Plagiarism: Clarifying OSU's Approach

Stefanie Buck, Instructional Design and Ecampus Librarian, OSU Libraries

Lynn Greenough, Instructional Technology Specialist, TACRaphelle Rhoads, College Student Services Administration

Overview 1) Plagiarism (5 min)2) SafeAssign (20 min)3) Student Conduct (20 min)4) Proactive prevention (5 min)5) Questions and comments (10 min)

Poll

How often do you encounter plagiarism in your classes?

Hutton, P. A. (2006). Understanding student cheating and what educators can do about it. College Teaching, 54(1), 171-176. doi: 10.3200/CTCH.54.1.171-176

75%

Confusion Fear

Perceived sanctions

Perceived seriousness

Resentment

Gullifer, J., & Tyson, G. A. (2010). Exploring university students' perceptions of plagiarism: a focus group study. Studies In Higher Education, 35(4), 463-481. doi:10.1080/03075070903096508.

Academic consequences

Introducing SafeAssign

A tool to help students and instructors identify unoriginal content in student papers.

• Students’ papers are compared to content in websites, online journals and other student papers in the SafeAssign system.

• A report highlights passages in the paper that match the SafeAssign sources

Why SafeAssign?

Integrated with Blackboard

Reviewed by Legal and multiple stakeholders

SafeAssign is entirely optional for instructors

Best used as a teaching tool to improve writing, not a “smoking gun”

SafeAssign Databases

The Internet

ProQuest ABI/Inform Database

Global Reference Databasehosted by Blackboard

Institutional Databasehosted here at OSU

Draft Mode

You can set up SafeAssignments to allow students to run a draft of their paper through the matching process and view a SafeAssign report.

Draft Mode

You can set up SafeAssignments to allow students to run a draft of their paper through the matching process and view a SafeAssign report.

Create a SafeAssignment

Create a SafeAssignment, cont’d

Enable Draft Mode

Urgent Checking

SafeAssign Report

Originality report highlights text in the student document that matches any text found in the databases.

Plagiarism and/or Paraphrasing

Word-for-word:

Paraphrasing:

Timeline

Academic honesty policies and procedures already in-place

Tutorials and webinars rolling out in early March

Spring Break 2013 - SafeAssign will be live in Blackboard

Academic Dishonesty

Academic or Scholarly Dishonesty is considered a violation of the Student Conduct Code.

It is defined as an act of deception in which a Student seeks to claim credit for the work or effort of another person, or uses unauthorized materials or fabricated information in any academic work or research, either through the Student's own efforts or the efforts of another.

Academic Dishonesty Report Form

“In an academic community, faculty members play the most important role in maintaining academic standards”

• Gather Evidence• Invite the Student(s) to discuss the incident• Preponderance of the Evidence • Academic penalty• Send form to Department Chair, Director, Dean, and SCCS

Academic Integrity & Success Seminar

Powered by Orange & Integrity

“Theory and research in psychology show that a thorough understanding of an individual’s view of an issue or problem is an

essential requirement for successful change of that

person’s attitude and behavior” (Gullifer & Tyson, 2010, p. 463)

Gullifer, J., & Tyson, G. A. (2010). Exploring university students' perceptions of plagiarism: a focus group study. Studies In Higher Education, 35(4), 463-481. doi:10.1080/03075070903096508. Abstract retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. (Accession No. 51312499)

“[The] notion that many student plagiarists are either uninformed or

unaware, rather than calculating cheaters, doesn't lack support,

including new research concluding that the more effective anti-

plagiarism strategy is to increase knowledge on the subject rather than

instill the fear of being caught” (McLester, 2011, para. 2).McLester, S. (2011, January). The accidental plagiarists: a growing sentiment that

lack of awareness is often the cause of student plagiarism is prompting educators to reconsider their use of the technology made to stop it. T H E Journal [Technological Horizons In Education], 38(1), 39+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA248093506&v=2.1&u=s8405248&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

“We strongly suggest that anti-plagiarism software should be approached as an aid to a coherent and positive educational approach to academic honesty, rather than as a quick shortcut to stop plagiarism and cheating. Using this type of software just to police students implies a reactive attitude to the problem of plagiarism, which disregards the reasons that are likely to underpin it, the real intentions of the students, and the actions that may prevent it from happening” (Ledwith & Risquez, 2008, p. 383).

Ledwith, A., & Risquez, A. (2008). Using anti-plagiarism software to promote academic honesty in the context of peer reviewed assignments. Studies In Higher Education, 33(4), 371-384. doi:10.1080/03075070802211562

Preventing Plagiarism Proactively

1. Provide a clear and unambiguous definition and clear and specific instructions.

2. Have a consistent academic policy that is consistently enforced.

3. Provide exercises on paraphrasing and plagiarism.

4. Repeat exposure. Don’t assume they learned it in another class.

5. Focus on the writing process (multiple drafts). • Use SafeAssign in draft mode.• Require multiple drafts.

Other ideas?