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Probing for Plagiarism in the Virtual Classroom
4/29/2003
By Lindsey S. Hamlin and William T. Ryan
[Editor's note: Ryan and Hamlin will participate in a panel session, "Academic Integrity in the Virtual Classroom" at Syllabus2003 on July 30. The original article posted May 1, 2003 has been expanded by conference proceedings submitted by the presenters. The udpated article is posted here.]
Virtual learning in higher education has seen enormous development in both public and private universities. In 2000, about 47 percent of U.S. colleges offered some form of distance learning. This figure will increase to almost 90 percent by the end of 2004 (Flisis, 2001).
Educators who are making the transition into online teaching are skeptical about the preservation of academic integrity in the virtual classroom. They often assume that Internet technology and online classrooms are providing students with additional opportunities to cheat. In reality, the probability that a student will cheat in an online course is about equal to the chances that a student will cheat in a traditional course (Carnevale, 1999). In fact, with the Web sites and software now available, educators have the ability to detect and battle plagiarism and cheating in virtual classrooms. Also, the various types of online assessment tools, assignments, and activities available within a virtual course (i.e. threaded discussions, virtual chats, quizzes, group presentations, etc.) are, by their very nature, a deterrent for cheating.
Virtual vs. Traditional Cheating
Unfortunately, cheating has always existed and will continue as long as there
is temptation to do so. In 2002, 47 students at Simon Fraser University turned
in nearly the same economics paper (Black, 2002). According to a 1999 study
conducted by the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University, of the 2,100
students surveyed on 21 campuses across the country, "more than two-thirds of
the students admitted to one or more instances of serious cheating, such as
copying from another student on a test, plagiarizing or submitting work done
by another student" (Muha, 2000). Although these statistics show that cheating
remains a serious academic problem, it is unclear as to whether the Internet
has really changed the percentage of students who cheat.
Online Exams
While giving an exam in the traditional classroom, educators look for roaming
eyes and cheat sheets to identify cheaters. Yet, in an online classroom instructors
do not have the benefit of visually monitoring students during an exam. To compensate
for this problem, instructors can place time restrictions on exams or require
that exams be proctored by a college testing center or library. While creating
an online exam, instructors have the option of restricting the amount of time
the student has to complete the exam. When the time limit has expired, the exam
is automatically submitted to the instructor. This technique is most successful
at deterring cheaters when it is used in short, multiple-choice quizzes. For
example, if an exam consists of 10 multiple choice questions and a student has
nine minutes to complete the exam, the chances of the student looking up each
answer is slim because of the time restriction.
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