Probing for Plagiarism in the Virtual Classroom

We are given a brief look at how a virtual classroom may combat plagiarism in this article. The record is set straight immediately in the article; there is no more cheating found in online or virtual classrooms than in a traditional setting. It is not a matter of, if students can cheat they will, rather it is the matter of, students who feel they need to cheat are going to do it in any setting they are in. The article then moves on to tell us of ways that the virtual classroom can work to fight against plagiarism. Methods such as timed online testing, frequent quizzes, discussion boards, and plagiarism detecting websites were just a few of the ways to create an environment that is less conducive to cheating. The issue of buying online term papers was brought up. Many solutions to this problem were presented to us in the article. There are now sites on the web that you can place your students’ papers into and it will run it through a database of “cheating” websites’ papers and come up with a probability that your student is cheating. This was just one example of ways to get rid of plagiarism and cheating, if you are an astute teacher and take even minimal steps toward keeping plagiarism out of your class you will be successful.

I personally believe that extreme measures need not be taken when probing for plagiarism in your students’ papers. When you read through them it is often quite obvious when students use material that they did not create themselves. Many times they are unaware of what constitutes plagiarism and need to be reminded. This could create a teachable moment for a teacher, proper citation could simply be a weak point for a student. I will not look to punish my students as a first option; they will be given a chance to correct their mistakes and make sure that it does not happen again. Blatant plagiarism such as buying papers online or using excessive amounts of other peoples’ work in your paper will have serious consequences. By high school all students have a general idea of what is acceptable and I will make sure that outright cheating is not tolerated. All students may have a weak moment when they feel they are under the gun and need to cheat to get by, but if I as a teacher do not punish cheating I am not doing my job.