Strategies For Detecting Plagiarism
Not all students will be amenable to strategies to discourage plagiarism (Whitley and Keith-Spiegel, 2002). Some students intentionally cheat and a number of good software packages are now available to scan electronically-submitted assignments.
UTS has a license to the online plagiarism detection software Turnitin.com which is accessed through UTSOnline. Turnitin assignments can be set up in any of the UTSOnline content areas for staff and students to submit digital assignments for scanning. The instructor can nominate for students to have access to their own originality reports and allow resubmission of assignments. A completed report is usually in your class assignment inbox within 5 minutes. It is then up to the lecturer to determine for themselves whether any copied material is plagiarised.
The use of online plagiarism detection software allows you to collect the evidence required by your Subject Coordinator and Responsible Academic Officer. Alternative means of collecting the extent to which the work submitted is a verbatim copy of another work and the level of acknowledgement of the work of others are:
– Copy suspicious phrases into http://www.google.com.au
– Require multiple drafts of essays to be submitted at the same time
– Require students to submit photocopies of source material
– Spot check passages against the source
– Retain copies of assignments
– Watch for fluctuations in writing style or very high quality phrasing
– Compare assignments between groups in subjects with multiple markers
The UTS Students' Association is concerned with the punitive use of electronic plagiarism detection software and encourage all staff to explore the possibilities in the software for providing feedback to students that will improve their academic practices. For example, turnitin.com has an option for students to submit their work for scanning in which they have 24 hours to modify their text and ensure that all reference material is correctly attributed.
Reference
Whitley, B. E., & Keith-Spiegel, P. (2002). Academic Dishonesty: An Educator’s Guide. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.