Plagiarism

Over the last few quarters, I've seen a rather dramatic uptick in plagiarism. (I have a feeling I know what's behind it, and there are a few issues). In an effort to nip things in the bud this quarter, I made this video (feel free to share and use as you see fit):

I've embedded the video in my syllabus on Canvas (our LMS). I played the video for the students on the first day of class, then set up a simple ten-question, true-false quiz in Canvas for the students to take. They can take the quiz as often as they like, and they can use any materials at their disposal, but they must score 10/10. By scoring 10/10, I've told them that any plagiarized work that comes in will be deemed willful and will result in disciplinary action. The burden will be on them to demonstrate to me that they've written the paper.

This scared some students (which didn't surprise me, I guess). We spent some time discussing issues with TurnItIn, which I've used on occasion, but don't like because a) it seems like I don't trust them right off the bat--it's a "gotcha" tool; and b) it keeps any papers that are submitted through the site (I understand there might be ways around this). A few students remarked that they didn't see TurnItIn as a "gotcha" at all; rather, they valued the reports that it generated for them.

I'll let you know how things go. Your feedback, as always, is welcome.

Practicing away from your instrument

What I learned playing Joe B. Mauldin