teaching about online plagiarism

[Ellen Ullman]

I am looking for educators to answer the following question for the Nov issue of Cable in the Classroom Magazine:

How do you teach students to avoid plagiarism when they use the Web?

[Steve Hargadon]

Ellen:

I think you might get a better response at www.classroom20.com/.

[Ellen Ullman]

Thanks, Steve!

[Mary Hricko]

Obviously, it is important to spend some time in class to go over Internet plagiarism. There are tons of links and handouts that are available all ove the net. I have even found quizzes to use as discussion points.

It is really important to go over the university policies and expalin to students (as a review) what constitutes Internet plagiarism. But that's hardly enough....

For my class, it's all about building assignments that will prevent plagiarism.

For example, to prevent students from downloading papers for my class, I give them an assignment that requires specific bibliographical resources...in otherwords, a scripted "works cited" page created by me.

It's really hard to find a paper that matches the script--which requires specific types of documents, from specific authors.

I also have students annotate their works cited page. They hate me for it, but I have yet to receive a downloaded paper.

As for the whole "cut and paste" challenge, I create assignments that bring forth the students' own personal experience through the project. it's hard to find online material about yourself that you can "cut and paste" into a document without proper citation.

I also have students check each other's "works cited" resources and a post assignment. If students have improperly cited materials, we will know immediately.

[Ellen Ullman]

Thanks, Mary. This is great stuff. Unfortunately, I have finished my story, but if we cover it again I'll be sure to add your info.