Plagiarism Instruction Online: Assessing Undergraduate Students’ Ability to Avoid Plagiarism

Abstract

This study assesses undergraduate students' understanding of plagiarism through the use of an interactive, Web-based tutorial, Plagiarism: The Crime of Intellectual Kidnapping. The author details the instructional design process used to create this information literacy resource and integrate it into the curriculum. Data from 2,829 student quiz scores are analyzed to assess student learning. The results of this study indicate that students have difficulty grasping concepts related to paraphrasing. A comparative analysis of pre-and posttest results shows that student scores improved an average of 6 percent.ampuses nationwide are increasingly aware of plagiarism problems in academic communities. Studies conducted by the Center for Academic Integrity point to an increase in plagiarism, with over 75 percent of students admi ing to some cheating.

Teaching International Students How to Avoid Plagiarism: Librarians and Faculty in Collaboration

“…They especially need more opportunities to practice paraphrasing, in order to develop a better understanding of the concept and be able to apply it in their own texts. This result is supported by a larger study carried out at San José State University (Jackson, 2006). It shows that such difficulties could be a cause of possible misuse of information sources.…”

“…A study carried out at San José State University (Jackson, 2006) showed that students lacked the ability to apply the concept of paraphrasing in practice; they consequently need more opportunities to practice paraphrasing in order to develop a better understanding of the concept and to be able to apply it in their own texts. In her literature review, Jackson points to previous research which shows that students do not understand the concept of plagiarism and lack the knowledge and skills to avoid it.…”

“…Insufficient language skills, a lack of skills for using information (e.g. citing, paraphrasing and referencing) (Hendricks & Quinn, 2000;Jackson, 2006), unfamiliarity with Western scholarly traditions and pressure to achieve study results are cited to be causes of plagiarism (Duff, Rogers, & Harris, 2006). In her review of literature on international students and textual borrowing practices, Amsberry (2009) shows that reasons for plagiarism are complex and multifaceted, with many aspects to consider when addressing this issue.…”

What Are They Learning? Pre- and Post-Assessment Surveys for LIBR 1100, Introduction to Library Research

“…The results of the study indicated that the students had "difficulty grasping concepts related to paraphrasing." 4 Also, the post-test results showed a 6 percent improvement in student scores over the pre-test results. Karl Woodworth and Linda Markwell report in a 2005 article on the results of an Ovid MEDLINE pre-test given to incoming residents at Emory University's School of Medicine.…”

Improving knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the nursing faculty members and postgraduate students towards plagiarism in academic writing

“…A study accomplished at the San José State University by Jackson [24] presented that the students had inability to apply the concept of paraphrasing in practice; they consequently need extra chances for training to practice paraphrasing to be able to apply it in their texts. In addition, these results were supported by Idiegbeyanose et al [25] results who found a significant positive relationship at r = 0.294 and p < .05, between knowledge and practice that implies when awareness increases, practices will also improve.…”