In addition to the more indirect
strategies discussed on the previous page, there
are some direct strategies that GSIs and faculty have traditionally employed
to prevent dishonesty. These strategies tend to work best with that small
group of students who are deliberately dishonest in cases where they calculate
the odds of getting caught to be relatively small.
Papers
Discussing academic honesty
serves dual functions: it demystifies academic dishonesty by allowing
students to ask questions and clear up worries about accidental dishonesty,
and it applies peer pressure on students not to plagiarize. Two issues
that should be discussed are:
Unacceptable practices and
their definitions, to make sure that students understand the issues.
The problem of academic
dishonesty. Give them some anonymous examples, explaining how the cases
were detected and what disciplinary measures were applied. Also, make
available a copy of Academic
Honesty--A Guide for Students [rtf]*, the
student handbook published by the Office of Student Life.
Many dishonest practices use
electronic resources. Students often feel that GSIs and faculty are less
likely to catch such dishonesty because they have not yet "caught
up with the information age." Students are often unaware of how easy
it is to detect papers that have been downloaded or copied and pasted
from the Web. Make students aware of your knowledge of online sources
and the practice of copying from them:
Discuss the existence of
search engines such as plagiarism.org
and Eve,
which are designed to detect passages cut and pasted from the Web or
bought from paper mills. This information can also be helpful to students
who are worried about accidentally plagiarizing when working with electronic
resources. Some engines allow students to submit their own papers free
of charge. (See the section on detecting plagiarism
for more details and the addresses of some useful websites.)
Have all written work submitted
directly to an online anti-plagiarism site. This procedure is easy to
implement as students simply submit their paper directly to the website.
This option requires departmental cooperation as some of the sites charge
for their services.
Traditionally, instructors
have also employed the following sorts of strategies:
Require students to submit
a copy of their rough notes or a draft of their paper either before
the paper is due, or with the paper itself. Alternatively, require that
students keep a copy of such notes and be prepared to produce them upon
request.
Break assignments into stages.
Require students to submit a thesis statement, then a first draft, then
a final draft. Grade or comment on the assignment at each stage and
require that the next submission reflect comments made on the previous
one. (A fortunate side-effect is that you will be likely to receive
better papers if students follow these steps.)
Create specific and meaningful
paper topics and assignments, and do not repeat them from year to year.
Allow students to choose
their own topics only in close consultation with you.
If it is not possible to
vary assignments significantly, keep copies of 'A' papers submitted
in past years.
Require students to include
a bibliography with their papers.
Relate paper topics to local
or topical issues, or ask students to discuss a personal experience
in relationship to a topic.
Exams
Teachers have also traditionally
used the following strategies to deter academic dishonesty in exams and
tests:
Pay attention to how students
are seated. Do not allow students to sit beside one another if possible.
Ideally, there should be one or two seats between each student and no
student should sit directly behind another student. Watch for groups
of friends sitting together, and students sitting at the back of the
room or in hard-to-observe corners.
Check students' identification
cards. Students may try to get others who are better versed in the subject
to take the exam or test in their place. Advise students that you are
going to do this in advance..
If possible, have more than
one person proctoring the exam, with at least one person watching to
see if students are trying to read others' work.
Ask students to clear the
memory on their calculators, put mobile phones away, store bags under
the seats (not on the floor beside them or on the seat), ask students
to remove baseball caps.
Take note of how long students
are absent if they leave the room, or, if there are enough proctors,
send someone with them.
If blue books are used,
collect empty blue books at the beginning of the exam and redistribute
them to different students, or ask students to leave certain pages blank,
or 'X' out particular pages, etc.
Collect exams from students
rather than allowing them to rush to hand them in at the end. Make a
record of who turns their exam in at the time that you collect them.
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