Students and the Internet

Designing Effective Assignments

Provide Resource Lists
Give students something to work from so they spend most of their time using the material and not looking for it. Give then the call number, the url, the citation.

Verify Sources
If assigning web sites, check to make sure that the site is still working a few days before giving the assignment. Web pages have a strange way of vanishing without any warning. Alternately, provide several different sites to visit just in case one or two disappear.

Plan ahead for web volatility
Have students make a print copy of the web site (Netscape automatically prints the date and time of access) or else ask them to note the date and time they used the site. This should help clear up any problems if the information changes all of a sudden, leaving some students with out-of-date material.

Manipulate the technology to its best use
Ask students to do more than visit a web site.
Examples:

Ask students to compare or evaluate several similar sites and give them a list of criteria to follow for their comparison or evaluation.
Provide students with a problem to solve using the web.
Have them to design a web page to market a product.
Ask them to create an annotated (web)bibliography on their topic of inquiry.
Request a comparison of how their research topic is represented on the Internet as opposed to traditional publishing venues.

Some Must-to-Avoids

Scavenger Hunt: Students are given unrelated factual type questions to answer. Almost always these assignments require a professional library degree in order to satisfactorily complete the assignment. Result: Students almost always ask the librarians for help. After facing the same questions from dozens of students (e.g. What famous literary character said we must cultivate our garden? How many drops are in a teaspoon? What was the fifth bill passed by the 98th Congress?) librarians frequently give students the answers. The one lesson students learn is that librarians know where to find odd facts so always ask them, they're bound to know. That's all very flattering for us librarians but we would much rather that students learn some self sufficiency and problem solving skills.
Mob scene: All students are sent to look for the same piece of information or are all given the same topic to research. Result: The sought after item ends up missing or vandalized (torn or ripped out), students pass around the answer, nothing is learned.
Half-baked or borrowed assignment: Students are given incomplete or incorrect information, are assigned to use materials the library does not own, are given inappropriate retrieval or research methods in the assignment, assigned vague and ill-formed topics, are given a library assignment out of a textbook that doesn't reflect the library's collection, etc .

Plagiarism

It's Just That Simple

Think not? Take a look at How Students Cheat

Some obvious clues

Specialized or overly sophisticated vocabulary. Look for complex sentences and syntax.
Change in context, writing style or tone
Unusual formatting.
- Grayed out words, phrases or sentences
- Strange or different upper and lower case combinations
- Sudden change in margins, fonts, or character or line spacing
Items in the bibliography are not owned by the library and/or are not easily available
A URL shows up in the header or footer
Out of date items listed in the bibliography
Incomplete citations
Missing footnotes or false references

Detection techniques

Search Google, Altavista or HotBot for questionable phrases or sentences. Don't forget to use the double quotes when searching by phrase.
Similarly you can search full text databases such as Expanded Academic ASAP, Wilson Select, Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe by using unusual phrases or jargon.
Check the sources in the bibliography to verify their existence. You can now search for these via the computer. Search the library catalog for books. You might also want to search Expanded Acadmemic ASAP for journal articles. Many of these are full text, available for printing right off the computer. Students love ProQuest's easy access and retrieval of full text articles.
If you think you've found an author in the reference list whose material may have been plagiarized by your student, search for the web for the author's personal website, homepage or the organization s/he is affiliated with.
Check out term paper mills (see below).

Stop Plagiarism Before It Happens

Student awareness is extremely important. Clarify the concepts of plagiarism, copyright, intellectual property and fair use for students. Make sure students know what plagiarism is, why it is wrong and what the consequences are for plagiarizing.
Require students to turn in writing samples early in the semester so you are aware of their writing level and style
Let students know that you know how to search the Internet for plagiarized material and that you know about term paper mills and plagiarism detection sites.
Break writing assignments into smaller parts. Require several drafts, a working bibliography, research progress reports. Stagger due dates for different parts of the paper.
Assign several small papers throughout the semester instead of one large one. Change paper topics each semester; this should alleviate the problem of students using each other's work.
Request that students hand in photocopied pages from the sources cited in their paper or ask that they include an annotated bibliography as part of the assignment.
Avoid writing assignments where students can easily cheat. The traditional term paper is one such assignment.
Create assignments that are unique, unusual, region-specific or course-specific
Provide students with a sample paper from a term paper mill (without telling them where it came from) and ask them to critique and grade it
Give students guidelines on how you will grade the assignment
Show students examples of good, bad and indifferent final papers. Have them critique the papers.

Free Term Papers Websites

Other People's Papers
http://www.OPPapers.com

PinkMonkey

http://www.PinkMonkey.com

NovelGuide

http://www.novelguide.com/

School Sucks

http://www.schoolsucks.com/

Term Papers for Purchase

Superior Term Papers
http://www.superior-termpapers.com/
Research Assistance

http://www.research-assistance.com/
Research Papers Online A+

http://www.ezwrite.com
A1 Termpaper

http://www.al-termpaper.com
Genius Papers

http://www.geniuspapers.com

Papers Custom-made
Other than those listed above

ACI-Plus
http://www.aci-plus.com/

Anti-Plagiarism Services

Plagiarism.Org

http://www.plagiarism.org/
Plagiarize.com: The Instructor's Guide to Internet Plagiarism

http://www.plagiarized.com/

Plagiserve: Global Academic Integrity Service

http://www.plagiserve.com/

Essay Verification Engine--for puchase, 15 day trial
http://www.canexus.com/eve/index3.shtml

Glatt Plagiarism Program
http://www.plagiarism.com/

WordCheck
http://www.wordchecksystems.com/

Reference List

Argetsinger, A. (2001, May 9). Technology snares cheaters at U-Va. Washington Post. [Electronic version]. Retrieved from the Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe database.
Deflem, M. (2001, March). Intellectual property and online notes companies: Teaching copyright in cyberspace. [Online]. Available: http://www.sla.purdue.edu/people/soc/mdeflem/zteachlaw.htm [2001, May 14].

Hinchcliffe, L.J. (1998, May). Cut-and-paste plagiarism: Preventing, detecting and tracking online plagiarism [Online]. Available: http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~janicke/plagiary.htm [1998, May 14].

How students cheat. (1999, November 9). [Online]. Available: http://library.shastacollege.edu/howtocheat.html (2001, May 8).

Pearson, G. (1999, December 2). Electronic plagiarism seminar. [Online]. Available: http://www.lemoyne.edu/library/plagiarism.htm [2001, May 8].

Winter, K. (2000, October 17). Teaching & technology workshop #5: Academic integrity.com: Preventing cyber-plagiarism. [Online]. Available: http://www.vmi.edu/library/kw/workshop5.htm [2001, May 8].

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