About the Webinar…
If you have been following the last few posts you will notice an interesting trend. In several areas I mention the idea of the campus environment being a catalyst for academic dishonesty. The documentary discussed in the first post mentions this explicitly, stating that the pressure that students are under to succeed is overwhelming.
For this post, then, I wanted to expose potential cracks in the structure of higher education to see if there was any meat to the theory that students who chose to cheat were merely reacting to a faulty design. Thus, I discovered a webinar called “The Accidental Plagiarist.”
Plagiarism is just one form of academic dishonesty, but according to Gallant (2014) it is the most common. So what causes students to copy the work of others without giving due credit? Is it always intentional? Is it desperation or laziness that leads students to make this choice? Is there something that librarians and educators are failing to communicate?
Key Highlights:
Gallant’s (2014) stance is that the very foundation of higher education is flawed. Grades are treated like a form of currency. In other words, if students want to get to the next level of their programs, they must achieve and maintain a certain grade point average. This leads to an obsession with seeing a certain letter on a report card, rather than focusing on the skills and knowledge gained. Students are pushed to the breaking point and are willing to do anything to relieve the pressure they feel.
Combine this theory with the idea of changing attitudes of information ownership in the technology age and you have a recipe for plagiarism. What do I mean by “changing attitudes”? Consider how the average student views a website like Wikipedia (hear me out, librarians… do not light your torches just yet). This gigantic information source (we can argue credibility later) can be added to and edited by anyone in the world. Articles have no single author or owner. Many students in Gallant’s experience did not understand the concept of proprietary information, particularly when it came to knowledge from online sources. In fact, she reported in the workshop that one of her students had called the internet “a mutual brain” that everyone could tap!
Given this formula for dishonesty, we still have yet to determine whether students are simply reacting to it (and thus unintentionally being dishonest) or are consciously reflecting on it and attempting to game the system out of spite. Gallant’s view is that there are different “types” of plagiarism, both intentional and unintentional:
1. “Plagiarism as cheating” means that students are completely aware that what they are doing is dishonest, but they make the decision to plagiarize anyway.
2. “Sloppy authorship” where a student forgot about a deadline and hastily put their project together. Students in this category do not mean to cheat, they simply neglected to include their sources before rushing to turn in their assignment.
3. “Plagiarism by accident” involves a student that does not understand the basics of citing sources. Like the previous category, this type of plagiarism is unintentional. There is simply a lack of understanding and this is where the guidance of a librarian can really come in handy.
Brief Reflections:
When doing research to find a webinar about academic dishonesty, so many of the workshops I found placed the blame solely on the students for their behavior rather than discussing how educators and librarians could improve. This is not to say that I feel that individuals are not responsible for the choices they make—certainly this is true, but decisions are rarely made inside a “vacuum” and many outside forces can influence behaviors. “The Accidental Plagiarist” was a refreshing take on this issue because it demonstrated the influence that the educational system could have on student decision making. The academic honesty code makes us quick to judge every integrity violation, but until viewing this webinar I had not realized that some of these acts may be unintentional. In fact, it may even point to areas where I need to improve as a (future) librarian. If students are still committing honesty violations after attending one of my information literacy courses, I may need to take another look at my teaching methods. Am I unclear? Is there something I am not doing to reach out to the campus community and show them that the library is here to help? I may not be able to prevent sloppy authorship or intentional dishonesty from occurring, but how can I improve my methods to minimize violations resulting from plagiarism by accident?
Discussion Questions:
Do you agree with the presenter that every act of plagiarism should be documented, regardless of intention? Is it ethical to report honesty violations that you knew were unintentional? What steps do you feel can be made to improve service delivery and help minimize accidental plagiarism? Are there ways the library can work with faculty members to help reduce sloppy authorship?
Gallant, Tricia Bertram. 2014. “The Accidental Plagiarist: The Myths, the Truths, and What it All Means for Teaching & Learning.” Turnitin.com. Vimeo video, 27:32. June 18. Accessed April 6, 2015. http://go.turnitin.com/l/45292/2014-06-18/3kb5.
See the entire webinar review paper behind the cut!
Introduction
Turnitin is probably best known for their anti-plagiarism software. However, the company also provides a lot of support and education for teachers and librarians via their website. For example, every year Turnitin.com holds a “Plagiarism Education Week” e-conference. Experts in the field from all around the world present webinars about academic integrity and plagiarism. This year’s conference is scheduled to be held at the end of April, but fortunately the site archives past years. There are dozens of presentations in this archived collection that anyone can view for free. The webinar that was selected for evaluation in this paper is entitled “The Accidental Plagiarist: The Myths, the Truths, and What it All Means for Teaching & Learning” and was given at last year’s conference (2014) by Dr. Tricia Bertram Gallant, Director of Academic Integrity at UC San Diego and a published researcher in the field of academic honesty.
Workshop Goals
The presentation appeared to have four aims: to determine why students plagiarize, to explain the different “types” of plagiarism (and determine if unintentional plagiarism fell into one of these types), to discuss the ethics of reporting suspicious activities, and to help educators ensure that they prevent academic honesty issues from happening in the future.
Presentation Summary
The webinar began with Dr. Gallant (2014) stating that plagiarism was the most common academic integrity violation in higher education (when compared to cheating on a test or copying lab work). She provided several reasons for this. First, she said that cheating is naturally embedded into the educational system because grades are treated as a form of currency. The obsession over grades can cause overwhelming pressure on a student because they want to progress to the next level. Next, she explained that our cultural values toward information were shifting because of technology. Where previously we thought of knowledge as proprietary, the advent of the internet allowed us to openly share information. Gallant explained that one of her students described the internet as a “mutual brain we can all tap.” He did not understand the need to cite when websites like Wikipedia allowed everyone to collaborate and add to the knowledge pool. She also mentioned a lack of confidence in one’s writing as a contributing factor. Students are particularly vulnerable as they are often asked to write papers before they have the chance to become familiar with the jargon used in a particular field of study. Finally, she stated that the most common reason that students cheat is because they do not understand why they are engaging in the activity of citing their sources. Gallant asserted that librarians and faculty members often just point students in the direction of the handbook and tell students what they must do, but not the theory behind why they are doing it. As a result, the task becomes a rote annoyance.
In the next section of the presentation, Dr. Gallant (2014) described how plagiarism can fall into three different types: “Plagiarism as cheating” where students intentionally use the words and ideas of others to enhance their own works without attribution, “sloppy authorship” where students are simply forgetful or their project was hastily written, and “plagiarism by accident” where students often do not understand how to cite so they simply do not include citations. There is also the issue of understanding what is and what is not “common knowledge,” particularly when sites like Wikipedia make everything seem as if it was collectively understood.
So is plagiarism always a violation? Should it always be reported even if it was unintended? What is the proper, ethical solution when no malice is intended? Gallant (2014) explained that not every violation warrants punishment. She does believe that unintentional plagiarism can occur and it needs to be remedied with education, rather than punitive action. However, she did state that educators and librarians are ethically responsible for reporting the incident. She likened this to keeping a list of students of concern to track repeated episodes. Dr. Gallant explained that a failure to report students for their actions could mean that they never learn to improve their writing skills. Additionally, reporting the incident means obtaining campus-wide support and fostering an educational environment of integrity.
Author Conclusions
What was most intriguing about this webinar was the fact that it explained how technology has played a role in the changing expectations of information ownership. It is important for librarians to realize that twenty-first century students may have a different understanding of collaboration and collective knowledge when entering an educational environment. Likewise, new or aspiring reference librarians may have difficulty determining the appropriate, ethical path to take when encountering honesty violations. Rather than delivering punishments for the first infraction, Dr. Gallant provides an excellent solution by recommending that practitioners keep a list of violations to help determine if there is a genuine gap in understanding or if a repeat offender is taking advantage of the system. The webinar reinforces a lesson that has been consistent among all of the sources examined this semester—that education, rather than the fear of punishment, should be the driving force behind the development of academic honesty policies and information literacy courses.
Post References:
Gallant, Tricia Bertram. 2014. “The Accidental Plagiarist: The Myths, the Truths, and What it All Means for Teaching & Learning.” Turnitin.com. Vimeo video, 27:32. June 18. Accessed April 6, 2015. http://go.turnitin.com/l/45292/2014-06-18/3kb5.
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