Plagiarism
Plagiarism will be addressed and monitored in a few ways for this course, the first of which will be including a strong statement against plagiarism in the form of our ‘Academic Honesty’ statement that is found in the course syllabus. Setting a strong policy that establishes rules from the beginning are important so that students are well aware of the expectations of the course and potential consequences should they fail to adhere to the rules.
Beyond establishing the classroom rules, an instructor should still have a means of monitoring and controlling plagiarism in the course itself. This course does not use exams or quizzes, so it will not be necessary to make arrangements for proctors. The assignments themselves can be assessed with a function called SafeAssign that is featured in Black Board (the LMS system that the course will be offered on). SafeAssign is a free service that is included with the learning system that detects “unoriginal content in student papers.” The software program also provides students with a feature that “educates students about plagiarism and importance of proper attribution of any borrowed content.” (Blackboard) This tool will be utilized for the research papers and case studies that students are expected to write towards the beginning of the course.
As class progresses and the instructor obtains a stronger grasp on the students writing style, the teacher will use this knowledge as a comparison to new material that the students submit. The blog and portfolio will lend themselves to this process easily. The creative nature of these assessments and the ongoing journaling process for the reflections are also deterrents to plagiarism because they leave an electronic trail that the instructor can go back to for verification.
Beyond establishing the classroom rules, an instructor should still have a means of monitoring and controlling plagiarism in the course itself. This course does not use exams or quizzes, so it will not be necessary to make arrangements for proctors. The assignments themselves can be assessed with a function called SafeAssign that is featured in Black Board (the LMS system that the course will be offered on). SafeAssign is a free service that is included with the learning system that detects “unoriginal content in student papers.” The software program also provides students with a feature that “educates students about plagiarism and importance of proper attribution of any borrowed content.” (Blackboard) This tool will be utilized for the research papers and case studies that students are expected to write towards the beginning of the course.
As class progresses and the instructor obtains a stronger grasp on the students writing style, the teacher will use this knowledge as a comparison to new material that the students submit. The blog and portfolio will lend themselves to this process easily. The creative nature of these assessments and the ongoing journaling process for the reflections are also deterrents to plagiarism because they leave an electronic trail that the instructor can go back to for verification.