Mitigating Cheating and Plagiarism

Office of Learning & TechnologyPurdue University North Central

Our Objectives

Implement various pedagogical strategies to teach students the importance of academic integrity

Use technology tools such as SafeAssign and Respondus LockDown Browser to help mitigate and prevent cheating and plagiarism

Identify new tools that may be available for preventing cheating such as Remote Proctor NOW

Academic Integrity Concerns about cheating

and plagiarism can be a big obstacle, and may limit our choices for assessment

Studies show that students may cheat less online than FTF (see http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring131/watson131.html)

Luckily, there are ways to use technology to help ensure that students are doing authentic work

Why Students Cheat There are lots of reasons

why a student might choose to cheat

Most commonly: They lack proper

knowledge The don’t understand

university policies They don’t understand the

seriousness The class is too high-

stakes Poor time management

skills

How Students Cheat For the “amateurs” (more commonly the case):

Copy and paste Homework and Answer-sharing sites (not always a bad

thing, but can lead to cheating) Taking pictures with smart phones

For the “pros” (far less common): Term paper mills Identity-swapping Lessons posted on YouTube (it’s true!)

See http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/solveproblem/strat-cheating/

What Can We Do? There are many ways that technology can

help us mitigate cheating: LockDown Browser Respondus Monitor SafeAssign Remote Proctor Now (new)

Some pedagogical strategies can help as well Help students with time management Tighten up the syllabus Send them to our online course in BlackBoard!

Lessons on Time Management Most students don’t set

out to cheat, but when time becomes the enemy they often feel too much pressure

Help students set up calendars and set aside time for study

Help students learn to prioritize

Keep in mind that they have other classes to study for, too!

Syllabus Changes Include the Academic

Integrity Policy in your syllabus

Take time to explain the policy in class

Ask students to complete a class contract at the beginning of the semester

If they think it’s important to you, they’re more likely to listen

Purdue Code of Conduct: http://www.purdue.edu/purdue/about/integrity_statement.html

Academic Affairs policy on Academic Integrity: https://www.pnc.edu/academic_affairs/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2013/05/Academic-Integrity.pdf

Lessons on Ethics Provide lessons on

ethics, paraphasing, and time management

Uses short videos and other attention-getting strategies

Allows students to explore what “academic integrity” really means at their own pace

Our Online course is available for both faculty and students

Tools for Preventing Cheating SafeAssign (BlackBoard assessment

to check student work for plagiarism) Respondus LockDown Browser

(for test-taking) Respondus Monitor (for remote

automated proctoring) Remote Proctor NOW (for remote

semi-automated proctoring) ProctorU (live proctoring)

SafeAssign

Included in all assignments in BlackBoard Checks written work against a database

Drafts should not be sent to the database otherwise final copies will be “100% plagiarized”

Shows you a score and specific areas that are questionable

May have false positives – 10% is about the tolerance for error You may wish to share your error tolerance

determination ahead of time to avoid panics!

SafeAssign

Set in Assignment settings -> Submission Details

Check in Needs Grading or Course Tools -> SafeAssign

Lockdown Browser Available through the

MyPNC portal Removes the ability to do

anything else on the computer except go to BlackBoard and start a test

Good for lab situations where everyone is in the same room together

Does not really mitigate cheating for those with access to multiple devices at home

Download link in MyPNC or at http://www.itap.purdue.edu/learning/tools/lockdown/

Get there: Course Tools -> Respondus Lockdown Browser

Respondus Monitor Available in BlackBoard –

set within Lockdown Browser Course Tool

Records the student taking the test through their webcam

Automatically walks students through the preparation process

You must watch the videos to review suspicious behavior

Only works with BlackBoard tests

Remote Proctor Now Available at an extra cost,

$15 per exam per student, picked up by your department (ask for authorization)

Semi-automated – the student activity and screen is recorded, but a human watches the recording and flags suspicious behavior for you

Easy to use, integrates with BlackBoard or works with other products like Pearson

ProctorU Live proctoring through the

Internet and a student’s webcam

Incurs a fee of $17-$25 depending on the length of the exam – students must pay this fee for each exam

Use only for extremely high-stakes tests, and be sure to warn students in the syllabus that there may be additional fees for the course

More info: http://www.pnc.edu/distance/proctoru

Resources for Addressing Academic Integrity OLT resource on cheating: http

://www.pnc.edu/distance/cheating/ Dean of Students incident reporting:

http://www.pnc.edu/sa/report-an-incident/ LockDown Browser information:

http://www.pnc.edu/distance/lockdown-browser-instructions/

Respondus Monitor information: http://www.pnc.edu/distance/monitor/

SafeAssign information: http://www.pnc.edu/distance/safeassign/

Remote Proctor NOW information: http://www.softwaresecure.com

Thanks!

Reach us: TECH 206 and 298 219-785-5734 pncolt@pnc.edu Twitter and Facebook: @PNCOLT http://www.pnc.edu/distance for all

workshop notes, links, and training needs