Technology and Plagiarism

Posted by in Uncategorized Dec 22nd, 2004

From AACE Journal.

"[I]nstructors typically fall behind their own students in degree of technological sophistication when it comes to matters of cheating. This gap in sophistication between students and their instructors is one of many pressing issues created by the rapid evolution of information technology in the university." In "Technology and Plagiarism in the University: Brief Report of a Trial in Detecting Cheating" (by Diane Johnson, et al., AACE JOURNAL, vol. 12, no. 3, 2004, pp. 281-299) the authors report on a trial set up at the University of California, Santa Barbara to test automated detection of term-paper plagiarism in a large, introductory undergraduate class. Although the study resulted in
only a few detected instances of student cheating, the authors speculate that, if extrapolated to all the courses taught at UCSB each year, "in the short run the number of cases of dishonesty caught and prosecuted could easily grow by an order of magnitude were electronic techniques widely used by faculty."

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