Reports

Friday February 2 2007

Plagiarism and Other Types of Electronic Cheating

Nicole Perreault, Coordinator, Réseau des REPTIC

The Issue

Practical Applications

Useful References

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The Issue

Plagiarism has been a fact of life in academia from the start. Technology, however, has transported the practice from the confines of the library to the Internet, and in doing so has created a student-generated nightmare. A recent French survey, indicated that 97.6% of students in that country used the Internet as their principal resource for research and that only 57.2% still went to a library.

Recent statistics about Internet plagiarism have revealed the importance of this issue within the Quebec college system which had been in question notwithstanding the little known study by the Science and Technology Ethics Committee (CEST-Jeunesse), which will be discussed later, as well as an article in the newsletter ‘Clic’ in 2003. Within the university system, there has been an increasingly concrete response, yet the following figures indicate a problem common to all levels of study.

A 2005 survey on Internet study habits revealed:
- 75% of all responding students copied and pasted into their work without citing their sources;
- 91% of teachers had to deal with plagiarism;
- 69.8% of students estimated that unattributed text from the Internet comprised one quarter of the typical homework assignment.
In the United States, The Center for Academic Integrity (CAI) conducted a survey among 60,000 freshmen indicating that:
- 70% of students responding cheated using technology and that the figures were similar among high school students;
- 50% of students admitted to major Internet cheating one or several times in written work;
- Without clear indication otherwise, 77% of all students did not feel that copying and pasting information into their work was wrong;
- 95% of those cheating were not caught.
In Canada:
- A 2006 study among postsecondary students (college, university) revealed that :
  - 53% of university freshman cheated electronically in their written assignments;
  - 73% of students in the study cheated in high school;
  - According to the students; 80% who cheated electronically were not caught;
  - The most frequent type of electronic cheating was copying and pasting without attribution of sources;
- 200 cases of plagiarism are recorded by the University of Toronto annually;
- In 2002, the University of Ottawa disciplined 100 students for plagiarism . Punishments were as severe as expulsion;
- As part of a study by l’Université de Montréal in 2006 of 10,214 students, a significant number expressed their discontent at the ease of access of work done in past semesters which facilitated cheating.

Every field of study, from mathematics to history, from management to philosophy, is concerned by plagiarism as well as other forms of electronically assisted cheating which will be on the rise with the proliferation of technology within the standard classroom as well as the growth of on-line courses.

In the Quebec college system, students provided with portable computers used personal messaging to cheat. In a survey among Information technology counsellors in this system 90% of responses communicated concern on the part of instructors over the issue of electronic plagiarism. Over half of respondents had already dealt with cases of digital cheating. 77% had counseled their teaching staff on informal or formal measures to be taken to counter this phenomenon, yet only 30% of these counselors felt that these measures had been of use.

Plagiarism and other forms of electronic cheating are issues of deep concern within the Quebec system. Electronic cheating has shown itself to be a complex issue which has many aspects, notably prevention, detection, effect on learning, current means of evaluation of student knowledge as well as moral issues.

This study does not purport to propose solutions to the issues that it raises, rather it seeks to sensitize collegial teachers and professionals to the extent of this problem in order that these people on the front lines of this technologically engendered dilemma can propose ways to solve it.

This section describes electronic cheating in its various forms with particular attention paid to plagiarism. It seeks to determine what motivates students to behave in such a manner. The ‘Practical Applications’ section proposes solutions to prevent and detect plagiarism and other forms of electronic cheating among students. Finally in the ‘Useful references’ section there are links to on-line documents and websites pertaining to this issue.

As a college teacher or other professional, if you find the degree of electronic plagiarism and cheating that this report treats is alarming, you are invited to contribute to the feedback area at the end of each section in Profweb as well as the 'Comments' section.

First, we will define electronic cheating in its various forms and why students are using it.

PLAGIARISM AND OTHER FORMS OF ELECTRONIC CHEATING

In most college disciplines, students are called upon to produce research or take exams either in a traditional classroom, a computer laboratory or at home. Students can be seduced into using electronic cheating, most frequently plagiarism, in the accomplishment of these tasks. This section will examine the complex issue of plagiarism and touch upon other forms of electronic cheating further on.

Computer-assisted Plagiarism

When students do research, they are required most of the time to indicate their sources according to recognized academic conventions. However, as indicated in the study undertaken by the Science and Technology Ethics Committee (CEST-Jeunesse), these conventions repose on the intellectual honesty of the student and as such are not a foolproof protection against plagiarism or other cheating.

Let us now attach a precise definition to the word ‘plagiarism’!

CEST-Jeunesse defines plagiarism as the act of incorporating, either in whole or in part, the contents of another work within one’s own work without indicating the source. If the other work comes from whatever electronic source, the terms ‘electronic plagiarism’ or ‘technologically assisted plagiarism’ can be used. In an academic context, copy-paste and the purchase of third party work, authorized or not ( copyleft is an example) are forms of this abuse.

Copy-Paste

One of the characteristics of electronic plagiarism is the ease with which it can be done. A classic example of this is copy-paste. It can take the following forms¹:

To copy a sentence, a paragraph or an entire page coming from an electronic source (e.g. Webpage, blog, forum, e-mail, Word or PowerPoint document, CD Rom) without placing the text between quotation marks and without citing the source.
To insert images, graphic designs, data (e.g. an Excel file, an on-line data file) without attribution.
To totally or partially translate a text and to paste the translation without mentioning the source.

Reusing Existing Work

Another form that technologically assisted plagiarism can take is for the student to reuse previously created electronic assignments from third parties or other classes. Here are some examples:

Downloading from the Web;
- In spite of their best intentions, Websites give access to a host of downloadable material which can be used for academic assignments. Sections of sites such as Thèses électroniques at the Université de Lyon, Wikipedia and the Agora encyclopedia can also be the source of this type of material.
- Conversely, Websites devoted to cheating provide free academic downloads. A site with the evocative name, School Sucks, has an on-line library of 50,000 titles.
Copying the work or the laboratory report of another student, with their permission, and claiming it as their own;
Reusing work produced for another course without having obtained permission from the instructor to do so beforehand.

The Purchase of Academic Work

The purchase of student work on-line has grown exponentially. This material can be bought already written or be written to suit.

For several years, francophone and anglophone Websites have offered material from a multitude of disciplines for around ten dollars each.

The francophone site Oboulo.com is an example of such a site. It offers its clients thousands of titles ranging from ‘Visionary Geniuses’ to ‘The Economic Situation in China’ and passing by ‘Suicide Among the Elderly’. The students can specify the length of the work required (less than 10 pages, more than 10, than 20 pages etc.) and the format (Word, .pdf, PowerPoint, etc.). Zetud.net and the anglophone site CheatHouse.com offer a service similar to Oboulo.com.

Other sites offer to do the student's work for them. The student can custom order a project specifying level of language and whether or not to include errors in order to avoid suspicion. There is an additional charge for delivery within 48 hours. Finis les devoirs is an example of this type of business. Notwithstanding the name, the site assures its ‘customers’ that the work is done by students more advanced than themselves.

For a look at various francophone and anglophone Websites which offer downloading course notes and student work as well as the purchase or the writing of student work, consult a study by Thot called "Étudier, plagier, tricher, empêcher la triche ou ne pas tricher – des ressources."

Other Types of Electronic Cheating

If during a test, students use their cell phones to get answers to questions, or names and passwords of friends’ accounts to use the information within, we are dealing with another type of electronic cheating. This is generally found during exam situations and can occur in the following ways:

In a computer lab, students exchange answers using text messaging on MSN. Even if many cégeps and colleges block sites like these, they can be accessed by using their Internet interface.
When a student uses a portable computer, information can be found on the Internet and used in responses.
Students can text message using cell phones and receive answers from someone outside of the classroom.
Using the name and password of another student, additional information can be accessed.

WHY DO STUDENTS RESORT TO TECHNOLOGICALLY ASSISTED PLAGIARISM?

Ignorance about standard practices for attributing sources

Beginning in elementary school, students do research using the Internet. Often unwittingly, teachers encourage copy-paste activities to obtain images and text. On line resources are frequently seen as in the public domain and not subject to the same protection as hardcopy resources. This situation can continue into secondary and college where the student can view copy-paste plagiarism as normal.

Computer to computer file transfer via Internet enables the rapid and free transfer of music files, videos, images and software among other things without obtaining or paying for rights of use. Since 1999, this worldwide phenomenon has become omnipresent among youth and transformed into a culture of sharing without paying heed to legal barriers. Speed of transfer and lack of payment fuel its growth.

Some students are therefore plagiarizing unconsciously, lacking the training that would make them aware of standards for the attribution of sources..

Saving time

Student responses in Michelle Bergadaà’s electronic plagiarism group site indicate that for some students plagiarize to save time. In the (translated) words of one respondent, “We are obliged to cheat at some point to meet our deadlines." Plagiarism is … “like having someone on your team who is quick, efficient and free!" and … “it’s all at hand so why put out the effort?"

Everybody’s doing it!

Many students experience peer pressure to plagiarize! Another student account explained that plagiarism produced guilt free high grades because… “actually, everybody’s doing it."

Bergadaà and CEST-Jeunesse wonder about the example being set by teachers in the matter of citing (or not citing) sources. According to them what students observe going on around them influences their own actions.

There’s no danger of being caught!

A significant number of student plagiarizers explained that if they felt that there was a real chance of getting caught, they wouldn’t cheat. What gave them pause was the possibility of a sanction and… “the tougher the punishment, the less one takes the chance of copying." Paradoxically, respondents felt that sanctions should be severe. One student counseled monumental punishment… “to put the fear of god into plagiarists with punishment beyond reason."

¹ Sources of information for this part of the report:

Examples of the state of plagiarism: “Le plagiat" report produced by Infosphère. www.bibliotheques.uqam.ca/recherche/plagiat/index.html [on line]. Page consulted November 29, 2006;

Tremblay, L.,“Plagiat sur le Web – exemples". In the Website of the “Réseau des répondantes et répondants TIC – section Pratiques mobilisatrices? (24 avril 2006) www.reptic.qc.ca [on line];

Science and Technology Ethics Committe – avis de "la CEST-Jeunesse" 2005. “Le_plagiat_électronique_dans_les_travaux_scolaires – une pratique qui soulève des questions éthiques. Report adopted June 14, 2005. www.ethique.gouv.qc.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26 [on line]. Nicol

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Comments by readers

The Ryerson Facebook Issue

The Facebook plagiarism scandal happening at Ryerson is an interesting twist to this issue. You can read about it in http://www.theglobeandmail.com.

Norm Spatz, animaweb, Profweb [2008-3-12]

A New Low!

Electronic plagiarism has hit a new low! On the site of ExamEar [ http://www.examear.com ], now closed, there was a catchy subline of 'helping students to succeed worldwide'. This Canadian site sold kits containing a nearly invisible flesh coloured in-ear receiver with a handle cleverly disguised as an ear hair. Students need not have a confederate nearby providing answers. An mp3 recorder placed outside of the classroom could do the job! Prices for packages began at $185.00. Be the first one on your block!?

Norman Spatz, Animaweb, Profweb [2007-8-19]

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