November 2001 — Features

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e-cheating: Combating a 21st Century Challenge

By Kim McMurtry

8. Consider subscribing to a plagiarism search service, like Plagiarism.org or IntegriGuard. For example, Plagiarism.org compares a student's text to its database of papers as well as to Internet databases and Web pages, providing a report highlighting exact phrase matches and links to the matching pages. The annual fee for this service is $150, plus $1 per document, purchased in $50 blocks. Plagiarism.org provides a free trial service of five documents, so at least try it out. IntegriGuard (www.integriguard.com) offers two ways of combating plagiarism. Its HowOriginal.com site works just like Plagiarism.org's service: submit a paper, it compares it to its database of papers as well as to Web searches and provides a report showing any matching phrases it finds. IntegriGuard also offers a $4.95 per month service through its PaperBin.com site. The instructor pays the monthly fee, and all of the instructor's students submit their own papers to the site. These papers get added to IntegriGuard's paper database, and the instructor receives an e-mail report if it detects that any of the papers have been plagiarized. I also routinely use HowOriginal.com because it's free and I have found it effective.

E-cheating is quick, easy and very tempting for students. I encourage educators to be aware of the possibilities and do what they can to help students maintain academic integrity.

To Cheat or Not to Cheat...

Here are some quotes from college students that exemplify the problem, as reported in U.S. News & World Report (Kleiner and Lord 1999):

- After lifting a paper from the Web and turning it in, a student at the University of Alabama said: "I realize that it's wrong, but I don't feel bad about it, either, partly because I know everyone else is doing it."

- And after copying a friend's programming assignment and turning it in, a student at Duke University said: "... there are times that you cheat because there aren't enough hours in the day. ... I understood how to do it; I just didn't have the time."

References

Bushweller, Kevin. 1999. "Generation of Cheaters." The American School Board Journal, April. Online: www.asbj.com/199904/0499coverstory.html.

Kleiner, Carolyn, and Mary Lord. 1999. "The Cheating Game: 'Everyone's Doing It,' From Grade School to Graduate School." U.S. News & World Report, November 2, 55-66.

Lupton, Robert A., Kenneth J. Chapman and John E. Weiss. "A Cross-National Exploration of Business Students' Attitudes, Perceptions, and Tendencies Toward Academic Dishonesty." Journal of Education for Business, 75 (4): 231-235.

Renard, Lisa. "Cut and Paste 101: Plagiarism and the Net." Educational Leadership, 57 (4): 38-42.

Standler, Ronald B. 2000. Plagiarism in Colleges in USA. Online: www.rbs2.com/plag.htm.

For a listing of Web paper mills visit:

www.thejournal.com/magazine/mcmurtry