I was curious to hear whether you discuss plagiarism with students, how you determine whether a student has plagiarized, and what you do next. I want to share excerpts from responses I got, as they may help other faculty members think about how to approach this topic in their classroom. Such problems are likely to increase with the use of ChatGPT and other generative artificial-intelligence tools.
Shawn R. Simonson, a kinesiology professor at Boise State University, uses a “three strikes” policy. The first incident leads to a warning and a loss of points for failing to cite references correctly. The second leads to a zero on the assignment. If it happens a third time, the student fails the class. Usually, Simonson writes, the problem ends after the first warning.
He used to have more problems with plagiarism before he started asking students to participate in a discussion board on the topic, which he has broadened this semester to include ethics and AI. (Several others who wrote in also said upfront conversations have had a deterrent effect in their classes.)
Simonson shared his discussion-board prompts with me. Here is one:
1. Define plagiarism. Correctly cite the source of your definition.
2. Find and cite an example from a reliable news source of someone getting caught plagiarizing.
a. What did they do?
b. How were they caught?
c. What was the result of them being caught?
3. What can you do in your own work to ensure that you do not plagiarize the work of others?
Gwendolyn A. Tedeschi, chair of the department of economics and finance at North Central College, in Illinois, wrote in to say that she dedicates a class period in her writing-intensive economics courses to sourcing, citation, and plagiarism.
“I give examples of student writing that I had previously flagged as plagiarism, showing it side-by-side with the original source. I also quote the college policy, which (at least at the schools where I taught) specifically states that ‘forgetting’ to put quotation marks or a citation is not an excuse,” she wrote.
Like several others who wrote in, Tedeschi uses Turnitin to check students’ work, although, she wrote, “I always allow students to see their own reports before the deadline, and allow students to correct and resubmit (before the deadline).”
She thinks it’s important to report plagiarism cases. “College is a place of learning, and I would rather a student ‘mess up’ while an undergrad than get caught doing something wrong when they are out in the ‘real world,’” she wrote. At her college, the policy is for the professor to meet with students suspected of plagiarism and, if they concede they plagiarized, forward their work to the dean and the office of academic affairs. A first offense generally results in a lower grade on the paper. Students with a second offense typically fail the course. “Nothing shows up on a permanent record unless there are multiple violations,” she wrote.
Tedeschi thinks she has seen fewer incidents of plagiarism among her students than her peers have because students know she will report them. “Students know that they can’t get away with it in my courses, so if it does happen, it is generally due to sloppy research methods or poor preparation before they came to my class,” she wrote. “Even with the coaching, there is almost always one student who I must talk to and report (out of 22 students, each writing five papers over a semester).”
I’ll include more readers’ responses on this topic in future newsletters. In the meantime, if anything here prompts you to weigh in, please write to me at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com.
Are grades inflated?
Last week Beckie wrote about the controversy over rising grades. Some professors have bemoaned grade inflation in the Ivy League. But are rising grades the same as inflated grades?
Grade inflation describes a pattern in which professors give higher grades than they would have in the past for the same caliber of work, or award students higher grades than they deserve. Grades could go up for other reasons.
Do you feel pressure to give students higher grades than they have earned? If so, who’s applying that pressure, and how? And what has your response been? If you’ve got an opinion or a story to tell, write to Beckie at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com or beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
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— Beth
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