One of the best methods for
reducing cheating, is to develop assignments that
require higher levels of thought, and use of multiple sets of resources.
If a student cannot simply look up the answer, it will be far more difficult
for a student to cheat.
In addition, whatever the
instructor can do to personalize each assignment will assist in the efforts to
avoid student academic misconduct. Students who must apply the theories,
concepts, strategies, tactics, and procedures from the course to their
individual lives will find it more difficult to cheat - since each student's
experience will be unique. The secondary benefit is that students are
likely to take a greater interest in assignments that directly apply to their own
lives.
One of the easiest methods to
discourage cheating is to design the course to have many
assignments each worth a relatively small portion of the overall course points.
For example, if the
instructor chooses to have quizzes that cover the textbook readings, the
quizzes could be offered for each individual chapter (rather than combining
several chapters under one quiz).
Larger assignments, such as
term research papers, could be broken down into smaller sets of activities with
deadlines spread throughout the course. This helps students plan their
workload and to continue their progress on major assignments. It also
helps the instructor catch procrastination. Students can be brought back
on-task before serious damage is done.
For example, a 100 point
research paper might be broken down as follows.
Activity |
Due |
Points Value |
Topic and 10 research
sources submitted |
Week 3 |
10 points |
Outline of major points
including facts to be introduced from research sources |
Week 4 |
10 points |
Draft of major point 1 |
Week 5 |
10 points |
Draft if paper introduction |
Week 7 |
10 points |
Paper submitted in final
form and submission of research
notes and drafts |
Week 10 |
60 points |
Once students have selected a
topic and a reasonable number of research sources, do not allow them to change
their topic (they might otherwise attempt purchasing a paper or project to
submit).
Another important principle
is to reduce anxiety and pressure through self-assessments.
Use of practice tests, drafts
for papers, and drill & practice activities help students build confidence
– thereby greatly reducing incentives to cheat.
In order to ensure that
students take advantage of the self assessments, points could be given for
completing the activities to some level of mastery. As an example,
students who earn at least 85% on the practice quizzes would receive full
credit for that course activity.
A common concern is that
students may attempt to make online purchases of term papers or projects to
submit as their own work.
Here are some methods that
you might incorporating your course to deter cheating
on major assignments.
Age
and Composition of Research Sources
Require that students use at
least two sources that are less than three months old.
Consider requiring students
to use multiple sources of research (2 book sources, 3 journal articles, one
interview, one survey, and one governmental .gov or
educational .edu website). This will help
students become more aware of resources and methods of gaining information and
will also greatly limit the types of information that might be plagiarized.
Help ensure that students are
not purchasing or referencing other papers; design a list of topics that are
up-to-date (events and people in the news in the last month or two).
Require that students tie the
paper to the content found in the textbook (less likely to find direct-match
papers on term paper sites).
Have students write an
abstract for their paper (it will be more difficult for them to write an
abstract if they do not thoroughly understand the design of the paper).
Once the student has
submitted the paper or project, interview them to ask what they learned from
the assignment. Ask some probing questions about some of the sources used
and conclusions drawn in the assignment.
For major papers, it is
highly recommended to use the TurnItIn.com site to document possible
occurrences of plagiarism. The web-based software application allows the
instructor to upload the papers students have submitted, and then it runs a
comparison against other student papers, journal articles, books, and other
sources to create an originality report showing if the paper has word-for-word
matches with other sources.
One means of combating
plagiarism is to create common resources for the course.
For example, if students need
to write a research paper for the course, it is relatively easy exercise to
require students to locate and post academic journal articles on a specific topics as offered by the instructor.
These are posted to a discussion area of the course (so that all students can
see what has already been listed – to avoid duplication). The instructor
reviews the articles for credibility and applicability to the research paper
assignment and then further reduces the list by choosing only a couple sources
per student for the final compiled list. Then, students are required to
read the articles from the list and write their paper using only those sources
(cited appropriately).
This process helps the
instructor in two ways. First, it helps avoid the "purchased
paper" problem, since it will be extremely difficult to find a paper that
only uses the sources approved by the instructor. Second, it allows the
instructor to be familiar with the sources to ensure that students are properly
attributing and applying ideas.