* The information in this module was collaboratively developed with SCC Library Faculty, Janine Odlevak.

DEFINITIONS

SCC’s Student Code of Conduct addresses the issue of academic dishonesty through the Washington Administrative Code (WAC), under the section titled “Academic Dishonesty and ethical violations.” The full section is below, but the most relevant information about plagiarism is highlighted.

WAC 132Q-10-210 Academic dishonesty and ethical violations.

(1) Acts of academic dishonesty will be reported to the student conduct officer and include the following:

(a) Cheating which includes:

(i) Use of unauthorized assistance in taking quizzes, tests, or examinations.

(ii) Acquisition, without permission, of tests or other academic material belonging to a member of the college faculty or staff.

(iii) Fabrication, which is the intentional invention or counterfeiting of information in the course of an academic activity. Fabrication includes:

- Counterfeiting data, research results, information, or procedures with inadequate foundation in fact;
- Counterfeiting a record of internship or practicum experiences; • Submitting a false excuse for absence or tardiness;
- Unauthorized multiple submission of the same work; sabotage of others' work.

(iv) Engaging in any behavior specifically prohibited by a faculty member in the course syllabus or class discussion.

(v) Plagiarism which includes the use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgment. It also includes the unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials.

(vi) Facilitation of dishonesty, including not challenging academic dishonesty.

(b) Knowingly furnishing false information to any college official, faculty member, or office including submission of fraudulent transcripts from other institutions.

(c) Forgery, alteration or misuse of any college document, record or instrument of identification.

(d) Tampering with an election conducted by or for CCS college students.

(2) Acts of ethical violations will be reported to the student conduct officer and include the following: The breach of any generally recognized and published code of ethics or standards of professional practice that governs the conduct of a particular profession for which the student is taking a course or is pursuing as an educational goal.

[Statutory Authority: RCW 28B.50.140. WSR 15-15-161, § 132Q-10-210, filed 7/21/15, effective 8/21/15.]

FIRST STEPS

When you are certain that a student has plagiarized, I encourage you to address the issue (in private) directly with the student. I would not characterize this approach as a confrontation. In fact, find a time that you can take a step back and get some distance between you and the situation. Most likely, this breach of academic honesty has nothing to do with you. And, if you bring in a sense of personal insult, you are very likely to escalate an already tense situation. My best suggestion is to simply present your concerns or your evidence, and ask the student to tell you more.

Addressing the issue directly offers the chance to learn more about why the student plagiarized. This is really important in determining what next steps you take. Over my own career, I have seen responses ranging from confusion, to adamant denial, to tear-filled confessions. The reasons behind copying others’ work can also differ greatly. Here are some of the common reasons:

- student concern about lack of skill or ability to complete an assignment
- lack of engagement with the assignment
- focus on only the grade, not learning
- straightforward dishonesty
- lack of understanding about what plagiarism is
- lack of time
- rejection of the course learning objectives
- lack of knowledge of proper citations

By suggesting that you learn more about the circumstances, I am not suggesting that you overlook cheating or that you not hold students accountable. Knowing more about the motivating reasons allows you to decide the severity and best path forward.

There are plenty of students who simply decided not to do the work. And, sites like Chegg.com and Course Hero provide easy opportunities for students to cheat.

Also, keep in mind that some students don’t intentionally plagiarize, and the situation provides an opportunity for you to teach the students more about providing credit where credit is due. Additionally, you need to understand that there are academic cultural issues at play as well. Students from other countries may be taught to only include the work of others with none of their own thoughts. For more information on how culture may inform students use of others' texts, see this WSU Library site: Cultural Perspectives | WSU Libraries | Washington State University.

The more transparent we can be as instructors about how citations, plagiarism, paraphrasing, and many other issues connected to using other sources in writing and research, the better. You are not on your own here. Library faculty are eager to work with you and your students on the topic, so contact your liaison librarian to schedule a session on the topic. Highlight student support resources like tutoring and 24/7 assistance with citation online through live-chat with a college librarian.

REPORTING & GRADES

Depending on what you learn in your discussion with the student, you have multiple options for next steps.

If you determine that the student violated the code of conduct and the situation merits it, you can report this as a conduct violation. You can either report the situation with a BIT report or Early Alert submission, or contact Student Conduct support - Shannon Ketcham or Connan Campbell.

Reporting is not required, but you should consider it. Reporting allows the college to track a student during their time at the college, and if plagiarism is a frequent concern for that student, there is a record. In his article “Plagiarism Reports,” former community college dean Matt Reed encourages faculty to report academic dishonesty but knows that a fear of negative consequences for students, along with a mistrust of administration are part of why faculty don’t report issues. Reed reminds us that reporting makes sure that students who are “serial cheaters” can’t “bound heedlessly from class to class, pleading ‘first offense’ every time that they get caught.” It also helps the faculty as a group have conversations about appropriate consequences that are consistent across campus. And, reporting allows for due process, and the record is on file if students challenge grade sanctions. (see the full article link below).

If you feel the violation is serious enough, you can sanction the grade. You may decide to fail the assignment with no possibility of revision. Or, you may have the student revise and resubmit the assignment, with or without grade penalties. In situations where you are convinced that the plagiarism was unintentional or that there were mitigating circumstances, you may simply offer a chance to resubmit the work.

No matter the reasons behind it, plagiarism is an opportunity to talk about academic honesty and learning vs. performance goals. Spend time with all your students defining academic dishonesty and the consequences in your class. Make sure that your syllabus includes a statement on plagiarism. Additionally, define the differences between learning goals (internal goals to increase personal knowledge and skills) and performance-related goals (grades or positive evaluations from peers or faculty).

SUPPORTING STUDENTS

Ultimately, the goal of any class is learning; if there is a possibility that the student can learn from the situation, I hope you and the student can work together to make that happen.

If you know more about the reasons why students plagiarized, you can find ways to support them. For example:

If the issue is a lack of understanding, make sure that any assignments that you give have resources or class discussion devoted to what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. If you require citations, cover the process in class. If you assign collaborative work, define your expectations about appropriate use of others' ideas.
If the problem is concern about skills, review your own grading expectations and make sure that your rubrics or grading criteria are a good match to the course level and outcomes. Assignment design can also help prevent plagiarism. Both creating unique assignments and scaffolding work (building the complexity of work or breaking up big projects into smaller tasks) help create opportunities to address concerns before high-stakes assessments.
If it is a missing citation situation, steer them toward Purdue’s OWL (Online Writing Lab) site and their APA and MLA guides. Or, invite the library faculty to your classroom for more specialized or in-person class sessions focused on citations.
If students lack knowledge about the writing and/or research process, introduce students to the tutoring center and the library for help with writing assignments. Invite the tutoring center coordinators to visit your class and discuss the in-person and online process. Library faculty can develop interactive class sessions or research guides specific to your assignment.
If students cheat because they are only interested in their grades, provide space for them to set learning goals connected to your course and create relevant, authentic assignments.

INTENTIONAL DESIGN TO PREVENT PLAGIARISM

Advice from author James Lang's book Cheating Lessons (available for checkout from the TLC) or his 2013 series for the Chronicle of Higher Education provides some great advice on this topic. The first of the three-part series, "Cheating Lessons, Part I," focuses on the faculty prevention / assignment and course design aspects of addressing cheating and plagiarism:

"the amount of cheating that takes place on our campuses may well depend on the structures of the learning environment. The curriculum requirements, the course design, the daily classroom practices, the nature and administration of assignments and exams, and the students’ relationship with the instructor—all of those can be modified in order to reduce (or induce, if we so wanted) cheating."

We can make a difference. Consider the following list from Wayne Stauffer’s “Coping with Plagiarism” (Insider Higher Ed Nov. 30, 2017):

“Tactics we can take to reduce plagiarism include:

Discussing forms of plagiarism and examples from outside academe -- and the penalties that violators paid.
Talking with students about the intellectual laziness inherent in plagiarism and how true learning takes work. Part of this can include how we develop thinking and work habits that do not include cheating.
Setting up assignments so that no one assignment will fail a student for the course. That can take off some of the pressure to get a really high score on that one assignment that assures a passing grade.
Developing the kind of assignment that makes it more time-consuming to try to find an answer online than to just write it oneself.
Designating specific points to cover. We can spend time working out the instructions for the assignment to get what we want from students. We can ask specific questions to get students to provide proof that they read our course materials.
Changing up the assignments every few semesters. This can make previous “banks” of assignments irrelevant.
Limiting students to only certain sources or give them only specific sources to use.
Making students do the assignment in person -- and requiring that it be handwritten, no devices needed.
Assigning a heavier weight on process over product by checking drafts and work along the way to the final product.
Getting to know students' ways of expressing themselves. Collecting short samples of their writing in person to compare with writing in the longer pieces can give an idea of their writing style. It can also reassure students that we know their ideas and understand their perspective on the subject.
Modeling proper research and citation form for students. Sharing with students some of our efforts at writing for publication and how we go about exploring the field of study.”

There is an ongoing debate about the usefulness of anti-plagiarism software like Turnitin, and currently, SCC as a whole does not use that or other online originality checker software.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

At our SCC library, we make available some resources SCC Library Guide on Plagiar ism , and the Falls' librarians have some additional resources and workshops. Additionally, here are some articles, book, and sites:

Fishman T. “We Know it When We See it is not Good Enough: Toward a Standard Definition of Plagiarism that Transcends Theft, Fraud, and Copyright.” Paper presented at the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity, NSW, Australia. 2009. Available from: http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/09-4apcei/4apcei-Fishman.pdf
James M. Lang, “Cheating Lessons” (3 Part Series), Chronicle of Higher Education May 28, 2013.
James M. Lang, Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty (book soon to be available for checkout through the TLC)
Matt Reed, “Plagiarism Report” Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 17, 2020.
Wayne Stauffer, “Coping with Plagiarism” Insider Higher Ed Nov. 30, 2017
Linda Sternz, What Every Student Should Know about Avoiding Plagiarism (call number: 808 STERN 2007)
Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching, “Academic Integrity: Grappling with Cheating and Plagiarism”