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How to Reduce Cheating in Online

Courses

Yeshiva University

Evan Silberman, ANGEL Coordinator Leonard Presby, Professor

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What is Plagiarism:

• According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to "plagiarize" means– to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another)

as one's own – to use (another's production) without crediting the

source – to commit literary theft – to present as new and original an idea or product

derived from an existing source.

• In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward. (Turnitin.com)

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Bottom Line:

"Ethics, copyright laws, and courtesy to readers require authors to identify the sources of direct quotations and of any facts or opinions not generally known or easily checked.“

-- Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press), p. 594

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Cheating: An Age Old Problem

• Davis et al., (1992) reported that between 40% and 60% of their student respondents said they cheated on at least 1 examination

• 95% of those who cheated said they were never caught (Kleiner and Lord 1999)

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Why Cheat?

• It’s easy • The Internet • Peer pressure• Someone else said it better • Cultural differences • Making the Grade• Sloppiness

– Note taking– Poor planning

• Citation confusion• Unclear expectations

(Adopted from Turnitin.com)

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Sources for Plagiarized Papers

• Students can typically go to online paper “mills”:– Cheathouse.com, – EZwrite.com, – GeniusPapers.com,– ResearchAssistance.com, – PaperTopics.com and– KnowledgeReports.com

• Students can have someone else submit work for them in an online course

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Attitudes Towards Cheating

• In a study on dishonesty, both students and faculty believe it is easier to cheat in a distance learning class.

• 75% of college students admitted cheating, and 90% of college students didn't believe cheaters would be caught. (Turnitin.com)

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Attitudes Towards Cheating

• 51% of high school students did not believe cheating was wrong. (Turnitin.com)

• As the number of distance learning classes increases so will academic dishonesty (Kennedy et.al, 2000).

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$64,000 Dollar Question:

• How can distance learning be administered to:

1. Identify, authenticate, and monitor learners;

2. Minimize cheating;

3. Maintain academic integrity

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Use Multiple Layers

• Course Management– Syllabus– Course presentation and design– Instructor/Student relationship

• Assessment – Monitoring student activity– Promoting good student-instructor

communication Following Slides Adapted from Barbara Christe (2003)

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Syllabus Design

• Define academically inappropriate behavior

• Discuss the future purpose to the course

• Identify institutional policies for dishonest behavior

• Identify reasons not to be dishonest

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Syllabus Design

• Establish Deadlines – Set milestones throughout the

course to promote both your assessment of the student and student self-assessment

– Postpone assignments and grade viewing until appropriate time

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Syllabus Design (Con’t)

• Explain how you can track progress in a course

• Explain what will happen for hypothesized technological problems

– Login Failure – ISP or System Crash– Course Unavailability

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Content Presentation

• Present information clearly • Tell students what is important and

what is available• Be clear about required supplemental

resources (books and links)

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Instructor/Student Relationship

• Activities that promote good communication– Message boards and Chat rooms record

conversation for future reference– Team assignments/Group work (Fight Student

Isolation!)

• Speak with students over the phone– Schedule phone meetings twice/semester – Call randomly to check on student’s progress and

discuss an assignment further

• Carefully monitor student activity or lack thereof

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Assessment: Tools

• Vary the tool used: – ANGEL Quizzes and Exams– Interviews with experts

• The survey or transcripts of the interview are included as an appendix.

– Research papers– Presentations – Position statements

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Assessment: Process

• Write questions well• Use Honor Statements• Examine what time students

accessed an exam and how long they needed to complete the exam

• Compare student answers• Guard access to the exam

– Students with editing rights may have access to “Hidden” content

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Assessments – Monitoring Tools

• Create a “fake” Student

• Web Cams

• Desktop sharing applications

• Reports and Statistics

• Anti-plagiarism websites– Turnitin.com – Plagiarism.com

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Measuring Success

• Grade/Spread Variation

• Performance in other classes that use this information

• Feedback from employers who rely on students to understand material

• Performance on national certification exams

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Repeat

• Vary assessment tools, paper topics, and class discussion points

• Add additional questions to the quiz bank

• Change experts who come visit the class

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More Tips:

• Focus on the process of writing

• Avoid "choose any topic" papers

• Require students to use material

• Use papers on "cheat sites" as examples.

All tips adapted from: http://tlt.suny.edu/cheating.htm

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And More Tips:

• Require an annotated bibliography• Require an abstract• Require a description of the

research process with the final draft

• Require "raw materials" of the research process

• Get to know your students

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And Even More Tips:

• Make assignments relatively difficult • Frequent and random assessments• Use alternate means of assessment• If you suspect plagiarism, look carefully

at the paper and gently confront the student with your concerns

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Anecdotal Case Studies: Florida Gulf Coast University

…Being able to track and see when students took tests coupled with IP addresses helped us recognize some questionable quiz results…

Nancy Edwards

Director, Faculty and Course Development

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Anecdotal Case Studies:School-Online.ca

• ANGEL’s Medium Security Setting for Quizzes (Disable right click, print, etc.)

• Scramble exam questions

• Expressly state all windows must be closed

• Use Auto Submit

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Resources

• Ways to handle technology enhanced cheating:– http://tlt.suny.edu/cheating.htm

• Combating Cyber Cheating: A resource for teachers– http://www.epcc.edu/vvlib/cheat.htm

• Preventing Plagarism:– http://www.turnitin.com/research_site

/e_preventing_p.html

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Q & A

• Question/Comments anyone?

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Thank You

• Evan Silberman – esilber2@yu.edu, 212-960-0146

• Leonard Presby – PresbyL@wpunj.edu

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Works Cited:

• “Cheating: 22 Ways to Handle Technology Enhanced Cheating.” Accessed May 2005. <Tlt.Suny.edu/cheating.htm>

• Christe, Barbara (2003) “Designing Online Courses to Discourage Dishonesty” Educause Quarterly, (November 4, 2003)

• “Cyberplagiarism: New Opportunities For Cheating and New Challenges For Teaching”. 2003. Penn State Harrisburg; Penn State Schuylkill. <http://www.personal.psu.edu/wjm2/Cyberplagiarism.ppt.>

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More Works Cited:

• Gibleman, Margaret, Sheldon R. Gelman. “Cheating Via The World Wide Web: Implications and Imperatives for Creative Teaching.” 2004. Yeshiva University.

• Presby, Leonard. “Can Cheating be Eliminated or Reduced in Online Courses?”. 2004. Yeshiva University.

• “Research Resources”. Accessed May 2005. iParadigms, LLC. <http://www.turnitin.com/research_site/e_citation.html>