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Around Tappan Square
Go to Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 of AROUND TAPPAN SQUARE
The
Business of Cheating Stirs New Solutions
Mellon and Hewlitt Foundation grants propose to keep students honorable.
By Yvonne Gay
When
122 University of Virginia students were accused of cheating on
term papers in an introductory physics course last spring, faculty
members throughout the collegiate community were initially stunned,
but upon reflection, not surprised after all. With a click of the
mouse to Genius-papers.com, AcaDemon.com, or several other "bargain-price"
mills, students can have a term paper delivered faster than a Domino's
pizza.
Fortunately
there are web sites that allow suspecting professors to pinpoint
such Internet plagiarism. TurnItIn.com, Plagiarism.com, Paperbin.com,
and HowOriginal.com promote themselves as tools to "ensure academic
integrity." In the UVA cases, physics professor Louis Bloomfield
acted upon a tip from a student who, upset over a low grade, alleged
that some higher-scoring classmates had cheated. Bloomfield ran
1,800 papers--five semesters' worth--through a computer detection
program. To his astonishment, the site red-flagged 60 papers that
matched exactly with online sources.
Oberlin faculty and administrators do not deny that some instances of plagiarism exist on campus. Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith maintains that misuse of web resources may be inadvertent, however, and that students may not understand the fundamental standards of academic citation.
So what distinguishes plagiarism from research? Students are about to learn.
Professors
are now being urged to work with College librarians to create or
revise courses to incorporate information literacy--teaching students
how to find, evaluate, and use information. A prototype course is
under way in the Women's Studies program, where one of the tools
includes "The Women's Studies Guide to Citation," written by associate
professor Wendy Kozol and reference librarian/instruction coordinator
Jessica Grim.
The
course revisions are funded by a three-year, $475,000 Mellon Grant
awarded to Oberlin and four other colleges last year for literacy
programming training.
"In
library instruction sessions, we often emphasize the ethics of using
information," says Cynthia Comer, head of reference and instruction
at the Main College Library in Mudd. "This includes understanding
the ethical, legal, and socio-economic issues surrounding information
and information technology, and the importance of acknowledging
the use of information sources in one's research, work, or performance."
Another
program, still in its infancy, will offer seminars for first-year
students. Intimate classroom settings in a variety of subject areas
will emphasize discussion, writing, and the ethics of scholarship.
"Information
literacy will be an important part of this early intervention program,"
says David Kamitsuka, associate professor of religion and supervisor
of the proposed program, which is funded in part by a three-year
$150,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Liberal
Arts Initiative.
"In
scholarly writing, proper citation is, of course, essential," he
says. "Our students are learning not only how to learn, but how
to be scholars. They're learning that information needs to be treated
with respect."
HONORING
THE CODE
But
training students in accurate research and citation methods won't
prevent every instance of cheating, particularly among those who
do so knowingly. Rutgers University management professor Donald
McCabe found that more than three-quarters of nearly 2,000 students
at nine large public institutions admitted to one or more instances
of serious cheating on tests or examinations, or to having engaged
in serious dishonesty in written assignments.
"There
are incidents of plagiarism at Oberlin every year and, while the
honor system is notified of some of them, my sense is we're just
seeing the tip of the iceberg," says Jim Helm, Oberlin classics
professor and chair of the Faculty Honor Committee.
"It's
difficult to identify, and thus to prevent it. I used to give closed-book
take-home exams, but found that the pressure this puts on students
is too great. I have stopped giving take-home tests unless they
are open-book."
With
term papers, he adds, an option is to assign very specific topics;
finding the subject on the Internet is more difficult.
In
another study, Rutger's McCabe asked 800 faculty members why they
ignored possible plagiarism violations. Professors cited "inadequate
support" as a primary
factor. At Oberlin, Goldsmith speculates, some faculty members may
feel reluctant to report instances of plagiarism under the current
Honor Code system because of a perceived inconsistency or lack of
severity in penalties, which range from honor probation to suspension.
Or they may be concerned about the time required of them in the
follow-up hearing of a case.
At
President Nancy Dye's request, an ad-hoc committee of faculty, students,
and administrators was formed to review Oberlin's Honor Code, which
hasn't been revisited in more than a decade. Working to create a
more user-friendly code, the group hopes that a revision---which
will require a two-thirds approval of the existing Student Honor
Committee and approval of the Student Senate and General Faculty---will
better define offenses and improve faculty confidence in the system.