Scaling anti‐plagiarism efforts to meet the needs of large online computer science classes: Challenges, solutions, and recommendations.
Background: Plagiarism is a very serious offence in academic institutions. Yet there is some reluctance to address plagiarism by educators as its enforcement can require a significant time commitment if not handled wisely. Handling plagiarism at scale has the potential to exacerbate this problem. Ob...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Computer Assisted Learning Vol. 38; no. 6; pp. 1603 - 1620 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | algorithm computer program research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Wiley-Blackwell
Dec2022
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | Background: Plagiarism is a very serious offence in academic institutions. Yet there is some reluctance to address plagiarism by educators as its enforcement can require a significant time commitment if not handled wisely. Handling plagiarism at scale has the potential to exacerbate this problem. Objectives: This article explores the challenges educators face when it comes to enforcing plagiarism from within the course environment, presents a solution that addresses these challenges, and provides guidelines for preventing and detecting plagiarism in our at‐scale courses. Methods: A workflow is shared which was created from our experience of handling plagiarism within our large online computer science graduate level program. We present an empirical study of this workflow that shows the overall prevalence of misconduct. Results and Conclusions: Results demonstrate this workflow being effectively and efficiently applied to address plagiarism across four courses and three semesters by a single individual working half time. We have observed that warnings on low‐stakes assignments can be very effective at deterring future misconduct. We have also observed that cases come to a quicker resolution when students readily acknowledge their own misconduct after being promptly notified. Takeaways from the study: Plagiarism should not only be managed through institution wide policies, but also through effective strategies implemented in the course environment. This is particularly important when handling plagiarism at scale. Addressing plagiarism starts in the course and therefore effective strategies for handling it there are needed. Lay Description: What is currently known about the subject matter?The area of plagiarism in at scale academic programs as a whole is relatively young.Many questions have been raised about the prevalence of cheating in remote classes.The past several years has seen the growth of at‐scale online programs.Little evidence exists that shows cheating is more common in online courses than face‐to‐face. What this paper adds to this?We present some of the challenges we encounter in handling plagiarism in our at scale courses.We present a workflow for handling plagiarism derived from our experience in our courses.We address both code and essay plagiarism as our program is in computer science.We present results over the last three semesters of addressing plagiarism through this workflow. The implications of study findingsWe show that prompt warnings on low‐stakes assignments lead to a reduced rate of plagiarism.We show that cases can be handled efficiently through appropriate intervention strategies.We show that cheating can be significantly reduced through careful course design.We provide generalizable guidelines to address plagiarism in at‐scale programs. |
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