impact on the student, school and practicein unit 1 of the course. Students's have plagiarize their answers and replies to the related DQ.
I have had students say other teachers have never said anything to them about using essay sites, copy and pasting, overuse of quotes ..this is usually proceeded by a listing of their 4.0 GPA.
I have had horrible feedback , that I recognize as coming from a student who has cheated and failed or cheated and dropped my course. I wish GCU viewed the pass fail drop rate and number of reports I have made to the Office of Academic Integrity when assessing my evaluations. .. It is difficult to be a ethical teacher ( call students out that cheat, have high expectations, provide fair feedback and grades rather than giving everyone an A) and earn superior survey scores.
Tools in place to quickly check and report plagiarism might help. With Lopes most scores are 0% and inaccurate. I have had many 0% papers that are using verbatim text from our E Text, web sites .. If I can do a simple google search or grammarly entry and fine the document , why is Lopes missing it? At minimum the new E Texts written by GCU faculty should be in the Lopes Write data base.
Stacy I am not privvy to what schools my students come from but have seen more unintentional and intentional plagiarism with students who have English as a second language or who have difficulty with writing and grammar in general. I educate on using their own words even if they feel they are not eloquent and point out that writing and grammar are worth very few points on assignments; where as using anothers words/ plagiarism could result in them losing all of the points on an assignment along with other repercussions. Sometimes it works sometimes it does not. I have found an F or zero on the plagiarized work is more effective than education and letting them re do the work and earn back points.
I wonder if others give zeros , partial credit or allow revision? More often than one would expect I have students respond to a zero with note asking for explanation for similarities with a message that says "I re wrote the discussion " or " I fixed the replies" with no explanation. Which makes me think it was not their first time.
Would a simpler reporting process increase reporting and decrease repeat plagiarism? Would a free course on academic writing that included education on forms of plagiarism decrease plagiarism? Would knowing the teacher could push the button and check your Dq posts for plagiairism deter plagiairism? I think so.
Georgette how were you able to change the students text color and font size in Lopes? I do not have any editing features. I cannot even make it highlight the quoted text.
I can leave comments on the Lopes document, but in the recent education on using rubric they indicated even if I leave feedback on word, Lopes or make video feedback I must also write in the rubric. Entering the score is not enough. So I do not use the feedback feature as I do not have time to write all the comments twice.
Kyle and all here is an article from TII related to plagiarism and the effect of culture.
I am both an MSN instructor and a doctoral student. As such I keep an eye on the GCU Student Network on Facebook. I was reading a thread today about how so many students plagerize on their DQ's and substansive posts. I was so appalled. Of course we know they are cheating themselves out of a good education but this was something I had not even thought of. I had a student last semester with a Lopes score of 67%. On a 250 point paper. I ended up reporting him of course. I spoke with him and of course he denied cheating but did say he wrote it at the last minute. My point is that there is a way for us to access Turnitin using a mock student. I need to call IT again and get those specific details because I think it would be worthwhile to check some of the posts. They are not only cheating themselves but also the school and students who do their own work.
Blessings
Joanna Lugten-Hysler
Hello all;
I just wonder what universities are doing to curb Chegg and Course Hero.
Sali
Lisa,
In my opinion, Academic Integrity starts when a student has a hard time synthesize material. This is a skill that is developed over time. I have found coaching helps demonstrate to the student on steps of proper citation and providing examples on how to go about synthesizing the material. I do not give a zero. I report the incident, lower the grade, coach, and ask the student to revise the paper without the expectation that their grade will be improved. I do not finalize the assignment grade, until the student has done the revisions and I have given her/him second feedback. Majority of the students indicate they didn't know (unintentional) or they are aware (intentional) but prior classes no one stopped them or reported them
This is time-consuming because the class I am teaching to the students they are shy of three courses before starting their dissertation. I hate to see the students start their dissertation and still can't synthesize. I feel I have not done my part.
Kimber,
I had forgotten that there are plagerism checking sites online that are free. I'm not sure how they compare to TII but they are easy to use. When I used the mock student and was speaking to IT it was a real hassle. Maybe someone here knows an easier way to access TII as a professor?
I have seen a lot of Course Hero online but have never checked it or any of the other cheating sites out. Maybe I should. My students by in large seem open and honest. I never have had a serious problem with plagerism until last semester. I was very disappointed in the student. I am going to start checking some DQ's as well.
Blessings,
Joanna Lugten-Hysler
Lisa,
In the instance of changing the fonts, we downloaded the paper the student submitted. We didn't change the font within LopesWrite.
Regarding responding to individuals, unfortunately, that is not an option in this forum. It is a blog so all comments are linear.
All,
Good news! This discussion prompted me to contact our Academic Compliance Manager and we're going to put together some training that addresses the process and policy. Watch your email for the workshop invitation!
Georgette
Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. As a Full-time Faculty member, we had yesterday off for MLK day.
Lisa,
I'm sorry we can't post to individual comments myself. It would make it easier.
All:
I hang out in some of the GCU student groups on Facebook. Yesterday, someone posted a message she received for help in her courses. It was not from a classmate. It was obviously "fishing" for students to buy "tutoring" or papers. Thoughts?
Stacey
I would report it. I had a graduate student who had her topic rejected by me as it did not meet the criteria. After she posted her unhappiness in the classroom, she went out on the Sigma Theta Tau GCU website and requested assistance to choose a topic and her frustration with the class. I reported it to the course lead who took over.
Hello All,
I believe that students do deserve the benefit of the doubt and coaching the first time in most cases.
As an instructor of graduate education courses, I get many students who are great writers. However, I sometimes have students that struggle with academic writing and may have some learning gaps when it comes to writing.
One thing that occurs to me is that students do not always understand the definition of plagiarism. They no it is not a good thing, but sometimes they are not clear on what it is. It came up in an actual DQ and CAT that I used this past week.
I really like the idea of a post at the beginning of the class about plagiarism, in-text citations, references, the use of questions, and paraphrasing. I also liked the idea of a CAT about plagiarism. In a few classes that I taught, I would do few APA CAT questions. I would write the questions based on common errors.
Phillip
I think someone should monitor the Facebook pages
Attachments
Thank you Phillip,
Your idea of a CAT question regarding APA is wonderful, thank you. I will definitely be using it!
Does anyone know how I can run a DQ through LopesWrite?
Blessings
Joanna Lugten-Hysler
As for the cultural concerns I have not had any issues. Maybe because they are nurses all working in the US? I have found certain cultures to very respectful and considerate to me and their classmates.
Blessings,
Joanna Lugten-Hysler
Araxi and all, in my courses the first DQ contains CATs on academic integrity, with links to the OWL at Purdues lessons on paraphrasing. I still continue to have students purposfully plagiarize. Those in the first nursing class are more receptive as I am introducing the expectation as GCUs and they have not had courses where they have used and "got away with" copy and pasting or using purchased papers. I understand coaching is important , but my experience with GCU students in my courses is that the plagiairism is intentnional. I always offer an opportunity for explanation, education on what could be done to prevent plagiarism but in more cases than not it is met with anger at my high expectations and students noting they have never had a problem before. Finding ways to deter plagiarism - making the likelihood and consequences of being caught such that one would opt not to take the short cut seems a good answer.
As far as posts go, I put a post in the QTI with the subject line: "Plagiarism Acknowledgement -Please read and respond" and a reminder about it in the main forum. That way I have a record of who "read" it. I've attached the post to this response.
Attachments
All:
Let's talk for a moment about the line between bad paraphrasing and actual plagiarism? Where is the line and how do we recognize it?
Stacey
In my experiencing bad paraphrasing attempts a citation and includes a reference from which the information came. Plagiarizing often lacks a citation/reference or may include no citation/ reference to another source. Some call this inaccurate authorship, TII calls the technique a 404 error.
How can this be? Wasn't the paper already in the database? I don't understand the 0.0% Lopeswrite score? All of these posts are absolutely astonishing to me. Have I been wearing blinders? Have a been too trusting that students want to learn?
I have been researching sites and my research revealed that Grammerly is the very best plagerism tool to use. I am going to purchase it. I do not want some select students feeling like it's ok to cheat and that they can just pay to get away with it. Some sites "for a cost" will take an article and paraphrase it for the student" if this is the students M O. and they use the same website then their style of what they supposedly wrote may not be obvious.
I turned in the student with a 67% Lopeswrite score. I had the exact paragraphs from websites, word for word and sentences from other GCU papers word for word. These sneaky underhanded ways of cheating totally floor me when dealing with college students, they are not children..It's like they do not understand that their behavior could have them expelled from school. In the case of nurses they can lose their license for cheating and would still be obligated to pay their student loans.
Joanna Lugten-Hysler
Joanna, The paper I attached is in LopesWrite. It was downloaded to LopesWrite by the student but --- and this is what I do not understand -- the LopesWrite report/paper looks completely different than the paper submitted. When I copied and pasted the title of the paper(the one the student submitted) onto a blank word document, it completely changed the format which only included what the student had typed. It did not include what was marked through. The lettering is in red, so whatever program they are using, changes when copied and pasted. It is really hard to say how many students are doing this.
I copy & paste a DQ to a Word document to check the number of words. Am I understanding there is a way to check it directly at the site where the DQ is posted?
Also, I require New Roman Times font size #12. The students acknowledge this as one if the rules yet they post in funky small fonts and do not fix horrendous wide spacing when transferring a DQ from a word document. I complain in their feedback. Some apparently do not read their feedback. I have recently started warning them in their feedback that I will start deducting points if the do not use the required font. Some fonts they use hurt my eyes and the extremely wide spacing is not appropriate. I wonder how they made it to a Master's level program? Anyone else require a specific font or size?
Blessings,
Joanna Lugten-Hysler
Thank you Nancy for that information. It literally blows me away!
Joanna
Hi Nancy,
Thank you for sharing with us the paper. I would like to inform you that I am able to see the names of the students once the black markings are removed.
Joanna and all re the use of Grammarly. You do not need to purchase it, the allow its use if you sign up with an email address ending in EDU. I would not say it is the best plagiarism checker, Turn it in is superior to it as it has a database of paper from which to compare submissions. However, I received a notice from GCU asking us not to use any other plagiarism checkers as it would interfere or skew Lopes Write results. I am not sure, how as Lopes rarely catches any similarities the majority of my papers are 0%. I have found papers that were spliced together with verbatim text from GCU E texts that Lopes did not recognize as being similar. As far as I know, we are allowed to use a google search of text. I used to be able to do this from the Lopes Write Report by highlighting and choosing search google for.. the option no longer appears due to coding in the report that allows us to comment. ( new coding blocks old feature).
All:
Learning more about LopesWrite and it's limitations would be a good professional development for us all! Here's the resource for LopesWrite in the Student Success Center. I've also attached a powerPoint that helps describe it.
https://www.gcumedia.com/lms-resources/student-success-center/v3.1/#/media-element/academic-integrity/lopeswrite
Attachments
Araxi and Joanna;
I am with you . However; are we all (instructors) on the same page on plagiarism? When I was in school, I used SentenceWork and Grammarly (the desktop version) to check my work before submitting to the university database. I have a question about the university database. What is the story behind this: 3 groups come in with 5%, 6%, and 11% Lopes score and 1 group has 92% claiming it is from the previous submissions. Are all the groups not submitting to the same database? Does the university has more than one database for students' submissions? Thank you.
Sali
Hi all;
We have discussed a lot about plagiarism; does this discussion cover students sharing/giving their assignments with/to other students? Thank you.
Sali
Hi Sali,
I've noticed with the group assignments that students will often run their own sections through LopesWrite and that will show as similar. You cannot turn that off when they are not the group leader who turned in the whole paper. You can see the who turned that section in and when they turned it in, so that would not be plagiarism. LopesWrite checks even recently turned in papers for similarity unlike TurnItIn, so this can happen.
I teach online, so there are only rare instances of students physically sharing papers. There are papers on CourseHero for probably all of our classes and it is a violation to sell and buy papers from places like that. I believe students usually just get in trouble for buying those papers. I did write up a past student for selling my lecture to CourseHero. I still can't believe that ever happened.
Great information here.
I would like to see a series of examples, published by faculty resources, that covers the top 10 plagiarism issues, how they have been identified and defined and, why GCU considers them plagiarism. The information should apply to written papers and DQ comments. I believe it is a playbook we could all use as a guide to perhaps make our reporting better.
I rarely find a student will actually post the name of the plagiarism website for a DQ. Seems to me that in itself would be a red flag that more of their posts are plagiarized. I would also consider the student not be too bright.
This does not apply to DQ's but one of the ways I find my students are copying other students work is the resource computer is the same . Most of my assignments are math, so it is more difficult to determine if they are copying someone else's work. I do not give credit in any case unless they actually post the calculations used to solve the problem.
Hi Kyle;
Thank you. I understand that CourseHero swaps university assignments for free access. That is why I said in my first post that I wonder what universities are doing to curb this people.
Sali
Hi, Stacey. It never fails that in every class, there is always one student who believes they can fool the professor. I have access to TII. Whenever a student's post sounds like a Phd dissertation, I cut and paste and put it in TII. Sure enough, plagiarized. I let the student know the TII score and that it is a code of conduct violation. Posting returns to normal. I think students lose the meaning of discussion forums. I want to know what they think not what someone else thinks. It's good to use references to back up your thinking, but just quoting the book or an article is another's opinion. I want my students to be able to use their critical thinking skills. They are seeking healthcare degrees where their decision could mean life or death.
Frank Rotando and all, why wait for a GCU playbook or ask that they repeat one. Turn it in has one posted with examples. I use these in my unit 1 discussion along with GCUs preventing plagiarism tutorial as a CAT question. Here is the post/ CAT I use with the links feel free to incorporate it into your classes if you feel it is of value:
Optional CAT Question #1 Recognizing and Preventing Plagiarism
Class, please view the Preventing Plagiarism Tutorial and "The Plagiarism Spectrum" outlining the most common types of plagiarism. Pay close attention to the information on copy and paste plagiarism, it is the most common type, so common that some students are not aware it is cheating. (In this course copying and pasting will result in a score of zero and a report to the office of academic integrity). If you notice students copying and pasting posts or replies report it to me in the private forum. Plagiarism diminishes the classroom experience for everyone.
Once you have viewed the resources:
Watch for "Optional CAT Questions" in each discussion; they are an important way to earn substantive replies.
Course Hero has folders set up for our school, programs and each class. Students are so bold most do not remove their names from the assignments it would be easy to hold these students accountable. I have submitted many plagiarism cases to the OAI along with the pdf file form course here with prior student name, date of submission and course taken. I am not certain what they do with the information, but our policy indicates selling papers is a violation of academic integrity and could impact their degree. One student being censured and losing a degree would send a loud message.
Kyle re group assignments: GCU sent out information on that and said to expect the similarity. You can go into the group forum and view the original submissions made to assess if there were more than a result of a repeat of the submission. Last term I had this occur, the original submission showed vast similarities to web sites and journals but the second submission attributed them to the student's paper and lowered the similarity when added to the group project. In short, it seemed to cover up the actual plagiarism by suggesting it was similar only to the student submission.
Phillip Re coaching and benefit of the doubt.
I agree we should always give students the benefit of the doubt and provide education in the private forum where there is a record of our efforts. In addition, our coaching should be documented via a student conduct report. Filing a report with the office of academic integrity (OAI) is required when we suspect plagiarism and correct it (moderator can you confirm this) according to my training.
We notify the student we are filing the report of the incident and the education provided. Letting the student know this is not punitive when we believe the incident was unintentional and related to lack of knowledge is important. Our report can reflect this and simply lets the office know we have taken action to correct the problem and the student has received an education on preventing plagiairism.
In the report, we enter what occurred, what our actions were and include the education provided. In this way, the OAI has the education on recorded and a student will be held accountable IF the behavior continues. We also protect ourselves. Imagine a student nearing completion of the program has the first report of misconduct filed, past courses and work examined that also show plagiarism. The OAI is in a bad position if no documentation is available. The education in the private forum would show that there was an attempt to correct the problem, but a report would provide greater strength as it would show our commitment/adherence to GCU policy and pass the responsibility for future occurrences to the student, educators and/ or the OAI.
Whether intentional or unintentional a non-punitive report that the student is aware of may deter future attempts, discourage short cuts and encourage learning proper citation and use of one's own words.
What do you think?
Nicely said Lisa! You are correct. Even if we are extending grace it is very important to file the report for historical purposes. Thank you!
Sent: Monday, February 3, 2020 9:04 AM
To: Phillip Brown <[email protected]>
Subject: New Comment: FAB Cheating and the Internet
Lisa Arends commented on
Stacey Elsasser's post
Frank Rotando and all, why wait for a GCU playbook or ask that they repeat one. Turn it in has one posted with examples. I use these in my unit 1 discussion along with GCUs preventing plagiarism tutorial as a CAT question. Here is the post/ CAT I use with the links feel free to incorporate it into your classes if you feel it is of value:
Optional CAT Question #1 Recognizing and Preventing Plagiarism
Class, please view the Preventing Plagiarism Tutorial and "The Plagiarism Spectrum" outlining the most common types of plagiarism. Pay close attention to the information on copy and paste plagiarism, it is the most common type, so common that some students are not aware it is cheating. (In this course copying and pasting will result in a score of zero and a report to the office of academic integrity). If you notice students copying and pasting posts or replies report it to me in the private forum. Plagiarism diminishes the classroom experience for everyone.
Once you have viewed the resources:
Watch for "Optional CAT Questions" in each discussion; they are an important way to earn substantive replies.
Stacey Elsasser posted in
All Faculty Forum
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Everyone,
Our conversation is coming to a close this week. Friday is the last day of this thread. Let's take this last week to share our best tips and tricks for getting the best work out of our students. I think sometimes we focus on the negative aspect of things when focusing on the positive might be a better approach. What are some of the tips you have for creating an environment in your classes that promotes the students doing their best?
Stacey
Thank you lisa for the links to Turnitin. I will use it in my class. I already give them several paragraphs about plagiarism and the consequences of it but this will help enforce what I post
I was trying to think of something to focus on in positivity and one aspect is that I have approached students who genuinely had unintentionally plagiarized and were willing to learn. Additionally, I have contacted students who intentionally plagiarized and in my career at GCU three have simply admitted to it, stated they were "taking short cuts" and thought they would " get away with it" accepted the consequences, a score of zero and a report on file with the office of academic integrity. In all three cases the student's work improved, there were no further incidents and I felt accomplished for having put these intelligent, stressed-out nursing students back on track.
Sadly, my optimism faded when grading DQ replies and posts in one of my courses. Unit 2 which follows a unit that focuses on academic success and preventing plagiarism ( an intro nursing course) and I found replies that were direct copy and pastes, with use of a decoy reference ( copy from one site, reference another -a sign of intentional plagiarism) and a DQ post on plagiarism that was entirely from Course Hero. Really? using a purchased paper for your DQ post on the detrimental effect of plagiarism on the school, your degree and on nursing practice? Course Hero is up to date with new course DQs and papers, the system seems to update faster than we do.
What was really discerning, was the contributor was a GCU student who had loaded folders for every course she took from DQ replies to academic papers and capstone work and left her full name and the dates of the courses intact. No fear of consequences? Here is a copy and paste with link of the organized sharing/selling of papers and academic work where my student obtained her copy of DQ 2 post on preventing plagiarism
Each file has the student's full name and course section, but there is not a means for turning her in, as she is not in one of my courses. How do we combat this?
Hi Lisa, I will forward this info to the Compliance team. Thanks, Georgette
Lisa & Frank,
Can you please repost the link to Turnitin? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Thanks so much,
Joanna Lugten-Hysler
Why isn't LopesWrite enabled in the doctoral mentorship classes?
Lisa Pearo,
That's a good question. Take it up with your Masterchair at the next meeting.
Stacey