I knew what I should do. The university policy on academic integrity is clear: Talk to the student first. If there is enough to conclude the student was academically dishonest and that this incident would affect his/her final course grade, the instructor would fill out a report. Here an academic integrity officer, appointed by the college, would investigate and determine if academic and disciplinary sanctions are warranted... But this was a minor assignment. Is it worth going nuts over? After reading Normon Eng's post, reply below and tell us... what would YOU do?
21 Comments
8/10/2021 08:26:50 am
In the article, Norman Eng states, "If this was a test or a finals paper, I would have filled out a report and involved the academic integrity officer." and I hope I would do the same in those instances. When encountering plagiarism I generally respond to it as a touch point for dialogue about learning and mastery. Due to limited class time to expound, I tend to make personal contact and provide opportunities to demonstrate mastery. With subsequent instances, I tend to follow protocol more and more closely.
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Erica Macuga
8/11/2021 09:28:03 am
As an English teacher, I see many instances of plagiarism. It is important to note my students have grown up with technology in their fingertips, something I did not have access to when I was a young learner. They are used to accessing information (both factual and non-factual) at a quicker pace. However, it is important for me in my class to talk about plagiarism from the onset of the year to establish its damages and how it can affect learning. I am wondering if Norman Eng took enough time to do this in his own class? Communication and on-going conversations about plagiarism- whether the assignment is graded or not-are so important in establishing classroom trust. I would have talked privately with the student to gather their thoughts and go from there in terms of the next steps.
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Susan Clark
8/11/2021 10:11:16 am
Eng's involvement of another class to gain perspective was a welcomed surprise. I often find myself wondering if students would try to figure out the offender in those types of settings. I've encountered plagiarism in my course as well. I spend an enormous amount of time telling students that I want to hear from THEM not someone else. I've also begun crafting questions that are more difficult to plagiarize and placed and emphasis on citing sources during instruction. Eng did the right thing in trying to understand why plagiarism was taking place - and supporting that from a place of empathy rather than accusing, blaming, and shaming and I'd like to think that I could take that same approach.
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Susan Tybl
8/11/2021 04:49:37 pm
I recall when I first started as a cyber school teacher back in 2006, it was mostly the English teachers who worried about plagiarism. In recent years, however, math teachers are noticing that some students are submitting math work that is not their own - on math tests. Many websites and apps have evolved which give not only the answers to math problems, but also step-by-step directions showing how to arrive at solutions. One could argue that students could learn from these websites, but they certainly should not be used for tests.
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Heba Brohi
8/12/2021 06:59:34 am
As my colleague Susan mentioned above, plagiarism and cheating is not limited to courses that assign written papers. Plagiarism is on the rise in Math courses as more online resources become available.
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Ericka Nicol
8/15/2021 10:11:06 am
I love the idea of the community meeting to reflect upon the problem. I think this would need to be done earlier in the year - perhaps a pre-emptive community meeting! You could address a fictional student and talk about the potential consequences and what should be done.
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8/15/2021 06:24:59 pm
Community meetings is a clever use of a teachable moment for students. Its one thing to have the plagiarism policy posted in the course or to review with the class, but to take time and analyze a real event that occurred in the class helps ground the concept in reality for many students. Trying not to focus on students who are difficult to reach or generally unengaged with learning it could act as an alert for students who might otherwise be tempted.
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Joe Bart Smith
8/16/2021 10:02:14 am
I would have handled incident similiarly as Dr. Eng with respect to this first time incident. Since this was not an assignment affecting the final grade, I would use this as a learning and teaching moment to try to uncover if this was an habitual habit to plagerize due to poor study habits, time constriants regarding study planning and HW completion. I would then let student know if this happens again, there will be next level consequences based on new and existing plagerism policies. Many times students plagerize because they have experienced lack of consequences due to their actions and once confronted will begin to develop habits to prevent subsequent occurances.
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April Calton
8/16/2021 01:03:30 pm
I have found that students don't always have a firm grasp of plagiarism even at the high school level. Although there are instances where a student will copy/paste to save time or to just complete the assignment, many students also plagiarism because they seem to not really understand the re-wording/re-structuring process. I think it is important to talk to the student to determine the situation and provide information/resources on the process the first instance. The information provided in the readings mentioned this needs to begin by 7th grade; however, many students have told me they haven't had to use citations before in upper high school.
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Sarah Brown
8/16/2021 04:14:44 pm
I really liked how the teacher consulted with another class to get to the "why" behind the plagiarizing. I also like that he didn't ignore the situation but also didn't make a huge deal about it. I would be interested to know if the student ever plagiarized again!
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Sasha Young
8/17/2021 06:27:30 am
Plagiarism can be a huge deal and I really like how Eng handled the situation in a non-traditional way. I feel that educating students about plagiarism needs to be done in a way that makes sense and so that students fully comprehend the repercussions for doing so.
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Sarah Menzler
8/17/2021 03:20:18 pm
I actually love this response to plagiarism. The idea of a community discussion is one that I wouldn't have thought of myself, but by reading his reflection, it seems to have benefited students - especially those who didn't consider how being dishonest could impact future goals or endeavors. When he turned the assignment back, I think he also handled it well. The student is aware the teacher caught his plagiarism, but the teacher did not belittle the student. I think this will have a better impact in preventing the student from plagiarizing again. My initial gut reaction was to call the student out & explaining why plagiarism was bad - because that's what we're "supposed" to do, but this article has made me change my mind on that strategy. I think I would additionally add a lesson about plagiarism to the course. I agree with what April said, I don't think students fully understand what plagiarism is & WHY it is so wrong. How can we blame them, though? In a world where it is so easy to "share" someone else's ideas or words on social media - how can we expect them to understand why it can't be done in the academic world?
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Jennifer Dumas
8/18/2021 06:40:06 am
The internet is vast and literally just a few clicks and milliseconds away from a world of answers, texts, questions, etc. I think the focus on plagiarism needs to be a conversation that is started earlier rather than later. I do not think students always understand plagiarism and the importance of avoidance. But further I do not think students understand how to paraphrase, quote and cite sources. Even in Computer Literacy, we are asking students to acknowledge sources of pictures used from the internet, focusing on creative commons purpose and usage. From the basics of giving credit with url to full apa or mla citation, I believe we need to have open discussions and practice in these areas sooner rather than later.
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Judy Deemer
8/18/2021 11:25:25 am
I agree with Sasha Young about the fact that some students do not really understand what plagarism even is. Given the population of students I teach, it is important to give examples of what plagarism looks like and what does it really mean. Giving concrete examples and sites of this can be very beneficial to help students understand.
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Allison Sonlin
8/18/2021 12:15:14 pm
Every year I have students that struggle with plagiarism. I think the most important thing is to make sure that they understand it first. I would also struggle with a small assignment because I would rather explain the issue and allow the student to just try it again. With larger essays or assignments, it can be easier to recognize and give a zero or follow the school discipline policy. I think discussing plagiarism and all the ways to avoid it (early and often) are the best ways to go. Hopefully the students will then change their ways!
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Sharon Berry
8/18/2021 02:18:34 pm
I really like that Eng chose to engage another class in discussion about possible reasons for the plagiarism. I also like that Eng realized he should be using new texts/writing prompts each year to discourage plagiarism. Reviewing the academic integrity policy at the beginning of each course is helpful for students as well. I wish Eng had further addressed the issue directly with the student in a private setting to give the student a chance to explain.
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Lauren Goughnour
8/18/2021 06:10:11 pm
I always like to recognize the school policy on plagiarism. However, do the students REALLY understand the policy? Do they understand the severity of it and the consequences it can lead to? I like the idea of discussing plagiarism with the students.
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Michael McQuillan
8/20/2021 12:25:28 pm
I agree with many of the posts here and also think that many students don't know exactly what plagiarism is. I like the approach of a group discussion of why students may try to knowingly get away with it but i also think it's important to have a class dedicated to how to avoid it.
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Brianne Cox
8/20/2021 01:08:52 pm
As a couple of my colleagues above mentioned, plagiarism is not limited to English and literature courses, although that is where it is commonly associated with.
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James (Gil) McGlynn
8/16/2022 08:17:31 am
As others have noted, plagiarism occurs in other subjects as well. I have found the majority of K12 Practical Math questions online with solutions/answers on sites like Brainly using a Google search. Over time, I have modified the key numeric values in the problems slightly in my course questions. This allows me to see who is responding with the original answer and calculations that are copied from these sites. I have also noticed students who do not use the steps taught in class and used to solve similar problems in class. I can typically search using Google for key words or phrases and find it.
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Janelle McKeown
8/19/2022 09:00:52 am
I typically provide a standard written response to students. For example: This answer was copied from brainly.com. Plagiarism will be reported to your principal. Since this is your first offense, you may retry. Further incidents of plagiarism will have disciplinary consequences. Please reach out if you have questions or need me to explain plagiarism.
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