Comments on: ‘It’s no big deal’

By: Lori

Lori — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:33:59 +0000

Two ways that I know of Doug, first as I pointed out above when we see a change in the quality of the writing from Freshman to say, academic journal quality (vocabulary, syntax, overall sophistication) we know somethings up. Secondly, none of my students are “experts” on what they are writing about. They must make citations for the information they are drawing from. In a thesis or dissertation every paragraph (or even every sentence or two) is cited. We are gathering the research and opinions of others. If it’s their own (rare at the undergraduate level) then bravo! But…

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:21:44 +0000

Slightly stupid question: How exactly do teachers detect plagiarism without the use of things like turnitin, especially since students do know the oddest things?

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 04:11:50 +0000

It’s a sad state of affairs, that students takes plagiarism and cheating so casually. I believe that a teacher who gets “cheated on” deserves it. The students are embarrassed when I give them exam day instruction (All pack/purses up front with cell phones on top, swapping blue books, two test forms) but they know I mean business. Because I give weekly quizzes I know the writing skill of my students (I have up to 250 students per term and I grade them all!). This makes spotting inconsistencies easier. Sadly the writing skills of many student are so poor that a well crafted (dare I say lifted) paragraph is easy to spot.
So what is the bigger issue? How do we encourage honest effort from a generation who puts cheats sheets in clear Bic pens and inside water bottle labels (check for how to cheat videos on YouTube)?

By: Jon Lackman

Jon Lackman — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:20:48 +0000

Regarding cheating, I don’t have a huge amount of experience, but I’m currently in the camp of “I don’t want them to be tempted to,” “I don’t want to look for it” and “I don’t want to fight about it.” It is often easy to detect, but the line in student work between out-and-out plagiarism and incomplete digestion of source material can be fuzzy, and even in clear-cut cases the fight with the student can be exhausting. So I lean in the direction of engineering out of the course any opportunity to plagiarise. In-class exams are obviously a good option (assuming you keep an eye on their iPhones!). And of course take-home topics can be designed to make plagiarism more or less unfeasible. For example, you give them a very narrow topic, for which there are only 4 or 5 references, all of which you have read. Or you give them a very creative topic on which they’ll find nothing to profitably plagiarise.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:42:07 +0000

It’s really not that hard to determine if a paper is plagiarized or not. You know what these students know and do not know in introductory art history classes. You’d be surprised how easy it is to read a paper and know if the student comprehends and can deal with the topic they’ve claimed. You just have to read the papers closely….I know teachers who do not.

Bullshit smells and is incredibly easy to detect.

By: Jeremy Miller

Jeremy Miller — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:45:04 +0000

I should have been more clear. As it becomes easier to successfully plagiarize a research paper (this is almost certainly happening more often than we know), more time must be spent assessing the student’s sincerity, and therefore inevitably less on the student’s learning (only so many hours in a day). How many minutes should one spend determining if a paper is plagiarized? As that number necessarily goes up, the paper as an assignment loses its effectiveness as a teaching tool. I wonder where the tipping point is. To my mind, if I must spend more time figuring out if a paper is plagiarized than actually reading it, there is a problem.
Or, we hand this issue over to a third party (like turnitin.com), which has its own set of problems. I wouldn’t be surprised the see the traditional research paper become less common in undergraduate art history programs, as faculty (who are more and more likely adjuct, or part-time) become frustrated with the realities of plagiarism in the internet era. For the student with a sincere interest in art historical study, this is generally not an issue. For the student who sees the class as an obstacle on the path toward a degree (certainly a substantial portion), what we call plagiarism is seen simply as the path of least resistance. The trend in millennial attitudes toward intellectual property seems to mirror that of hip-hop, or fast fashion (for a fascinating take on this, see Joanna Blakley’s TED talk).

By: Shannon

Shannon — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:31:09 +0000

I agree with a lot of your points Kathy.

Jeremy I am not with you on the idea of not wanting to “police” your students. By virtue of you being a professor of the university it places you in a position of authority over students and promoter of the school’s policies (which I assume does not support plagiarism.)

With authority comes the responsibility to hold people accountable. It is an uncomfortable, demanding and taxing thing to “police” others. For people who don’t want the responsibility they probably ought not take on the situations that require it. But for people who manage authority well it is a chance to help another learn and become a better person thus being positive contribution to the community.

It is a problem in our society that so many have disconnected the two. The result is the increase of whatever problem is not being enforced.

What becomes of a society when those who have responsibility reject the “police” requirement?

By: Kathy

Kathy — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:55:10 +0000

I teach undergrad art history as an adjunct and have grown so frustrated with this casual response to cheating. It is not the student cheating that bothers me as much as administration and even pedagogical encouragement by colleagues.

I’ve had to defend forcing my students to memorize works of art for identification (“but, Kathy, we know that rote memorization is no way to learn”) and defend my strong stance against giving my students a study guide including the essay questions before the exam. This, many teachers insist, will encourage students to study.

In the last two years I’ve taught I’ve had to defend myself to the department from a cheating student. I’ve been forced to give cheating students second and third chances to correct their work.

Students cheat because they can…because they can. But I still think the research paper and the in-class comparative essay exam are the best ways to determine learning and reduce cheating.