Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Proxima Centauri · 02-12-2003, 08:39 AM

Plagiarism has been called the Cancer of the Academic World. Lets
Discuss possible Cancer Therapy.

Thirty years ago undergraduate courses involved typically course work and examinations. A student's final qualification depended only on the result of unseen examinations. Today it is normal for projects and marked assignments contribute to a university degree. There is general agreement that the new system is better. I can see myself that today's students are better educated than I was. Graduates with first degrees have research skills which I have struggled to develop.
Yet this new system is under threat because too many students will not resist temptation to download material from the Internet instead of doing their own work. Sometimes work is copied from the Internet directly. Sometimes students use the Internet to send each other essays so the recipients are saved the trouble of doing work which they should do. Can computers be used to monitor and prevent this practice?
Well computer programmes already exist to search the Internet and check if a work copies anything already there. The technology already exists to compare one essay which a student has submitted with essays submitted at other Educational Establishments. The only problems I can see are economic and logistic problems. An Intranet would have to be set up or a section of the Internet would have to be set up. Students' marked assignments could be stored there. Existing programmes could be used to search through these stored marked assignments and test the originality of any paper. The biggest problem I can see is to develop cooperation between sufficiently many Educational Establishments so that the system would work. Possibly governments could help here.

Proxima Centauri · 02-12-2003, 08:54 AM

I would welcome constructive comments of any kind.
The above is the first draft of the first section of a project I plan to do on dealing with plagiarism. To me the above idea looks simple and obvious. In fact it it looks so obvious that I am surprised that, to my knowlege, no one is area already working in this area. If anyone knows of work already done in this area please post details and references and, if possible links.
I don't want to repeat what has already been done. More important, I don't want to be accused of, well, er... you know what I mean.

HaysooChreesto! · 02-12-2003, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by B.Shack
Plagiarism has been called the Cancer of the Academic World. Lets
Discuss possible Cancer Therapy.

Thirty years ago undergraduate courses involved typically course work and examinations. A student's final qualification depended only on the result of unseen examinations. Today it is normal for projects and marked assignments contribute to a university degree. There is general agreement that the new system is better. I can see myself that today's students are better educated than I was. Graduates with first degrees have research skills which I have struggled to develop.
Yet this new system is under threat because too many students will not resist temptation to download material from the Internet instead of doing their own work. Sometimes work is copied from the Internet directly. Sometimes students use the Internet to send each other essays so the recipients are saved the trouble of doing work which they should do. Can computers be used to monitor and prevent this practice?
Well computer programmes already exist to search the Internet and check if a work copies anything already there. The technology already exists to compare one essay which a student has submitted with essays submitted at other Educational Establishments. The only problems I can see are economic and logistic problems. An Intranet would have to be set up or a section of the Internet would have to be set up. Students' marked assignments could be stored there. Existing programmes could be used to search through these stored marked assignments and test the originality of any paper. The biggest problem I can see is to develop cooperation between sufficiently many Educational Establishments so that the system would work. Possibly governments could help here.

I've been working on this and though it's rather simple, I'm sruprised that no one else is really working on it. I'd welcome comments and suggestions.

Proxima Centauri · 02-12-2003, 09:23 AM

Can you tell us what you have been doing, Lamma?

HaysooChreesto! · 02-12-2003, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by B.Shack
Can you tell us what you have been doing, Lamma?

It's a joke Shack! I guess it wasn't very funny. Sorry.

Rusting Car Bumper · 02-12-2003, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by B.Shack
Plagiarism has been called the Cancer of the Academic World. Lets

B Shack,

Not to be picky but I'm a stickler for spelling. You misspelled a word when you said, "Plagiarism has been called the Cancer of the Academic World."

You spelled it P-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m when it should have been spelled:
p-o-s-t-m-o-d-e-r-n-i-s-m.

DC

I ate Pascal's Wafer · 02-12-2003, 11:48 AM

Can't we just expel anyone who plagiarizes? That should cut down on it quite a bit. If it doesn't, then at least we don't have to worry about them getting degrees until they do the work.

-Nick

Nikolai · 02-12-2003, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DigitalChicken
B Shack,

Not to be picky but I'm a stickler for spelling. You misspelled a word when you said, "Plagiarism has been called the Cancer of the Academic World."

You spelled it P-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m when it should have been spelled:
p-o-s-t-m-o-d-e-r-n-i-s-m.

DC

:notworthy

wade-w · 02-12-2003, 12:47 PM

Quote:

The only problems I can see are economic and logistic problems. An Intranet would have to be set up or a section of the Internet would have to be set up.

The infrastructure for this is already in place for at least some research universities. Its called "Internet II" and has been in existence since the late 90's. It is a very high speed network that is seperate from the backbones that comprise the traditional internet, and in 1999 connected about 100 universities in the US. I'm sure it has grown in the last 4 years.

dangin · 02-12-2003, 01:57 PM

Generally, you can simply cut and paste obvious passages from a paper into google and search and get hits if it is from a web paper generator.

academic chicanery will occur. Idiot students will still do it the most idiotically, and intelligent students (besides those with integrity who do their own work) will be harder to catch.

And the internet does not stop people from plagiarising unpublished or older texts. Nor does it stop anyone from simply hiring a paper written.

The best way to catch cheaters will remain the same as always. Get to know your students, and know what they are capable of so an amazing paper stands out as inconsistent with who they are.

This means teaching small classes and not 50 - 300 + student survey courses which is obviously not always an option. Besides in a huge survey course it is your GTA's responsibility to catch the cheaters.

02-12-2003, 08:39 AM	#1
Proxima Centauri Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: England, the EU. Posts: 2,403	Plagiarism has been called the Cancer of the Academic World. Plagiarism has been called the Cancer of the Academic World. Lets Discuss possible Cancer Therapy. Thirty years ago undergraduate courses involved typically course work and examinations. A student's final qualification depended only on the result of unseen examinations. Today it is normal for projects and marked assignments contribute to a university degree. There is general agreement that the new system is better. I can see myself that today's students are better educated than I was. Graduates with first degrees have research skills which I have struggled to develop. Yet this new system is under threat because too many students will not resist temptation to download material from the Internet instead of doing their own work. Sometimes work is copied from the Internet directly. Sometimes students use the Internet to send each other essays so the recipients are saved the trouble of doing work which they should do. Can computers be used to monitor and prevent this practice? Well computer programmes already exist to search the Internet and check if a work copies anything already there. The technology already exists to compare one essay which a student has submitted with essays submitted at other Educational Establishments. The only problems I can see are economic and logistic problems. An Intranet would have to be set up or a section of the Internet would have to be set up. Students' marked assignments could be stored there. Existing programmes could be used to search through these stored marked assignments and test the originality of any paper. The biggest problem I can see is to develop cooperation between sufficiently many Educational Establishments so that the system would work. Possibly governments could help here.

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02-12-2003, 08:54 AM	#2
Proxima Centauri Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: England, the EU. Posts: 2,403	I would welcome constructive comments of any kind. The above is the first draft of the first section of a project I plan to do on dealing with plagiarism. To me the above idea looks simple and obvious. In fact it it looks so obvious that I am surprised that, to my knowlege, no one is area already working in this area. If anyone knows of work already done in this area please post details and references and, if possible links. I don't want to repeat what has already been done. More important, I don't want to be accused of, well, er... you know what I mean.

02-12-2003, 09:23 AM	#4
Proxima Centauri Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: England, the EU. Posts: 2,403	Can you tell us what you have been doing, Lamma?

02-12-2003, 11:48 AM	#7
I ate Pascal's Wafer Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Florida Posts: 1,460	Can't we just expel anyone who plagiarizes? That should cut down on it quite a bit. If it doesn't, then at least we don't have to worry about them getting degrees until they do the work. -Nick

02-12-2003, 01:57 PM	#10
dangin Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: The Middle, Kansas Posts: 2,637	Generally, you can simply cut and paste obvious passages from a paper into google and search and get hits if it is from a web paper generator. academic chicanery will occur. Idiot students will still do it the most idiotically, and intelligent students (besides those with integrity who do their own work) will be harder to catch. And the internet does not stop people from plagiarising unpublished or older texts. Nor does it stop anyone from simply hiring a paper written. The best way to catch cheaters will remain the same as always. Get to know your students, and know what they are capable of so an amazing paper stands out as inconsistent with who they are. This means teaching small classes and not 50 - 300 + student survey courses which is obviously not always an option. Besides in a huge survey course it is your GTA's responsibility to catch the cheaters.

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