Plagiarism in the Online Environment

·  What plagiarism detection software is available to online instructors?

In my experience, unfortunately, online students DO cheat.  There are many software companies that specialize in creating programs that will help detect plagiarism.  For example, Turnitin.com looks online through search engines and can even populate results within its own database in a company for all papers scanned previously.  Another is EVE (Essay Verification Engine), but it is not as widely used.  Another way to search for academic dishonesty is to just do a free Google search.  Copy and paste in parts that seem suspicious and see what Google brings up (Jacoy & DiBiase, 2006)

·  How can the design of assessments help prevent academic dishonesty?

Assessments need to use higher order thinking questions in order to avoid academic dishonesty.  When you have students recalling information from the content only, you are running the risk of them Googling the answers.  If you have them writing their opinions and then providing evidence from the content to back up their responses, it is harder for them to cheat.  Also, creating questions that are new and somewhat different from time-to-time keeps the students on their toes and never able to find the definitive answer.

·  What facilitation strategies do you propose to use as a current or future online instructor?

In the video presentation, it was suggested that we create collaborative assignments, which will help negate “cheating” in the technical sense (Palloff & Pratt).  However, I think that I would just rather include instruction on plagiarism up front to my students to help prevent it.  According to the study performed by Jocoy and DiBiase (2006), though, it didn’t seem to reduce plagiarism significantly.  I think I will create a short quiz/survey, like they did, to assess student understanding to see if they understand the basics though.

·  What additional considerations for online teaching should be made to help detect or prevent cheating and plagiarism?

I think that instructors need to keep in mind that students do cheat – even in the online sector.  Even though we do not SEE it in person, we have to understand how readily information can be found on the Internet.  We always need to keep on top of all the new technologies our students are using (like Yahoo! Answers) and report when we can to remove this information.  We are on the front line battling online plagiarism and must not only educate, but remove poor sources.

Resources

Jocoy, C., & DiBiase, D. (2006). Plagiarism by adult learners online: A case study in detection and remediation. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 7(1), 1–15.

Video: “Plagiarism and Cheating” (approximate length: 10 minutes).
Dr. Palloff and Pratt discuss effective methods for dealing with plagiarism in distance education.

Technology and Online Learning Environments

• What impact does technology and multimedia have on online learning environments?

Technology and multimedia are making online learning environments more interactive.  They are helping to build a sense of community through discussion boards, exposing learners to speakers they would otherwise never meet through multimedia, and overall teaching students how to navigate in a web-driven world (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010).

• What are the most important considerations an online instructor should make before implementing technology?

I think a major consideration is that an instructor should not overestimate the knowledge of their students.  In the video from this week’s learning resources, it was interesting that they asked to a group of professionals if they knew what a wiki was – and not many did.  They bring up an interesting point of that we just expect people to know what these technologies are because they’re so prominent in our lives, but that we cannot just assume that our students know what they are and how to use them (Palloff & Pratt).  It is our responsibility to teach the new technologies and provide activities that allow students to become more familiar with the Web 2.0 tools. 

• What implications do usability and accessibility of technology tools have for online teaching?

Basically, if the student cannot use or access the technology – it is not helpful.  There are very few other ways to really explain this.  We are responsible for making sure that the students have access to the technologies on our site.  For example, we need to check the links on various web browsers to make sure they are accessible – and this is important for each time the course is run.  Web links change daily.  I experienced this recently when I made an online course.  Within a week of the course running, an online survey I was using from another person changed and I had to modify my turn-in form.  The usability is also important because we do not want our students to struggle with the technology.  The technology should complement the content and not take over.

• What technology tools are most appealing to you for online teaching as you move forward in your career in instructional design?

To me, I’m most excited about wikis.  I think that the collaboration involved in creating a “living document” is intriguing.  Also, I really like the idea of an app for the online course management system.  I think that students should have complete access to their work and in any format they deem suitable.  For students to use mobile technologies, which they are most familiar with, to do their course work, I see as an asset.  Using any tool to motivate students to do their work is essential.

• Synthesis of thoughts with regards to the significance of technology in an online learning environment.

All in all, I learned so much that would help me implement effective online instruction through these chapters.  I’m about to start my second online teaching job with Florida Virtual School tomorrow and I’ve learned so much about how to management my CMS.  We use Elluminate as our synchronous chat and I plan to actually use them this time so that I can help my students “live.”  I will be giving them a Google Voice number so they can text me their questions, as well (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010).  Mostly, as you can see, I’ve learned the importance of feedback in an online learning environment and I plan on trying to find ways to provide quick and meaningful feedback to my students.