19 notes &
Adventures in Learning: Don't you love it when...
…a student is given plenty of time to do research and create a timeline of 10 events with details but yet they decide to completely copy an entire timeline of 29 events from a website. Completely plagiarized and didn’t even try to change anything.
It frustrates me because…
I have students create a timeline of the 10 most important events in information technology from their chapter. It requires thinking. I do think that this student should be held accountable. Often, calling students on plagiarism teaches a valuable lesson they never forget. Students (like many humans) will often try to get away with the least amount of work possible. However, when he realizes that you are holding him accountable, it can create a great teachable moment. There are ways to make sure this student does learn from his mistake and learn what you’re trying to teach but it is very frustrating when this happens. I had a student copy from another’s efolio and didn’t even fix the links. Honesty is honesty and when we find dishonesty, we must know that it is only a fraction of what is actually happening. Beware because everyone’s watching and everyone’s telling. Be fair but be on top of such issues. Good luck, this is a tough one - I’ve had to deal with it myself. I do not believe that a student copying work means that the assignment is somehow flawed but I do think that there should be several assignments each year that require putting information together in a unique way that makes it impossible to copy. (Like we do on Flat Classroom and NetGenEd.)





