DLA2007
FishBowl Summaries
Plagiarism Detection:
Methods, Issues & Approach
Facilitator: Liz Johnson, Advanced Learning Technologies, BOR
Monday, June 24, 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM
Studies show that plagiarism is increasing in academia. Some suggest that the Internet is a major cause of plagiarism and that distance learning courses, particularly online or hybrid courses have higher rates of plagiarism than on campus courses. If technology is encouraging plagiarism, can technology control it as well? The University System of Georgia has addressed this question by negotiating a discount for Turnitin plagiarism detection and prevention service for the past four years. Each year USG conducts a survey to gauge the perceived effectiveness of the service. This fish-bowl session is designed to augment the surveys by serving as a focus group to collect and analyze faculty and administrator opinions and attitudes on plagiarism, plagiarism detection, and plagiarism prevention. Below are some questions that were discussed and the responses:
1. Is plagiarism detection important? Why or why not?
The consensus was that plagiarism is quite important. Below are the comments:
Yes, if you want the work to be original.
It s important for students to know the instructor is paying attention.
Students’ feelings are hurt when their code is stolen online.
It is important to show fairness.
One institution reported 18% of non-original work when it first started using Turnitin dropped to 3% a few years later.
Blatant cheating is definitely important.
Students don’t know the fine line between collaboration and cheating.
Some faculty, use Turnitin for short answer questions, also.
Students wait until the last minute to post to a discussion forum and then copy from each other.
Students don’t understand that purchasing papers is plagiarism. They answer, “I paid $35 for this how can that be plagiarism?”
Some colleges are hostile to Turnitin.
Students don’t know how to paraphrase properly.
2. As an instructor is it your responsibility to police student plagiarism?
The consensus was that it can only be the instructor’s responsibility as the instructor has access to student work. Below are the comments:
Yes, but student are hostile.
It shows that you are paying attention.
Policing is too strong a word.
If we don’t who would?
It is a way for faculty to show they are doing their job
How much time does faculty have to do this? Make it a requirement for students to submit their papers themselves.
If instructors do not take this responsibility they are protecting other students. Students are angry when other students steal their work.
In one class programming code is posted online as part of the learning process. That instructor does not have to police the students, the students police each other.
Openness of assignments helps catch students by style.
In another class, assignments must be submitted as Word documents. A Word document will show the URL from where it was copied if you mouse over a phrase.
3. Do honor codes work?
There was more variation of opinion on this question, but most felt that honor codes help, although they are not sufficient.
Yes, if it spells out what is acceptable and what is not, and signed. It must define cheating.
Yes, if it is typed out by the students themselves.
No.
An honor code is only one tool. Institutions need to have a comprehensive system of preventing cheating.
Sometimes it seems that tools designed to prevent plagiarism can make it worse. Detecting plagiarism becomes a game.
Every class needs a section on ethics.
Students don’t think that copying content from the Internet is stealing. Students argue, “I didn’t steal it and I just moved it”
Do your conduct codes discuss online learning? If you don’t specifically mention that plagiarism is not allowed in online classes, students will argue that “You didn’t say I couldn’t.”
4. In your experience, do on campus or online students commit more plagiarism?
Most participants felt it was equal because even students in face to face courses have access to the internet. Below are some comments:
The Internet makes it easier to cheat, but it also makes it faster to check for plagiarism.
There are more opportunities (in online classes), but students cheat just as much in an on campus class.
On campus students have to look the teacher in the eye when turning in a paper. Online students don’t, so they are less daunted.
Students can critique each other more online and catch each other when another student is cheating. All students participate in plagiarism detection.
There are different levels of cheating. One institution is developing taxonomy of cheating. When adopting a plagiarism detection service such as Turnitin, at first there is a phase of learning to use the technology and then a phase where faculty must learn to take responsibility.
Students argue that since they rephrased the content they should get credit.
Online courses must define plagiarism, use APA formatting, and teach citation. Instructors use their discretion and offer a chance to redo the work. The second time a student plagiarizes; he/she will get an F.
Some faculty are surprised at the temerity of students. Students feel that if the teacher didn’t catch it, it should be okay.
Working with international institutions can be challenging where there is a different concept of cheating. Sharing is more common in some countries.
5. Where do students get their work?
Students plagiarized from paper mills, but only rarely because they can’t afford it. Mostly they plagiarized from other students on their campus such as through fraternity or sorority files and from open websites. But many students also plagiarize from papers of their friends on other campuses. Sometimes passages are borrowed from online journals. One student, when caught plagiarizing admitted it, but asked, “Can I get 50% for turning it in on time?” Below are some comments:
Guard instructor manuals or don’t use them. There can be a problem with graduate students having access to instructor manuals with answers in them.
In one case, a number of students turned in the same paper. How do you determine which one wrote the paper first? If faculty won’t address cheating, what does an administrator do? When does the Chair or Dean step in? Often the Chair or Dean becomes involved only when there is a disagreement between faculty and student.
No one outranks on ethical issues.
How do you tell if it is really the student? Do you check IDs in a classroom? Why should we check IDs online when we don’t do it in a classroom?
At some institutions, students must wear IDs all the time.
Sometimes twins (or triplets!) take the same class and it can be impossible to tell them apart.
One institution’s survey showed that 100% of students knew what plagiarism was, but 85% thought taking work online was not plagiarism.
Different countries have different styles.
What about instructor integrity? Instructors are plagiarizing from themselves when they copy assignments over and over. They should be more creative.
It takes instructors a long time to check for plagiarism, so they give up.
6. Do you use technology to detect plagiarism? If so, what do you use?
Most session participants used Turnitin, some used Google. None had heard of MyDropBox. One institution preferred Turnitin because it will search for matches across the University System.
Online Class Size
Facilitators:
Lee Freeman, University of Michigan – Dearborn
John Krutsch, Utah Valley State College
Sandy Mills-Alford, AliveTek
Tuesday, June 26, 2007, 9:00 AM – 9:45 AM
After a short introduction of the facilitators and the topic in general, the discussion started by looking at current maximum enrollment numbers used at various schools. The range of the maximum was 15-25, with actual enrollments from 10-12 up to 50 and beyond, though only one participant had personally taught an online class with more than 25 students. Many schools provide TAs or other support once enrollment surpasses a certain number.
From a student perspective, satisfaction is stronger with smaller classes and success is greater. The difficult part is the financial justification. Some states are beginning to fund virtual classrooms and distance learning either in addition to or instead of physical infrastructure funding.
Much of the conversation centered on the idea that it is very difficult to come up with a single number. The ideal enrollment number is dependent on the type of course, the content of the course, the teaching style, the amount and types of assessments, the balance between synchronous and asynchronous learning, the use of small groups, the expectations within discussions in terms of quantity and quality, and many other factors. Several participants pointed out that there are advantages to having larger discussion groups or classes as a whole – those that are not early participants in the discussions are required to think even harder about their postings and come up with counter arguments, alternative opinions, disagreements, etc. and therefore move deeper into the content and learn more as a result.
In the end, a guiding principle when determining online class size should be: Big enough to be dynamic and small enough to manage.
Reaching Beyond the Blackboard:
Strategies for Motivating and Retaining First-Term Online Students
Facilitators:
Carol Forrey, Kaplan University
Carolyn Stevenson, Kaplan University
Ludmila Battista, Kaplan University
Tuesday, June 26, 10:00 AM – 10:45 AM
This fishbowl session began with instructions from the participants (17). All participants received Kaplan “stress balls”, pens, and received candy when participating. Participants included both faculty and administrators from technical, two-year, and four-year institutions.
During this fishbowl session, participants engaged in the following discussion questions:
- What are some ways your institution performs outreach for poor performing or non-engaging students?
Suggestions included: calling students, providing an academic advisor, monitoring student progress both in terms of progress as well as logging in to classes. Email was a common way of reaching out to students: both via the institutional email account as well as students’ personal email. Online tutoring, such as Smarthinking, is another way of reaching out to poor-performing students. Student mentoring and student coaching were also discussed.
- Discuss ways your institution promotes community building among students.
Online student clubs and activities were discussed. Some ideas for online clubs included a virtual basketball game, newsletter, student website, nontraditional student club, and student mentors. Empowering students to have an active role in the institution through organizations can assist in both student retention as well as increase enthusiasm for learning. Student organizations also sponsored college or university-wide events such as sponsoring contests for all students.
- Does your institution offer a freshmen seminar or mandatory new student orientation? Discuss these programs.
Several institutions offer a new student orientation. There was a mixed number of both mandatory and non-mandatory orientation sessions. Making a new student orientation session mandatory does increase engagement for first term students.
- Discuss ways instructors can assist in the retention process for first-term students. Do first-term instructors receive addition compensation or training? What are some of the creative classroom initiatives used by your institution’s first-term instructor?
Instructor training and professional development of online instructors was critical to the success of online students. Several institutions commented that the instructor maintained a major role in both retention and student success. Course development by instructors constituted additional compensation. Tenure faculty, those ready to retire, were often resistant to teaching online. Willing, qualified instructors should teach in an online format. Online teaching should not be mandatory for instructors not willing to teach in this format. Compensation for online teaching was typical higher than classroom instruction. However, it was noted that teaching online is more labor-intensive than the face-to face setting.
- Discuss challenges your institution faces with retention of first-term students and ways your institution has addressed these issues?
Retention of online students was a challenge for many institutions. First term students posed a greater challenge, especially for open enrollment institutions. The student demographics for online students were very similar across institutions: adult learners; balancing work, family and college responsibilities. Consensus was reached that getting student beyond the first term was the greatest challenge. Organizations, student mentors, aggressive outreach were tools to attempt to engage students and increase overall retention.
- What are some of the student support services offered for online students? (i.e. tutoring, counseling, job placement, etc.)
Several institutions provided career coach and job assistance advisors fro students. One institution offers a “career fair* built into the classes on the platform. The career fair promotes the theme “The Million Dollar Difference” and includes the financial value of achieving a college degree. Other institutions promoted professional organizations, sample salaries, types of jobs, and internships.
- Does your institution offer remedial or development courses for students not academically prepared for college? Discuss these initiatives.
Several institutions offered developmental courses, typically in writing and math. Developmental courses were both credit and non-credit courses. Students are often assessed prior to the start of classes regarding strengths and weaknesses in various subject areas.
The group was highly engaged and offered ideas freely. We thank you for the opportunity and for the participants’ enthusiasm!
Evidence-Based Decision Making for Distance E-Learning
Facilitators:
Gloria Pickar, Compass Knowledge Learning
Tim Matthews, Eastern Kentucky University
Tom Schneid, Eastern Kentucky University (reporter)
Tuesday, June 26, 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM
After the initial introductions, the discussion was initiated with the question,
“How do you evaluate the opportunity cost of distance e-learning decisions?” Tim Matthews provided an overview of the decision-making process at Eastern Kentucky University which evoked numerous questions regarding the decision-making process, the differences between large and small schools, and the drivers for e-learning programs. Gloria Pickar from Compass Knowledge Learning discussed the evaluation process for programs, the marketplace assessment methodology and the scoring system utilized when assessing the feasibility of online programs. An assessment tool was provided to the participants and each category was discussed in detail. A very lively discussion evolved regarding the culture, goals and purpose of an online program as well as university branding, analysis of marketplace competition and application processes.
The second area of discussion involved, “How does your institution decide which degree or certification programs will be offered online?” Again, there was a lively discussion regarding the different programs ranging from a theology online program to the new Air Force online program. Program goals, cultures and funding sources were discussed in detail.
At this point, we were already 10 minutes beyond our allotted time. Prizes were awarded to the participants. If time would have permitted, the following additional areas would have been explored:
- Do online programs just “bubble up” or do you use an evidence-based research process to determine priority and strength of each opportunity?
- For those who indicate that are more likely to “bubble up” (or down), please describe some typical scenarios regarding how this happens? Who are the influencers? Who decides?
- What are the risks with this process?
- How do you get buy-in from the President, Provost, Dean and CFO? Does the board of Trustees get involved? What does it take to convince all of these stakeholders?
- For those who take an evidence-based market research approach, what data do you examine? What are your data sources.
- Besides the marketplace, what other factors do you consider? What other factors do you think should be considered?
- What are the marketplace, enrollment, academic, and financial benchmarks you use (or would recommend) to predict and evaluate success?
- What are the demand drivers for your online degree or certificate program? What do you know about your competition?
Organization of Student Interaction
Facilitator: Michael B. Leamy
Tuesday, June 26, 2007, 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM
The Fishbowl Sessions yielded a lot of dynamic conversation among the participants drawing from their own experiences and the following is a summary of the notes taken from the session.
The group believes that the key to successful engagement of students in distance education is the feeling of involvement, support and general comfort. We looked at these issues in the stages from the development of the courses and throughout the course itself. The session almost worked as a best practices timeline which starts with design of interaction for students and built in support and student comfort with orientation courses prior to the start of a course. The group also believes that students need access to the instructor and the course prior to the class. From here there can be a sharing of expectations and course structure.
The group was also pretty confident that faculty needs to be proactive in addressing online students. There were thoughts to use technology to enhance what students were learning through audio, video or more advanced features but all must be made available to students prior to the semester so that they are comfortable in the course itself. Finally was the group belief that instructors need to regularly follow up with monitoring and assessing students on a regular basis. This will provide follow up to the earlier mentioned expectations and also ensure the management of student interactions.
Death of Teacher: Deterritorialization of Learning
Facilitator: Lawrence Ita, ForensicXperts.com
Tuesday, June 26, 2:00 PM -2:45 PM:
Concepts:
Deterritorialization …
Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995), professor of philosophy at Universite de Paris
Felix Guattari (1930-1992), psychotherapist at La Borde Clinique
… the obstacle that prevents social relations from developing is always the interest of some third party in the relation; conventions, values, expectations, economic structures, and political entities, whether real or imaginary, provide a script for social agents who merely play out the roles. …(Goodchild, 1996).
Articulation …
Michel Foucault (1926-1984), professor of philosophy at University of California, Berkeley
Example of concept application:
7 Good Teaching Principles (1987)
Arthur Chickering (),
Zelda Gamson (),
- encourages contact between students and faculty,
- develops reciprocity and cooperation among students,
- encourages active learning,
- gives prompt feedback,
- emphasizes time on task,
- communicates high expectations, and
- respects diverse talents and ways of learning.
References:
Goodchild, P. (1996). Deleuze & Guattari: An introduction to the politics of desire. London, SAGE Publications.
Chickering, A. W., Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. Retrieved June 26, 2007 at http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge. Brighton: Harvester
Discussion Questions:
Question 1: Studies of the usefulness of technology in learning have regularly reported that regardless of the type of technology employed … studies found “no significance difference” to measures of learning. The only common factor in these studies has been TEACHER. Is it fair to conclude that the teacher has been the problem?
Discussion 1:
- Artificial intelligence. We are also distributed entities. Robotics is built as a system of networks. If you look at the individual piece, you cannot see the piece which controls the group behavior. Little social. Its based on cybernetics. Teacher is moving into facilitator role.
- Studies reflect that instructional design is the key differentiator. The instructional design. The content is also deterritorialized from territory of control by teacher
- I think the teacher has something to do. Even though he’s on top of the technology, he is not communicating and so the technology would make no difference.
- Basic teaching is communication. Pedagogy is at the base of it. High school is demanding technology. If you don’t have an instructor who can teach it effectively, then students just sit and watch.
- If the instructional design is lacking, if a car has not been structured properly. To me teacher is another technology that we use to deliver. I can take the same students of students with the same equipment, but the way that they communicate. Sometimes audio is not well recorded eg.. teacher is disseminating information. Everything is a component.
- Do you think sometimes its better to have no teacher than a bad teacher.
- One teacher, well published and intelligent, a barrier of a wealth of knowledge and lost everybody within minutes. He was great at answering questions that you have prepared once you figure out from your own reading.
- Above and beyond ID, it is important if they are required to learn a particular content, like electricians in the real world.
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Question 2: What benefits accrue to student learning from the binary articulation of Student and Content- Technology?
Discussion 2:
- I see it as a demand. They can schedule their own time. Students can learn by themselves. However students may not know what they want. Resources are huge now. Example Intro in MIS. You can choose to learn the material in any sequence. You can finish at your own pace. Most students are full time students. I make everything available throughout the semester but they tend to follow the sequence as laid out.
- Some instructors have a schedule of tests and they can do at their pace. K-12 are capable of moving as fast.
- We have a community college high school. I notice that some high school students are not ready and sufficiently mature for the college credits they are taking.
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Question 3: What political or ideological issues would follow the transformation of teacher into a technology?
Discussion 3:
- Loss control.
- Everyone wants control.
- From the student perspective, students want a teacher otherwise why are they paying for it.
- Look at learning outcomes. In most cases, it is what the teacher plans to teach and not necessarily what the student plans to learn. In earlier times, teacher taught morals, values … Now parents are responsible for all that. Teacher has no role besides information.
- Parents do not have the time and both parents are working and what role does teacher have in such a case?
I have a hard time as a high school teacher with some students because parents of these students don’t discipline them at home and they have no idea what discipline means.
