Academic dishonesty comes in different forms ranging from cut-and-paste plagiarism (Moore, 2013), to contract cheating, and to the more subtle self-plagiarism depicted by one’s usage of previously submitted works for another course.
A plethora of plagiarism detection software is available to online instructors. My first awareness and interface with such software was as a student of Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK in 2011 during which our major writing assignments and papers had to be submitted through Turnitin — a plagiarism detection software. Years later, I came in contact with the same software as a student of Walden University before the institution changed to the use of Safe Assign (Blackboard SafeAssign | Blackboard Help, n.d.) — another plagiarism detection software. Turnitin is also being used by the institution where I work — Caleb University, Lagos, Nigeria.
From the listing by TrustRadius (n.d.), other plagiarism detection software currently in use are Quetext, CopyScape, Grammarly, Paper RAter, ProWritingAid, Dupli Checker, WhiteSmoke, Copyleaks Plagiarism Checker, Plagiarism Detector, Noplag, PlagScan from Ouriginal, Writer, Unicheck, Rytr, and Textai.ai.
Beyond the use of plagiarism detection software, one way of curbing academic dishonesty online is through the deployment of authentic assessments. Authentic assessments focus more on a learner’s ability to demonstrate a practical knowledge of what has been learned and are a better reflection of the complexities found in the real world of work situations (Ellis et al, 2020).
As an online instructor, one needs to know why students cheat. According to Dr. Rena Palloff in one of the week’s Learning Resources, some students do not even know they indulge in an academic dishonesty when they submit, in a new course, their own materials or works previously used in another course. Educating the learner, therefore, on what constitutes academic dishonesty becomes important as a facilitation strategy. Another strategy is to administer frequent low-stake assessments (which come across as disincentives to cheating) in lieu of high-stake assessments (Moore, 2013). This is because students are more likely to cheat when the stake is high (Moore, 2013).
An additional consideration for online teaching is to let learners know the implication of cheating, warning them of the severity of academic dishonesty and the fact that the institution does not pardon such an act
References
Blackboard SafeAssign | Blackboard Help. (n.d.). https://help.blackboard.com/SafeAssign
Ellis, C., van Haeringen, K., Harper, R., Bretag, T., Zucker, I., McBride, S., Rozenberg, P., Newton, P., & Saddiqui, S. (2020). Does authentic assessment assure academic integrity? Evidence from contract cheating data. Higher Education Research and Development, 39(3), 454–469. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1680956
Moore, E. M. A. (2013, December 2). 7 Assessment Challenges of Moving Your Course Online (and a Dozen+ Solutions). Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/7-assessment-challenges-of-moving-your-course-online-solutions/
Pleasants, J., Pleasants, J. M., & Pleasants, B. P. (2022). Cheating on Unproctored Online Exams: Prevalence, Mitigation Measures, and Effects on Exam Performance. Online Learning, 26(1), 268–284. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i1.2620
TrustRadius. (n.d.). Unicheck, NoPlag, and Turnitin: Top 3 Plagiarism Checkers for Writers, Students, and Teachers. https://www.trustradius.com/plagiarism-checker
Mayo, as a student at Walden a few years back, even I was unaware of self-plagiarism. Though it is mentioned in the handbooks, I had actually never read that, and so I figured if I wrote it, it was my own work, and therefore not plagiarism. I just thought that since the assignments were so similar even in different courses that I should be able to use my own work. I think this is why it is imperative that course designers have some discussion so that instances like this can be curtailed. If we don’t ask students to complete redundant assignments, we won’t see as much self-plagiarism.
That’s right Dr. Crozier. I think an instance where self-plagiarism becomes relevantly fraudulent would be when a learner or researcher tries to use his write-up on two journal platforms in the name of trying to shore up the number of publications.