Dealing with Cheating and Plagiarism Mikhail Nesterenko Cheating

Dealing with Cheating and Plagiarism Mikhail Nesterenko

Cheating Definition "Cheat" means intentionally to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of academic work so as to accrue undeserved credit, or to cooperate with someone else in such misrepresentation. Such misrepresentations may, but need not necessarily, involve the work of others. As defined, cheating includes, but is not limited to: (a) Obtaining or retaining partial or whole copies of examination, tests or quizzes before these are distributed for student use; (b) Using notes, textbooks or other information in examinations, tests and quizzes, except as expressly permitted; (c) Obtaining confidential information about examinations, tests or quizzes other than that released by the instructor; (d) Securing, giving or exchanging information during examinations; (e) Presenting data or other material gathered by another person or group as one's own; (f) Falsifying experimental data or information; (g) Having another person take one's place for any academic performance without the specific knowledge and permission of the instructor; (h) Cooperating with another to do one or more of the above; and (i) Using a substantial portion of a piece of work previously submitted for another course or program to meet the requirements of the present course or program without notifying the instructor to whom the work is presented. (j) Presenting falsified information in order to postpone or avoid examinations, tests, quizzes, or other academic work. (policy 3342 -3 -01. 8) •

Plagiarism Definition KSU Counseling and Human Development Services definition: • "Plagiarize" means to take and present as one's own a material portion of the ideas or words of another or to present as one's own an idea or work derived from an existing source without full and proper credit to the source of the ideas, words, or works. As defined, plagiarize includes, but is not limited to: (a) The copying of words, sentences and paragraphs directly from the work of another without proper credit; (b) The copying of illustrations, figures, photographs, drawings, models, or other visual and nonverbal materials, including recordings, of another without proper credit; and (c) The presentation of work prepared by another in final or draft form as one's own without citing the source, such as the use of purchased research papers. (policy 3342 -3 -01. 8)

Attitude Towards Cheating • • • Cheating is unfair to students who honestly do the work and get the same grade your responsibility as instructor to deal with it – if not addressed, morale deteriorates, attitude towards the course and instructor worsens – being overly eager to catch cheaters, suspicious, inventing aggravating procedures to prevent cheating is just as harmful: students do not want to be treated as criminals. You are not a jailer, you are instructor best attitude: set up reasonable procedures, do not appear eager to catch cheaters (or to enjoy dealing with them), do not go out of your way cheater chasing, if caught – deal with them swiftly and fairly

Policies to Prevent Cheating • • often overlooked: design a reasonable (fair) course without surprises and with steady amount of work and interesting, engaging assignments: students will have less desire to cheat Consider old exams/homeworks compromised. change them from year to year. Significant change is not required. Just enough to make it confusing for cheaters who try to rote-memorize. Consider posting old exam. change a bit for makeups either make exam open book (is a bit strange), or make clear that it is closed book. Compose questions such that rote memorization is not required or rewarded programming projects – tempting to take somebody’s code. Change assignments a bit from year to year. Know that code that is copied is easy to notice. Warn TA to bring it to your attention. require doctor’s note for absences. Grandmother deaths are a common ruse. Err on the side of students, be willing to give reasonable extensions. if you have not seen somebody before taking an exam, ask for an ID

Discussing and Implementing Policy • • frank conversation in the first class goes a long way – do not repeat the legalistic university policy, state your own attitude mention what the consequences may be: – undergraduate (failing assignments, F in class) – graduate (F in class dismissal from program) NB: foreign students may come from cultures where cheating is more accepted. Worse yet, it is expected to hear official policies against cheating that are not enforced in practice. Possibly worth mentioning it – make sure you do not appear biased or prejudiced implementation should be simple and certain: tell students to close the books before the exam, etc.

Dealing with Cheaters • • • investigate first, make sure the offense occurred, do not rush to blame a person who may be innocent – note that if there is similar code – both parties are guilty (mention that at the beginning of the semester) consult senior colleague, dept. head – note that there is a bit of a responsibility shift game. Be prepared to take it, do not shift it to TA be prepared to follow through with your policy – do not cave to pity, do not be afraid to confront the student, ruin his/her career, believe i did not really know ruse – it is not a pretty part of the job, but a part of it nonetheless