Objectives

After finishing this module, you will be able to:

	develop approaches to possible instances of student academic dishonesty
	review the research assessing the extent of academic dishonesty in higher education
	review  UMUC's policies and resources on academic integrity
	review tutorials and tools that may assist students to avoid academic dishonesty
	use Turnitin.com to facilitate academic integrity in your course
	create a syllabus and/or course material that teaches students about academic integrity  and plagiarism and evaluates student understanding of the academic integrity concept  and UMUC standards

Overview

The following topics will be covered:

	academic dishonesty at colleges and universities
	UMUC plagiarism and academic integrity policies
	prevention and assignment design
	tutorials and tools for helping students avoid plagiarism
	managing suspected plagiarism: an introduction to Turnitin.com

In addition, there will be two exercises associated with this module:

Exercise 1 requires participants draft a first week assignment/conference that introduces  the academic integrity concept to students. 

Charlotte Allen (1994) writes that "most studies of college cheating indicate that the percentage of cribbers has not changed much over the past twenty or thirty years: About 60-80 percent of college students admit, as they did during the Sixties and Seventies, to having fudged an exam, term paper or problem set at least once during their four years." Donald McCabe and Sally Cole (1995) found that more than half of the MIT students surveyed in 1992 "acknowledged" that they had engaged in unsanctioned "collaboration."

The sum of the past thirty years of research on academic dishonesty indicates that it is a "chronic problem" that affects all levels of education and large numbers of students (Maramak & Maline,1993). Recent research by the Center for Intellectual Property confirms the national research on academic dishonesty rates among college students. Of the faculty members the CIP staff surveyed, the majority of faculty members (63.3%) reported that they have had students commit acts of verifiable academic dishonesty in their courses (Kelley & Bonner, 2005).

A possible reason for the prevalence of academic dishonesty at universities and colleges is student misunderstanding of what constitutes academic dishonesty. For example, in a 1995 study, Graham, Monday, O'Brien and Steffen found that students and faculty differed in their classification of cheating behavior. The study found that there was 100 percent agreement among faculty about what some specific behaviors constituted cheating. However, when the same behaviors were presented to students in the study, none of the behaviors listed were considered cheating by 100 percent of the students.

Although the study involved students at small colleges, the researchers applied their findings to general professional practice and concluded that if institutions want to reduce cheating, institutions need to clearly define cheating behavior. The researchers also concluded individual faculty should clearly define what is and is not acceptable behavior in the development of assignments and research papers (Graham et al., 1994).

In their study, McCabe and Roth (1995) confirm this research and found that student understanding of what behaviors were academically dishonest "widely" diverged from the university's definition McCabe and Roth assert that students often bring those divergent beliefs about cheating to the university community. The authors conclude that increasing understanding of academic dishonesty may be "the most important communication effort" undertaken by a University to combat academic dishonesty (McCabe & Roth, 1995).

In light of the prevalence of plagiarism and cheating and the apparent misunderstanding of what behavior constitutes academic dishonesty, it is important for faculty to understand:

• what specific behaviors are considered academically dishonest at UMUC
• how students can avoid plagiarism and cheating
• how faculty can engage students in dialogues about academic integrity

What Would You Do?

The following videos are short vignettes involving alleged inappropriate student behavior. As you review these videos, ask yourself what would you do if you were the professor in the following situations.

Depending on how you responded to the previous scenarios, many of you may need to review in depth UMUC's policy on academic dishonesty. Since definitions of plagiarism and cheating can vary by institution, it is vital that all members of the UMUC community and faculty in particular become familiar with UMUC's standards and expectations regarding student academic work.

The stateside UMUC policy "Misconduct in Scholarly Work" (Policy 70.10) sets the expectation of integrity in all scholarly work completed by UMUC faculty and students. Accompanying this policy is the UMUC policy number 150.25, Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism. Together they provide institutional definitions and illustrative examples of academic dishonesty and plagiarism along with other possible forms of misconduct in scholarly work. If you have not already, now would be a good time to familiarize yourself with the institutional definitions:

• UMUC Policy 150.25, Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism, Section II. Definitions. Web page maintained by the UMUC administration.
  
  
• Academic dishonesty is the failure to maintain academic integrity. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating; fabrication; bribery offered for grades, transcripts, or diplomas; obtaining or giving aid on an examination; having unauthorized prior knowledge of an examination; doing work for another student, presenting another student's work as one's own; and plagiarism.
  
  
  • Cheating is using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise.
    
  • Fabrication is falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.
    
  • Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional presentation of another person's idea or product as one's own. Plagiarism includes but is not limited to the following: copying verbatim all or part of another's written work; using phrases, charts, figures, illustrations, or mathematical or scientific solutions without citing the source; paraphrasing ideas, conclusions or research without citing the source; or using all or part of a literary plot, poem, film, musical score or other artistic product without attributing the work to its creator.
    
    
• UMUC Policy 70.10, Misconduct in Scholarly Work, Section II. Definitions.
  In accordance with the Board of Regents Policy III-1.10 Misconduct in Scholarly Work, approved on November 30, 1989. In addition to the above items, this policies outline: falsification of data, improper experimental manipulation, improper assignment of credit, abuse of confidentiality, deliberate violation of regulations, and misappropriation of funds or resources. Web page maintained by the UMUC administration.

Given the global nature of UMUC's student body and various viewpoints and perspective that students have about what is academic dishonesty, it is critical that every UMUC faculty member educate his or her students on the standards of scholarly conduct by which the student will be evaluated at UMUC.

Academic integrity is best achieved when students understand their role as researchers and developers of new scholarship and knowledge. Although every assignment you give may not instill an understanding of the student as "new knowledge producer", you should avoid developing assignments that invite cheating, cribbing, and plagiarism.

If a student does not understand the purpose of an assignment, they may be more likely to engage in academic dishonesty. Creative assignment design keeps students interested in even the most difficult subjects.

See the following list of Web pages for assignment suggestions on preventing academic dishonesty in student writing and your course.

• Preventing Academic Dishonesty and Designing Assignments: A VAIL guide Faculty Portal, VAIL, UMUC
• Plagiarism: Understanding and Addressing It, Colorado State
• Using Portfolios to Avoid Plagiarism in Your Classes by Nick Carbone, New Media Consultant, Bedford/St. Martin's Press
• Preventing Academic Dishonesty from Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis; Jossey -Bass Publishers: San Francisco,1993
• Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers by Robert Harris
  Version Date: November 17, 2004
• Center for Academic Integrity's The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity,1999

The fact that several of these resources make similar suggestions suggests they provide the best practices for assignment design.

You can increase student integrity if you adopt some of the following suggestions in their courses:

• develop fair and relevant forms of assessment
• assign narrow and specific research topics
• assure that your assignments are an integral part of the course
• don't allow last-minute changes of topic
• require that outlines be submitted three to four weeks prior to the deadline and that drafts of papers be submitted with the final paper
• give written or oral pop quizzes in class
• require detailed citations, including page numbers
• put your school's academic integrity policy in your syllabus
• clearly explain your expectations
• encourage students to come to you if they are confused about citation practices.
• be a good role model. Cite sources in your lectures. Talk to student about how citation shows respect for other scholars
• talk about academic honesty with your students, and make sure they understand both the reasons and the tools for avoiding plagiarism

(Cole & Kiss, 2000; McCabe & Pavela, n.d.)

To support the preparation a student may have received before coming to UMUC, if any, UMUC undergraduates are re-introduced to the issues of academic integrity and plagiarism in the one credit required course LIBS 150, Information Literacy and Research Methods and in the required non-credit graduate course UCSP 611, Introduction to Graduate Library Research Skills. While other course instructors can be assured that their students may have received a solid introduction, these courses alone are not enough. Additionally, some of your students may arrive in your course before they complete these required courses.

The UMUC Effective Writing Center, the Center for Intellectual Property and Information and Library Services provide resources (tutorials, guides, etc.) and services that offer you several tutorials to assist faculty in introducing students to the topic of academic integrity and developing their skills in research and documentation. For example:

• VAIL Tutor!
• How to Avoid Plagiarism: A tutorial
• APA Citation Explained Tutorial
• MLA Citation Style Simplified
• Research Skills Tutorial

Detailed descriptions of these tutorials can be found on the tutorial page of the http://www.umuc.edu/cip/vail/faculty/AIatUMUC/ portal. Though these tutorials may overlap slightly, together they provide a comprehensive overview of the issues. When assigning one of the tutorials to your students, it is best to put their use in context with the learning objectives of the course or a specific assignment. All of the tutorials, except the VAIL Tutorial, is available in plain HTML and can be considered low-threshold learning applications. The VAIL Tutorial is a Flash only tutorial that allows students to e-mail a certificate of completion directly to their instructor by putting the instructor's e-mail address in the address field and the student's name in the name field when prompted upon entering the quiz. For more information, please visit the VAIL faculty guide titled An Instructor's Guide to the VAIL Plagiarism Tutorial. The tutorial titled How to Avoid Plagiarism allows students to e-mail their certificate of completion to themselves; they can then post their certificate in the WebTycho classroom.

Here are a few other tutorials that may be of interest:

• The Plagiarism Court: You Be the Judge by Fairfield University
• San Jose State's Plagiarism Tutorial
• The Lemonade Tutorials: Plagiarism by Sherman Dorn, University of South Florida

In addition to tutorials, there are many sites available that give suggestions to students and faculty on ways to avoid plagiarism. Many of these sites provide an overview of citation styles and methods; the next module will cover citation and citation styles in detail.

Here are a few notable and helpful Web resources and guides:

• Student Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism. This guide offers students a practical list of skills they can master to avoid plagiarism.
• Chapter 5: Academic Integrity & Documentation, UMUC Online Guide to Writing and Research Effective Writing Center , UMUC
• Handouts for Research and Documenting Sources, Purdue Online Writing Center (OWL)
• Purdue University on Avoiding Plagiarism Sources, Purdue Online Writing Center (OWL)
• What Is Plagiarism?, Georgetown University
• Plagiarism Guide for Students, University of Oregon Libraries

A listing of additional resources and online guides provided by UMUC can be found in the Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory or VAIL in the portal section titled http://www.umuc.edu/cip/vail/faculty/AIatUMUC/. While VAIL is an open Web portal for the higher education community at large, VAIL is a one-stop resource for UMUC faculty and students specifically.

So you think you've done all you can do, but you still receive an assignment that leaves you suspicious. You now need to verify that the student has plagiarized, and you may then need to take official action with the student. In either case UMUC has made available policies and resources to assist you in this dilemma. The UMUC policy on academic dishonesty explicitly places the burden of proof on faculty and administrators regarding charges of academic dishonesty:

All charges of academic dishonesty will be brought in accordance with this Policy. UMUC expects all members of the university community - students, faculty, and staff - to share the responsibility and authority to report known acts of academic dishonesty. In every case of alleged academic dishonesty, the burden of proof rests with the UMUC faculty member or administrator to clearly demonstrate that the student committed an act of academic dishonesty. (150 III. B)

Section III of the UMUC Policy 150.25, Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism, outlines the exact steps to be taken when you suspect inappropriate student academic behavior.

If you suspect a student has engaged in academically dishonest behavior, you have seven (7) calendar days to notify the student of the charge. You must then notify the student that they have seven (7) calendar days to respond.

If the student responds within 7 calendar days and you or an SUS or Graduate School Dean determines that no academic dishonesty took place, then a decision will be made in favor of the student. If the student does not respond within seven (7) calendar days or the faculty member continues to believe that academic dishonesty was committed, then the faculty member must notify the SUS or Graduate School Dean within 14 calendar days of the charge.

Confirming a suspected case of plagiarism may be as simple as consulting with the student; they often confirm your suspicions in their discussion of their process to complete the assignment. However, you may feel more empowered approaching a student after you have possibly found the source of the suspected text. You may also be interested to note that Section VII of Policy 150.25 provides possible student sanctions that may be imposed by the SUS or Graduate School Dean with the recommendation of the faculty member.

Throughout the process and procedures outlined in the Policy, the following is a list of the sanctions that may be imposed:

1. A requirement to complete appropriate remedial work, selected by the unit director, including but not limited to additional undergraduate or graduate writing courses, online tutorials and other options, before continuing on in a degree or certificate program;

2. A reduction in the grade on the work in question;

3. A zero or a grade of F on the work in question;

4. A grade of F in the course and/or denial of portfolio credit;

5. Suspension for Academic Dishonesty with a letter in the student's file (on the recommendation of the unit director and the approval of the Provost)

6. Expulsion for Academic Dishonesty (on the recommendation of the unit director and with the approval of the Provost).

UMUC procedures are not uncommon. With that said, and despite the growing wealth of scholarly and popular information resources available, it can be a challenge for you to verify cases of suspected plagiarism or academic dishonesty. Fortunately, the electronic tools and platforms that make detection of plagiarism a challenge, are also working to make detection of plagiarism more possible.

UMUC provides for its faculty and students access to the Turnitin.com plagiarism detection service. This resource, when creatively used, can not only alleviate some of the burden of searching for hours when you find a passage of questionable text; it can also assist you in letting students know your expectations for their research and written assignments. You can use systems like Turnitin.com to allow students to submit an early draft of their paper to the service so that your students can see and possibly learn from their mistakes before submitting their final version for grading. Whatever you do, set the tone of your course early with your students. UMUC provides these guidelines for using this service:

Faculty Procedures for Using Turnitin

Faculty Guidelines for Using Turnitin

• You must notify your students that the Turnitin.com service may be used.

• A student cannot be compelled to have his or her paper submitted to Turnitin.com if the student does not wish to do it.

• Student papers are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. If you submit a paper on behalf of a student for evaluation by Turnitin.com, use an alias instead of the student's name.

• UMUC encourages faculty to use the Turnitin.com service and provides technical support through ILS.

• Books are typically not searched by these services; they can only search or compare student work with material that exists in an electronic format.
• Detection services and tools detect plagiarized words and phrases, not plagiarized thoughts or ideas.
• Many, if not all of the available self-titled "plagiarism checkers," "detection tools," or "detection services" cannot access subscription literature databases (e.g. Lexis-Nexis, Academic Source Premier) or subscription Web sites.
• A positive indication of plagiarism means only a beginning. For various reasons, submissions marked as "plagiarized" may not be actual cases of plagiarism.
• A negative search result may not be conclusive; the source text may not be within the search parameters of the detection tool being used. In addition, you must decide what to do with any identified plagiarized text strings.
  • Is it blatant "cut and paste plagiarism"? How much does this matter?
  • Or is it simply a student who failed to learn how to paraphrase properly?

Because most detection tools, including Turnitin.com, will highlight or flag correctly cited or attributed passages of text as well as plagiarized text, an instructor still has the task of reading through the student's paper to evaluate the system's results.

When you complete the following exercise, this course will be complete! We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your participation. If you have any questions or comments about the course, it's not too late to post them in the Questions? conference. In addition, we'd like to ask you to take a moment to fill out the Workshop Feedback Form. We'll read each response carefully and use the information you provide to improve the workshop for others in the future.

We encourage you to contact the Center for Intellectual Property and Copyright in the Digital Environment for copyright and intellectual property issues and Information and Library Services for your other information needs. We look forward to working with you!

1. Draft a first week assignment or discussion conference that introduces the concept of academic integrity or discusses the consequences of academic dishonesty with your students. If possible, work to frame the discussion in the context of your discipline. Would requiring your students to complete one of the online tutorials in the first weeks of class be appropriate? If so, tell us which one and why? Would you use one of the vignettes on the CIP Web site to begin the dialogue? Post your draft assignment in the Conferences area.

2. If you do not already have a Turnitin account, please go through the Turnitin FAQ. Be sure to go the the right where you see Getting Started, Faculty, Procedures for using Turnitin. Please r eview the instructions, then sign up for an account with the link on the FAQ.

• Submit to Turnitin.com the sample plagiarized "paper" provided and stored under Reserved Readings.
• In the Conference area, under Using Turnitin, please respond to the following questions:
  • Were there any barriers to your establishing an account?
  • How well did it work for you?
  • Would you consider using this service in your class? If so, how might you use it? If no, please briefly discuss your reservations.
  • How do you anticipate using this service would be received by your students?

References