Plagiarism and Online Education - Research Paper Example

Plagiarism and Online Education Plagiarism and Online Education In the past various scholars used to write scholarly materialson the topic of plagiarism from the daily experiences they went through and small studies in the form of surveys in institutions they worked in. Majority of these scholarly materials have one thing in common; in that they try to comprehend how far and why plagiarism is practiced. They then offer possible measures to counter plagiarism to teachers like through better pedagogy or policies. Even the latest scholarly books about plagiarism today follow the same conventions. However, there are some that present new viewpoints and strategies. Thus in reviewing some of the scholarly materials on plagiarism, this research paper does not merely review but, also offers my perspectives, and gives possible directions on the essential issues which future scholars might need to address. Plagiarism can be considered as the use of someone’s work without proper referencing the source. Although there are different forms of plagiarism in different institutions ,its definition is founded from the basis of the above words. Online education is the learning without necessarily being in the commonly known classroom environment. Bill Marsh presents an interesting and a new approach on plagiarism through the incorporation of the various theoretical outlooks; starting with Vitruvius then Montaigne then George Herbert Mead up to Bakhtin. Marsh tackles many things, but then critically evaluates Turnitin.com which is a policy program of detecting plagiarism, and concludes that it presumes a genuine single creator. Considering the fact that Turnitin is quite popular among many users even those outside the philosophy writing bracket and writing instructions which are extensively distributed amongst compositionists; this approach by Marsh is quite bold (Marsh, 2007). His analysis on previous debates on plagiarism takes cultural viewpoints, (considering the assumption that text is a commodity and has to be managed like a business entity) which stand out from the debates. Marsh also evaluates how handbooks help in promoting best practices in writing in order to avoid plagiarism. It is a common practice for past scholars, including those who use a cultural approach to plagiarism to wind up with a number of pedagogical solutions. At the end of Marsh book, he wisely defines pedagogy tradition and decides to point out the challenges he thinks faces studies on plagiarism. In concluding his work Marsh leaves a challenging question for future scholars to deduce its answer: Does Internet plagiarism in the age of post-media composition represents one of the many laudable literacies students with a new ‘communication ability’ bring to the classroom, or is it, as it always has been, a fraudulent or failed venture in the realm of compositional technique, multimodal or otherwise? (Marsh, 2007) Kasprzak and Nixon (2004) article discusses the issues of cheating in the internet and proposes possible solutions that will help uphold quality of education in online learning. Assessors and professors in higher institutions of learning which offer e-learning courses; are trying to incorporate various measures to maintain the integrity of education. There is a notable increase of plagiarism in online assessments. With the advent of new technologies, the cases of cheating are almost unavoidable. This is due to pressures of getting quicker results; in part of students is a form of good credits or due to laziness (Kasprzak & Nixon, 2004). Kasprzak and Nixon also acknowledge that even offline cheating is quite common, but online cheating is very tempting. In their work, they have also offered methods of evaluating the e-learning activities. They have proposed some mechanisms of plagiarism detection like use of the plagiarism software’s like Turnitin. Also, possible procedures of ensuring that the person taking the online course is the actual person doing the examinations can be achieved through the use of remote centre of examinations or facial recognition mechanisms (Kasprzak & Nixon, 2004). In Neil Selwyn article, the issue of plagiarism is still addressed taking a research study conducted in institutions of higher education in the UK. He acknowledges that plagiarism started away long back in history and is a general type of misconduct performed by students in various levels. With many developments in the internet technology has seen a tremendous increase of plagiarism cases known as online plagiarism with new ways of cheating (Selwyn, 2008). Data from the research show there are a number of students who acknowledge of plagiarizing internet documents and these vary in regard of course taken, learning background and gender. There is also revelations of a correlation between online and offline plagiarism; offline seems to influence the online plagiarism. Selwyn thus suggests the importance of contextualizing online cheating with the everyday activity of the students inclusive of the non academic activities. At the end of the article, Selwyn gives an elaborate discussion on some approaches to manage plagiarism in institutions of learning (Selwyn, 2008). All the authors of the three sources discussed above reveal some essential aspects on the issue of plagiarism, and they enhance our understanding on the subject matter of plagiarism. They ring a bell that students’ submission of plagiarized work is actually an academic problem. Plagiarism can be influenced by history, cultural practices and legally in our society. Hence need for various assessors and professors to consider all these factors in the process of finding ways to stop, construe, assess and handle plagiarism cases of students. The researchers raised a considerable number of essential issues to all parties in the academic fraternity. In the processing of handling plagiarism instances, it is always necessary to reflect on intention. Cheating in any form is not always the intention of students. Conflating of patch-writing and plagiarism is not acceptable. Students acquire their different writing skills from the influence of their cultures and mother-tongue. Both teachers and students have different cultures and these cultures have different definitions of the term plagiarism. The three sources are essentials materials to enhance the development of more insight to the issue of plagiarism through the various research methodologies used when conducting the studies. They have used both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Their researches are fully supported by data collected through administering of questionnaires, surveys, systematic review of data from other scholarly articles, and through interviews. They also have been able to give more insight on some of the historical concepts, and possible pedagogy practices. Also, the authors have critically analyzed some of the theoretical concepts regarding the definition of plagiarism, pedagogies, policies and practices. They have suggested various methods of dealing with plagiarism issues. Some of the methods that can be of use are closer assessments, use of software that detects plagiarism, development of various integrity policies and the ability to help students from early stages in life develop ethical writing skills. However, there are researches in this field which use one approach research method or give quite generalized conclusions from studies done in a particular institution only. This is quite a substantial limitation and applicability of the research to other localities may be questionable. Although it is agreeable that it is an important source of scholarly material on plagiarism, its effect is minimal in delivering research study with comprehensive evidence that can be able to be incorporated in diverse situations and help the decision makers make appropriate decisions. For instance, Neil Selwyn research is limited to UK institutions of higher learning; thus the research findings can be arguable in other similar or not similar institutions worldwide, even though his research findings are correct. Taking into account the various obstacles in terms of materials and ideas that various researchers continue to face in the critiquing of the present methods of handling plagiarism; I concur with Marsh’s suggestion of developing a joint task force within the various disciplines on better methods of administration and approaching plagiarism. Marsh in chapter five, critically evaluates the use of handbooks on plagiarism and offers an alternative addition in that they ought to incorporate background information on “copyright, property, and authorship conventions’’ to help students best incorporate and follow the guidelines and rules on the handbooks (Marsh, 2007). For a critical discussion of plagiarism between the various disciplines to be of success, there is a need of sharing the existing scholarship literature among the disciplines. In order for scholarly research on plagiarism to have an effect on third parties the research evidence and considered persuasive enough, it should be comprehensive enough in the way it discusses on ways of sourcing for materials and offer best practices in maintaining the informational integrity while retrieving materials. The various reviewed scholarly materials on plagiarism have revealed the complexity of the plagiarism issue: The analysis of teachers, administrators and students perceptions; the critiquing of the past approaches of plagiarism; and the new proposed methods of enabling students maintaining integrity when using various sources. Despite all these a considerable amount of work needs to be accomplished to close the gaps still existing. Some issues need to be covered like; 1) the effects of plagiarism, 2) the effectiveness of current plagiarism policies, 3) the penalties offered by various institutions and their reasons, 4) effects of software’s that detect plagiarism, 5) effective teaching strategies of avoiding plagiarism. There is the need to shift from the traditional seeing of plagiarism on essays, reports from a single site that uses one research method only, and professors offering various recommendations; to an era where scholarly materials on plagiarism gives more insight and persuasive enough and significant to both compositionists and people in and outside the academy. In spite, all the challenges in trying to maintain academic integrity, the major and critical factor that can lead to its achievement is; if everyone develops ethical writing skills. References Kasprzak, J. & Nixon, M. (2004). Cheating in Cyberspace: Maintaining Quality in Online Education. Association for the Advancement of Computing In Education , 12 (1), 85-99. Marsh, B. (2007). Plagiarism: Alchemy and Remedy in Higher Education. Albany: State University of New York Press. Selwyn, N. (2008). ‘Not necessarily a bad thing …’: a study of online plagiarism amongst. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 33 (5), 465-479. Read More