Session F4F

POTHOLES IN THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY: THE INTERNET AND PLAGIARISM

Ingrid St. Omer’

Abstract - The Internet is an appealing medium for its potential to improve the educational experience for both traditional and distance learning students. A wealth of information on a wide variety of topics offers assistance, and apparently, temptation. Although the Student Handbook at every institution contains some language defining plagiarism, I am unaware of any definitions that include mention of the Internet and digital media. This has blurred the line for many students and created additional burdens for the academic community. This paper reviews my experience with Internet plagiarism and discusses two possible solutions.

Index Terms - Plagiarism, Internet, Freshman Seminar, Curriculum.

INTRODUCTION

During the Fall term I dreaded reading lab reports. I was so disappointed in the quality of the writing and analysis demonstrated in the assignments that I received. As I began to grade the final lab reports I was pleasantly surprised - at least until I read the next one. The grammar, spelling and elegant prose were far beyond anything I had previously received from the author of the second report. The discussion was also strangely familiar. Large sections of the narrative were identical and I found no quotation marks or citations.

I set these two reports to one side, assuming they were aberrations. After grading the remaining assignments and searching the Internet, I discovered that 42% of the class had used a web site as a source of information, or in some cases misinformation. Several students had gone so far as to download and include copyrighted graphics. Only two students cited their source and no one used quotation marks.

The following day I sat down with each student and discussed the situation. A few students had worked together in groups sharing a particular web address and its content. These students knew that their reports would be similar but apparently never thought that their peers would also cut-and- paste directly. The majority of the students, having accessed information and music regularly, failed to understand that they had appropriated the work of another individual. They had successfully used the web in a similar fashion for assignments in other courses without any difficulty and only wanted “to do well” in my course.

As far as I could determine, only one student had knowingly intended to take credit for work he knew should be attributed. This student had been disciplined for this exact offense the previous term.

I was both perplexed and incensed. Most of the culprits were seniors hoping to graduate at the end of the year. Surely they had learned the definition of plagiarism in a previous course, or at least at some point in high school. It seemed unfair to ask all their previous instructors to shoulder the blame for their lack of comprehension.

After I had re-examined the text of my course syllabus and the Student Handbook, I knew I was partially at fault. Although I thought my words were more explicit than those of the Student Handbook, I soon realized that there was no mention of the Internet in either discourse, and that perhaps the difficulty lay in the abstraction that was in many cases the nameless virtual author. For emnple, the Department of Energy is not a person but a government entity. Thus, they were not copying from a book, a journal, or even an “other” individual in their class, which would clearly violate the University Academic Dishonesty policy. They were copying from a page in virtual space that may or may not exist next week and lists no author,

This fuzzy sort of logic may mitigate the actions of the student to some extent. However, the fact remains that their actions still involved copying material. Much has been printed about resources and software to detect plagiarism but I found little discussion of prevention.[ 11-[2] The first of the two solutions proposed below is remarkable for its simplicity and relative ease of implementation. The second solution is no effortless task.

SEMINAR COURSE

A one credit-hour course for incoming freshmen and transfer students could address plagiarism and critical thinking on the Internet. By definition, the course would begin to address the ethics component of the ABET criteria. An initial discussion of the students’ perception of plagiarism would be followed by assignments designed to help the students determine proper attribution, preferred citation style and guidelines to help in the determination of “common knowledge” status.

These assignments would be followed by those specific to the web. A potential assignment could be to use a search tool of their choice to find sites on a given topic and to

’ Ingrid St. Omer, Northern Arizona University, College of Engineering & Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering, P.O. Box 15600, Flagstaff, AZ 860 1 1-5600, Ingrid.StOmer@nau.edu

0-78034669-7/01/%10.00 0 2001 IEEE October 10 - 13,2001 Reno, NV 31* ASEElIEEE Frontiers in Education Conference

F4F-7

Session F4F

develop evaluation criteria for content, reliability, reputation of author or organizations, timeliness, etc. The student would then prepare a written justification for their selection. These skills would help prepare the student for lifetime learning in technology environments.

Less obvious are the opportunities to explore the communication and global context apsects. The very nature of the Internet emphasizes interconnection and information transfer. The borderless virtual space provides ample room for assignments that explore the validity and impact of posted information in communities around the world. Discussions and assignments in this arena can easily be connected to the determination between public domain and intellectual property.

To be most effective, this is a course which should be taught by a faculty member comfortable with the Internet and current software. In instances where such a course already exists, it may be possible to incorporate some of the elements into the existing infrastructure.

CuRRIcULuM MODIFICATION

The second potential solution requires restructuring homework assignments such that the desired result is not readily available on the web. This is by no means an easy task. It requires a great deal of initial time to determine the range of posted information on a given topic. As the content of the Internet is in constant flux, the implication here is not to attempt to learn the address and content of every related site, but simply to know the typical level of available information. In essence it becomes a “literature” search of the web. This allows an assignment to be structured in a manner similar to a design problem. If the desired outcome is not readily available, perhaps the supplemental information will encourage the student to approach Internet usage as a value-added component instead of the solution manual.

CONCLUSION

The ubiquitous use of computers and the Internet in the curriculum demands a new look at plagiarism. In contrast with my undergraduate days, students rarely consult old course files maintained by friends and organizations. Instead, students have ready access to a wealth of information and the need is to develop their ability to retrieve, interpret and utilize data responsibly. A course that engages these students in activities designed to contribute to the educational mission would be beneficial for everyone in the academic community and their profession. My second suggestion, modification of assignment goals and objectives with the Internet in mind, would appear to be more attractive than detecting and documenting plagiarism incidents. This type of structural change also seems to be a more equitable solution for those students who are following the rules.

0-78034669-7/01/%10.00 0 2001 IEEE

REFERENCES

Young, Jeffrey, R., ”The Cat-and-Mouse Game of Plagiarism Detection“, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 47,No43, July

Ryan, Julie, J. C. H., “Student Plagiarism in an Online World”, ASEE Prism, December 1998. http://~w.asee.org/prism/december/html/s~dent-plagiarism-in-~- onlin.htm

6,2001, pp. A26-A27.

October 10 - 13,2001 Reno, NV 3 1 th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference

F4F-8