Recent releases

Monday February 06, 2012 Benoit Bolduc (AQPC) The 32nd AQPC Symposium - Cultivating Judgment: from Montaigne to Today The 32nd AQPC Symposium will be held from June 6 to 8, 2012 at the Palais des congrès in Gatineau, and will explore the theme of cultivating critical thinking. Benoit Bolduc, director general of the AQPC (Association québécoise de pédagogie collégiale) presents several aspects of the upcoming program in which IT will occupy an important place. The complete program of the symposium will be available at the end of March 2012.
Monday January 30, 2012 APOP Using APOP’s ICT Savvy APOP is now accepting project proposals from Anglophone sectors within the Quebec College Network. APOP can assist you in structuring your project, helping you to foresee every dimension that needs to be addressed, taking advantage of their 30 years of experience in the pedagogical application of ICT expertise.
Monday January 23, 2012 Maeve Muldowney (Dawson College) Fanny Kingsbury (AQPC) Norm Spatz (Profweb) Pédagogie Collégiale's IT English Secret Thanks to information technology, a wealth of English pedagogical information from the AQPC's Pédagogie collégiale is available to members of the Quebec College Network and to anyone else at a single click. With the launch of its English Editorial Board, the journal is hoping to become better known within the Anglophone community.

Columns List (204)

Columns

Monday February 15, 2010

Colleges and Teachers in the Battle Against Electronic Plagiarism

Nicole Perreault French staff member, Réseau REPTIC

Barely three years ago, I wrote a report in Profweb about Plagiarism and Other Types of Electronic Cheating. My experiences writing the report enabled me to realize to what degree electronic plagiarism had become a major preoccupation not only within the college network but at all levels of instruction and not only in Quebec!

Wherever I gave a workshop on the subject, participants seemed concerned over the high rate of plagiarism. 91% of teachers have had to deal with plagiarism in their classes. They are concerned that 75% of their students have few or no reservations about copy/pasting text without citing sources. People in my workshops wanted to know how to prevent electronic plagiarism.

: A Publicity Campaign at Collège Ahuntsic

Since then, a significant number of colleges have taken the time to reflect on this problem and take action. Some colleges have put together a working committee composed of teachers, professionals, administrators and even students to look for and establish solutions to prevent and eventually to punish electronic plagiarism. Some colleges have created posters and folders around the issue. Others have organized educational campaigns targeting students and teachers alike. Some colleges have modified their learning evaluation policies and revised the sanctions taken to discourage plagiarism. Teachers have been better prepared to deal with this issue through continuing education activities on the subject and procedures to facilitate detection. Certain colleges have asked their students to sign a non-plagiarism contract and others have subscribed to plagiarism detection services such as Turnitin or Compilatio.

: Information on the Collège François-Xavier-Garneau site

The InukTIC site is another resource which has become available to the college network. Among its many features, it contains links to various resources to make students aware of proper procedures for citng sources and preventing plagiarism. InukTIC is a response to a need expressed by the youth of Generation C in a CEFRIO survey conducted in 2009. The results of this study revealed that youth wanted to learn more about research tools, respecting copyright and strategies to investigate the validity of information sources. Interestingly, data on electronic plagiarism reveals that the practice is often the result of a lack of information and ignorance over the standards for the correct citation of sources.

Furthermore, the problems associated with plagiarism have obliged teachers to review their own grading strategies. Instead of the traditional report, concept maps and digital portfolios have become de rigueur. Students are being asked to post various aspects of their research such as their notes on the subject, their research objectives and the justification of their opinions as well as drafts of their work at various stages. Furthermore, evaluation strategies which discourage plagiarism have become available such as the digital portfolio which can display projects at various stages of development.

Is plagiarism a topic that concerns you? Have you developed prevention strategies? Have you wondered if plagiarism detection software is an effective solution? Has your college developed antiplagiarism publicity in English similar to the French examples in this column? Share your resources, experiences and concerns with your colleagues by using our Comments feature below!