Year End Report to the Faculty Senate from the

Year End Report to the Faculty Senate from the Academic Standards Committee April 13, 2006 The 101 Committee was charged this year with examining the policies and procedures relevant to academic dishonesty among students. We were asked to conduct a review of the methods used by faculty in the application of sanctions for cases of academic dishonesty; to review the policies, processes and functioning of the Office of Student Judicial Affairs; and to make appropriate recommendations for how the University should identify and sanction cases of plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. The committee was composed of Steve Hayes (Chair), Ellen Baker, Charles Carslaw, Peg Farrar, Guy Hoelzer (ex officio), Gwen Hullman, Duane Karna, Ann Kenniston, Jeff LaCombe, Frank Lucash, John Mahaffy, Louis Marvick, Pat Ragains, and Jill Wallace The committee organized itself into four subcommittees: Subcommittee A – Faculty experiences This subcommittee examined how UNR faculty members currently handle cases of academic dishonesty, and what their experiences and concerns were Jeff LaCombe (sub-committee chair), Ellen Baker, Peg Farrar, Steve Hayes Subcommittee B – Comparable institutions This subcommittee examined comparable institutions and how they handle academic dishonesty Charles Carslaw, Ann Kenniston Subcommittee C – Student Judicial Affairs This subcommittee look at the policies, procedures, and operations of the Office of Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) Gwen Hullman (sub-committee Chair), Duane Karna, Frank Lucash Subcommittee D – Definition, Detection, and Sanctions This subcommittee look at definitions and identification of academic dishonesty, especially plagiarism, what current technology is available to detect it, what kinds of support and encouragement might be needed for faculty to address this problem more vigorously, and what the possible options are for sanctions against it. Pat Ragains (sub-committee Chair), John Mahaffy, Louis Marvick, Jill Wallace Each sub-committee met regularly to complete its work. The committee as a whole met ten times over the year.

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 2 Because the scope of our work was very large, we have prepared this report in two parts. This first part describes our formal recommendations. The second part of the report describes the data relevant to these recommendations and our reasoning that led to them, and provides supplementary materials. It is the view of the committee that academic dishonesty issues require much more forceful and effective action on the part of the faculty, students, and administration. UNR is experiencing a significant amount of academic dishonesty. Our survey of UNR faculty (described in detail in the body of this report) found that the 332 UNR faculty who responded reported dealing with an estimated 1,030 instances of academic dishonesty over the last three years (of an estimated 92,600 students in specific classes for those reporting). In line with national trends, faculty and administration are looking for better answers, as is shown by this very committee and by similar recent efforts across campus (e.g., COBA). There seems to be broad consensus that the manner in which UNR should deal with this issue must be more pro-active, effective and coherent. Doing so will necessitate a change in the overall campus awareness and culture on this issue—including faculty, the administration, and students. We view the present recommendations as a series of steps in that direction rather than a final answer. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS Discouragement of Academic Dishonesty Visibility •

The President and/or Provost should make clear to the University community the importance of the issue of academic dishonesty to the integrity of the University.

Education and Resources •

A faculty workshop designed to help discourage academic dishonesty should be created and made available to faculty on a voluntary basis. The procedures to be followed in such cases should be included in this training. Faculty should learn about proactive strategies to prevent academic dishonesty (e.g., creating multiple tests, Turnitin.com), not just the methods to address it once it has occurred.

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Faculty and student Web sites on academic dishonesty issues, resources, and an online tutorial defining plagiarism and how to avoid it, should be established.

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New faculty orientation should thoroughly address these issues.

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 3 •

Students should be made aware of the University policies on academic dishonesty and the resources available to understand and avoid it in a pamphlet to be handed out at new-student orientation.

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Faculty should be made aware of the current University policies on academic dishonesty (e.g., the need to report cases of dishonesty to SJA).

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The university should make available standard language for course syllabi concerning the definition of academic dishonesty/plagiarism and the academic and disciplinary sanctions that will be imposed should it occur. We suggest that SJA be tasked with generating that language.

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Additional resources should be provided to SJA and other units tasked with the additional prevention, training and enforcement activities envisioned in this report in order to enable practical application of the increased campus importance being placed on dealing effectively with academic dishonesty.

Detection •

The campus should buy a license to Turnitin.com adequate to cover faculty wishing to use it. The nature and of this software program will be described in more detail in the main body of the report, but in brief it allows faculty to require that papers submitted for courses be submitted to a web portal and screened for possible plagiarism.

Methods for Addressing Academic Dishonesty Reporting •

A streamlined, web-based reporting system should be put into place that would allow instructors to inform the Office of Student Judicial Affairs easily of cases of academic dishonesty.

•

The time frame for faculty to report on incident of academic dishonesty should be extended to 15 working days

Sanctions •

The campus should adopt a policy successful pioneered at the State University of New York – Stony Brook: Students should receive a “Q” for courses in which there has been significant academic dishonesty indicating that this has occurred. For purposes of the student’s grade point average, a Q is treated as an F. Upon successful completion of a non-credit course on academic dishonesty, its social costs, and methods for avoiding it, the Q would be changed to the grade

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 4 determined by the original instructor, for a non-egregious first time offender. These sanctions are in addition to any other disciplinary and academic sanctions provided through normal processes. In the case of egregious offences or in the case of a repeat offences the potential for deletion of the Q grade from a student’s record would not normally be possible. •

If a student retakes a course with an existing poor grade received due to academic dishonesty, the original grade should not be removed from the transcript.

•

While the limit of an academic sanction assigned by the instructor is an F in the course, as part of judicial review, instructors themselves should have the right to request additional sanctions as part of the judicial process of determining additional administrative sanctions (such as the right to refuse re-admission to the course section taught by them).

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A mechanism should be developed for noting on the student’s transcript actions taken regarding academic dishonesty that do not involve a specific course (e.g., research projects; TA work; etc). The permanence of this notation should be treated the same as the Q grade for in class dishonesty.

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A student’s home department should be informed of incidents of academic dishonesty, so that advisors and other key parties will be informed of the student’s situation

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UNR should develop sanctioning guidelines and case studies to guide faculty in the academic sanction area. Normally, the minimum penalty should be at least a grade of “F” on the assignment; in many cases, a grade of “F” in the course should be the appropriate penalty. We recommended offering a 1 or 2 step grade reduction for the entire course in addition to the current choices. It should be a very exceptional situation in which students would be permitted to rewrite plagiarized essays, retake exams on which cheating has occurred, or withdraw without penalty from courses in which an accusation of academic dishonesty has been made.

Policy Clarity and Future Directions •

We recommend that the University Code of Conduct and Policies (section IV, “Academic Standards”) should in separate sections lay out explicitly the nature of possible academic and administrative sanctions, and distinguish these two types of sanctions clearly.

•

Beyond our specific recommendations in this area, a more comprehensive and consistent set of guidelines for disciplinary action in both the academic and administrative sanction area should continue to be developed and implemented. These should involve progressively more severe disciplinary actions based on the

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 5 degree of academic dishonesty. In the administrative sanction area, repeated instances should be treated very seriously. •

We recommend that a future committee draft an honor code for the University

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 6

Academic Dishonesty – How Other Institutions Handle it The committee compiled information on procedures and sanctions in effect at thirteen peer institutions. The sanctions process for academic dishonesty nearly always involves two phases. First, an academic sanction is imposed, most often failing the assignment but in some cases failing the course. This sanction is generally imposed by the instructor but sometimes by the chair, academic dean, or dean of students. After this, a separate disciplinary phase follows, involving broader sanctions, which may include a warning, probation, suspension, expulsion, counseling, and/or enrollment in a mandatory academic integrity course. This phase generally involves the student conduct board, academic affairs office, dean, or other college entity. At all peer institutions, the instructor is required to advise the college office of the academic infraction, partly so that the college can track patterns in a particular student’s behavior. Some colleges automatically hold a hearing to impose disciplinary sanctions. At most, however, hearings occur only as part of an appeals process; that is, there must be a justification for holding the hearing, such as college failure to adhere to proper protocols, admission of new evidence, etc. In all cases, hearings adhere to fairly rigorous and explicitly laid out protocols; students are generally permitted a counselor; at times witnesses appear; an appeals process is permissible under certain conditions which moves up the college ranks and at times culminates in a decision by the college president. Students often sit on the hearing boards. The nature and the rigor of penalties vary quite dramatically from school to school. While the types of penalties that may be imposed there is a wide variation in the manner of their application, significant uncertainties about the level of authority that may impose particular types of penalties and the level of “crime” which merits what type of “punishment”. Some of these issues are discussed briefly as follow: 1.

The power of the instructor to impose penalties There seems to be some variability on the power of the instructor to impose levels of penalties. Some standards permit the instructor only to impose a limited academic penalty such as the assignment of a lower or zero grade with any further penalty being assessed by some person or body independent of the instructor. Other institutions permit the instructor to fail the student immediately and to exclude the student from further participation in a course in that semester. The extent to which an instructor has the power to refuse re-registration into the course at a future time is unclear at some institutions.

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 7 2.

Remedial courses Some institutions require students to take remedial classes usually in some ethics based class without credit. The length of such required classes vary significantly. See discussion about the process at SUNY Stony Brook discussed below. 3. Financial penalties In addition to academic penalties some institutions reserve the right to impose financial penalties. These include loss of student aid and loss of scholarships. Although it is a possible alternative, no institution imposes fines on students. 4. Inclusion on student records and transcripts There is considerable diversity in what information (formal or informal) is retained on file by the institution after a case of cheating has occurred. In some cases, a temporary internal record is retained while the student is within the system. This facilitates an assessment of more serious future penalties in the case that a cheating complaint is repeated. This temporary record may be held purely internally or could be both internal and external. For example, at SUNY Stony Brook an instructor imposes a grade of “Q”. In some cases this grade of “Q” can be eliminated by attendance at an academic integrity course. In other cases, this “Q” is permanently on the student’s record and cannot be erased by remedial action by the student. Alternatively, the record of dishonesty may stay on a student’s record for a period of time or permanently. If it is on the student’s record there also seems to be some diversity as to what can or cannot be reported outside the institution or whether the record is for purely internal use. 5. Suspension and expulsion Similar considerations to the above relate to the more serious penalties of suspension from the institution or expulsion. Again questions arise as to whether such information may be shared with other members of the institution’s university system or with other non-affiliated institutions. 6. Admission of guilt by the student At one school, there is a policy of allowing students who make a written admission of guilt to use that admission to be used as a mitigating factor in the assessment of the level of penalty to be imposed. Naturally this policy simplifies the process of pursuing a case against a student. Of the schools we examined, the most stringent penalties were imposed by SUNY Stony Brook. Here, the instructor generally imposes a course grade of “Q” (a special

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 8 form of “F” reserved for cases of academic dishonesty) in all cases of academic dishonesty. As discussed above, in less egregious cases, the “Q” can be changed to a different grade only after the student attends a ten-week academic integrity course. That grade can be the grade decided upon by the instructor and need not be an F grade. The college often suspends or permanently expels students after two cases, and in extreme cases of dishonesty, suspension can follow a single case. Less stringent are the protocols at Colorado State University, where the professor chooses an academic penalty and notifies the conduct office, which determines an additional penalty. Students can appeal in the case of penalties to which they object on particular grounds. Yet another model, one which removes the responsibility of imposing the academic penalty from the instructor, is that of Cal. State Chico. Here, the instructor notifies the dean of all cases of academic dishonesty; the dean then meets with the student to impose academic penalties and determine whether a hearing is necessary based on the evidence; disciplinary sanctions may include expulsion and/or suspension; appeals are permitted only if proper procedures are not followed or there is new evidence. The official policy at UNR is generally consistent with these policies, according to the “Academic Standards” section of the University Code of Conduct and Policies. The instructor imposes an academic sanction ranging from allowing the student to resubmit the work in question for a new grade to failing the student in the course. The instructor must notify the director of the Office of Student Judicial, Mediation, and Advocacy Services, which may impose additional disciplinary sanctions. Students can appeal the academic sanction by filing a grade appeal; they can appeal the disciplinary sanction with the OSJMAS, which then holds a hearing. A hearing also occurs if the student denies the charges. While the UNR conduct code spells out in detail the notification and appeals process and hearing protocols, it does not lay out the disciplinary sanctions that may be imposed. It also seems that UNR instructors do not always report all cases of dishonesty to the OSJMAS, a situation that may be the case at peer institutions as well. Finally, the academic penalties open to instructors at UNR include a number of less punitive options (e.g., resubmitting the plagiarized assignment for full credit) than do most peer institutions. The Committee became more interested over time in the SUNY Stony Brook model. We contacted their Faculty Senate for clarification on their academic dishonesty policy. The addition of a streamlined, on-line form through which faculty report suspect cases led to an increase in reporting of suspected cases. In addition, deans and department chairs have emphasized to all instructors the importance of reporting all cases of suspected dishonesty and the individual risk to instructors of possible litigation on the part of students if they fail to do so. While faculty originally resisted the university policy, they now support it.

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 9 Fewer than 10 students annually are suspended for academic dishonesty. Suspension occurs either in cases of multiple offense or in “particular egregious first cases.” There are no exceptions to the suspension policy in these cases. The “Q” course is taught be a range of staff who work with students, including advisors and residence hall directors. The course covers ethics, time management, and personal responsibility, as well as going through the university policies. The course is effective: only about 1 student a year commits another act of dishonesty after taking the course. More information about the Stony Brook policy can be found at: http://naples.cc.stonybrook.edu/CAS/ajc.nsf

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 10 2006 Academic Dishonesty Faculty Survey What the UNR Faculty Think Overall: The presence and problematic nature of AD at UNR is universally acknowledged by the survey respondents. However, there is a fairly wide range of opinions as to what actions should be taken. We were certainly not at a loss for opinions! We sent out a survey via the internet to all UNR faculty. 332 responded. 234 answers all questions. The full survey, its results, and all comments are in the Appendix. General Summary of Faculty Observations •

Academic dishonestly is common. Faculty estimated that there were more than 1000 cases they have seen in the last 3 years. About 1% of the students they caught cheating

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90% of faculty do something to inform students about AD in their classes

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The most common action by faculty is to penalize the students by their course grade (36%) although 24% failed the students. 26% reported the case to SJS. Only 4% of faculty claim to have done nothing at all with suspected cases of AD.

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There are no strong trends as to “categories” (freshman, etc.) of students that have particular tendencies to commit AD.

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AD outside the classroom is less common, but still present.

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36% of faculty didn’t receive (or don’t remember receiving) training on handling AD. Most (53%) learned how to handle AD via word of mouth.

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21% of faculty wasn’t even aware of the existence of SJS.

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62% of faculty weren’t aware of the catalog policy of mandatory reporting to SJS.

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There is no strong consensus on standard syllabus language in all UNR courses.

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There is strong consensus that freshman should get AD training in orientation.

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There is no strong consensus over recording AD on transcripts.

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There is strong consensus that advisors be notified of AD.

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There is strong consensus that UNR should develop sanctioning guidelines and/or case studies.

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There is no strong consensus over standardized sanctions.


How Do We Handle Academic Dishonesty Now? The Office of Student Judicial Affairs The Committee was charged with reporting the policies and procedures of the Office of Student Judicial Affairs. We examined the current state of affairs in the office and also discussed the situation with Sally Morgan. Currently, at UNR academic dishonesty is defined as: “cheating, plagiarism or otherwise obtaining grades under false pretenses. Plagiarism is defined as submitting the language, ideas, thoughts or work of another as one's own; or assisting in the act of plagiarism by allowing one's work to be used in this fashion. Cheating is defined as (l) obtaining or providing unauthorized information during an examination through verbal, visual or unauthorized use of books, notes, text and other materials; (2) obtaining or providing information concerning all or part of an examination prior to that examination; (3) taking an examination for another student, or arranging for another person to take an exam in one's place; (4) altering or changing test answers after submittal for grading, grades after grades have been awarded, or other academic records once these are official.” (http://www.unr.edu/stsv/acdispol.html Students are not required to report academic dishonesty as third-party observers and students’ advisors/departments/programs are not notified. Faculty are currently required to report instances of academic dishonesty, though our survey showed that many do not realize this: “A faculty member who suspects a student of academic dishonesty must notify the student of the charge and proposed sanction, in writing, no later than ten (10) calendar days after the alleged action or ten (10) calendar days after the last day of instruction, whichever comes first. Notification must be hand delivered or sent by certified mail. A copy of the notification to the student must be sent to the director of student judicial affairs.” (http://www.unr.edu/stsv/acdispol.html). If the student denies the charge, the student must notify the appropriate department chair, who then notifies the OJA and faculty member. The case then proceeds to the Academic Integrity Board that consists of two undergraduate students appointed by the ASUN Judicial Council, two faculty members selected by the executive board of the Faculty Senate, and a third faculty member selected by the vice president for academic affairs, who will serve as chair of the board. Students most commonly state the following reasons for engaging in academic dishonesty: (a) dislike for the instructor, (b) pressure for grad school admission, and (c) course difficulty. Sally Morgan also added that ease of technology and students’ impression of themselves as consumers of credit hours also seem to add to the number of incidents. Usually, 120 cases of academic dishonesty are reported to the SJA a year. The number of cases skyrocketed beginning four years ago. Last year, approximately 35% of

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 12 the reported cases (90% plagiarism) were appealed by the student, and one of 30 was won because the time frame for reporting was not met by the professor. Faculty might be reluctant to pursue judicial action because of suspected time commitment. They also might not receive information about reporting cases, including the types of evidence they should collect. This includes written details about the incident and supporting material such as Web pages, copies of books, articles, and similar exam answers. Faculty who report incidents to SJA are asked to recommend a sanction from the catalog (e.g., redoing the assignment, failure of the assignment, or failure of the course). The Office can also notify the student and discuss his/her options and what the offense means. Sally Morgan stated that reasons faculty might not report incidents to her office include: (a) time frame for reporting is too small, (b) they falsely expecting to spend lots of time in hearings, (c) there are not enough options for sanctions in the catalog, and (d) they are hesitant to get involved in cases that might be appealed or taken to court. She also offered some possible actions to help with the academic dishonesty problem. For example, faculty could create tests and evaluation procedures that discourage cheating (e.g., monitoring students during exam (walking around), create different versions of an exam, change exams each semester, and change the format/topic of essays). In our recommendations we suggest several changes in policy. For example, increasing the time frame faculty have to report from 10 days to 15 days would give faculty enough time to grade and gather evidence they need to report. Additional choices for faculty such as lowering the final course grade by one or more letter grades gives more options to professors who might believe they have no appropriate choice given the current sanctions. Summary: Reasons students give for justifying academic dishonesty: ¾ Students viewing themselves as consumers of credit hours ¾ Dislike for instructor ¾ Pressure for grad school admission ¾ Ease with technology ¾ Course difficulty Cases reported to office: ¾ 160 cases last year (40 from one course-taught by a lecturer), usually 120 per year ¾ The number of cases skyrocketed since 4 years ago (Millennium Scholarship?) ¾ 35% of cases last year were appealed, vast majority of cases were plagiarism (90%), 1 of 30 appeals were won by student (time frame for reporting not metprofessor admitted this in notification to student) ¾ 2nd offense through office, suspension takes place- disciplinary hearing ¾ LOAs reluctant to pursue because of suspected time constraint (We might also be missing the LOAs in terms of information regarding academic dishonesty)


Faculty report to Judicial Affairs: ¾ Details about incident ¾ Evidence (Internet Web page printout, copy of book/article, similar exam answers) ¾ Recommended sanction (choose from catalog) ¾ Notifies students and Judicial Affairs ¾ Sally talks with student about options and what offense means ¾ Reasons for not reporting: time frame too small, falsely expecting lots of time in hearings, not enough options for sanctions, faculty member hesitant to get involved in cases that might be appealed or taken to court Possible actions to help with the academic dishonesty problem: ¾ Create tests/evaluation that discourages cheating (e.g., monitoring students during exam (walking around), different versions of an exam, change the exam each semester, change the format/topic of essays) ¾ Increase the time frame faculty have to report from 10 days to 15 days (might be a deterrent to reporting) ¾ Institute an honor code for students (or modified code) o The closest document we have is The Board of Regents Code, Title 2, Chapter 6 (pp.77-79) (attached) o Currently, students can be charged for assisting in dishonesty o Currently, students can be charged for being passive while another cheats from them o Currently, students are not required to report academic dishonesty as thirdparty observers o Currently students’ advisors/departments/programs are not notified

Avoiding Dishonesty - Plagiarism Detection The ability to cheat has soared with the arrival of the internet – but so has the ability to detect and prevent it. The committee recommends licensing Turnitin.com at a level that allows all interested faculty to use it. Turnitin is widely used in education and has the largest known database of information sources to compare with submitted papers. Every paper submitted is compared against “billions of pages from both current and archived instances of the internet, millions of student papers previously submitted to Turnitin, and commercial databases of journal articles and periodicals.” One of its advantages for us is that it can be integrated within WebCT. Its full description is located at http://www.turnitin.com/static/plagiarism.html. Below is the cost of a 12 month, single campus license is every single faculty member used it. Thus this is the highest estimate – in reality it would be a fraction of these costs. There are significant savings for a second, third, or fifth multi-year

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 14 license. Annual licensing fee per campus per student fee ($.80 x 15,485) WebCT integration Subtotal Discount

$800.00 +12388.00 + 1500.00 $14,688.00 -1800.00

Total estimated 1st year costs to license all students

$12,888.00

The Turnitin suite includes: - Unlimited classes/instructors - Plagiarism Prevention with unlimited originality reports - Online Grading and Grade Storage

Clarifying Procedures

Below is a categorized list of infractions related to academic dishonesty. We intend it be suggestive, rather than exhaustive. The following chart two references it. Again, this diagram is intended as a conceptual scheme and not an exhaustive description of the process. Types of academic dishonesty in student work Plagiarism P1) Unintentional or incorrect lack of attribution (minor) P2) Knowingly lacks attribution (brief) P3) Knowingly lacks attribution (extensive or multiple) P4) Purchased or used another’s work (with permission) P5) Submitted another’s work without permission Cheating C1) Used notes, unauthorized electronic devices or supplemental materials on an exam;

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 15 C2) C3) C4) C5

Student had someone take and exam or perform other kinds of activities in the student’s name Stole, copied or purchased exam or assessment materials Submitted, as original, the same work more than once Attempted to alter a grade, exam or other work after submitted

Falsified or fabricated data F1) Knowingly submitted false or fabricated research or other data Interference I1) “A student must not steal, change, destroy, or impede another student’s work, nor should the student unjustly attempt, through a bribe, a promise of favors or threats, to affect any student’s grade or the evaluation of academic performance. Impeding another student’s work includes, but is not limited to, the theft, defacement, or mutilation of resources so as to deprive others of the information they contain.”1 Accessory to academic dishonesty A1) Knowingly facilitated or attempted to facilitate any form of academic dishonesty by another student. 1

In addition to this quote, some of the terminology and descriptions used were influenced by the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct, Indiana University, Bloomington – http://www.dsa.indiana.edu/Code/toc.html Flowchart Committee members thought a flow chart would be useful for faculty, Student Judicial Affairs staff and students. We suggest that SJA finalize this process and show it on the flow chart. The final version of this flow chart should clearly show faculty vs. SJA involvement in the process. Thus this is an example of what we think should be available to faculty


Academic Dishonesty Suspected

Document and Determine Type

Notify Student

Yes

No

Student Admission?

Faculty Refers Case, with Documentation, to SJS

Confirm Type (From Page 1)

SJS Initiates an Investigation3 P1, P2, P3 A1

Faculty Takes Action re: Student Consequences

C1, C2, C3, C4, C5 F1; I1 P4, P5

Faculty Refers Case, with Documentation, to SJS

Yes Confirms Violation? Confirm Type No Determine Consequences and Take Action

Drop Case

Reports incident to Student Judicial System (SJS) 2

2

The Student Judicial System will keep a record of all admitted and/or confirmed plagiarism incidents for each student. Each TYPE of plagiarism will carry an assigned point value. When the point value reaches a determined threshold for a student, prescribed action will be taken. However, faculty need not report the first P1 infraction, but should document the incident for his or her own records so that it can be reported to SJS if a subsequent infraction occurs. 3

The Student Judicial System has policies and procedures for dealing with cases from this point on.


Providing More Information SJS already has a site describing process and sanctions related to academic dishonesty, but it could be revised to include more information (http://www.unr.edu/stsv/acdispol.html). UNR’s new faculty orientation is an ideal place to present this information. We also recommend that staff of SJS visits academic departments and discuss the process of addressing academic dishonesty. SJS should notify department chairs of the site and ask them to share with all instructors (permanent faculty, LOAs & TAs). 1. A remedial online course on identifying and avoiding plagiarism. We recommend that students under a sanction for academic dishonesty be offered the option of removing the designation on the transcript by completing a remedial course. Staff of Student Judicial Services would administer the course. Students should pay an appropriate fee to take it. The remedial course would be accessible via WebCT. Outline for a remedial course on identifying and avoiding plagiarism Note: A remedial course should broadly cover academic ethics and study habits. The draft course outlined below covers only plagiarism and, as such, is only and example.

Defining AD:

Cheating, plagiarism, research fraud, etc. Ethical, legal perspectives on why each type of AD is problematic; effects on society, academic communication and individuals.

Avoiding Plagiarism:

Teaching students to cite, quote and paraphrase

correctly. Present at least 3 sample passages:

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 18 1 original source, directly quoted 2 original sources, paraphrased Show improper and proper methods of citation and paraphrasing; give students citation guidelines. 2 Assignments:

1. Complete readings on AD (2-3 articles or chapters) 2. 750-word essay based on readings and at least 2 other outside sources. Student must cite & paraphrase correctly

Many Universities offer web based information on academic dishonesty. This an example from Harvard University of advice for students about strategies to prevent academic dishonesty http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~expos/sources/chap3.html 3.4 How to Avoid High-Risk Situations Students who misuse sources usually don't set out to; they usually plan to write a thoughtful paper that displays their own thinking. But they allow themselves to slip into a situation in which they either misuse sources out of negligence or come to believe that they have no choice but to misuse sources. Here are some suggestions for avoiding such situations, based on Administrative Board records of students who did just the opposite. 1. Don't leave written work until the last minute, when you may be surprised by how much work the assignment requires. This doesn't mean that you need to draft the paper weeks in advance (you can start working on a paper by simply jotting a few words or thoughts somewhere), but it does mean looking over the instructions for the assignment early on, jotting any first impressions, clearing up any confusions with your instructor, and getting the topic into your subsconscious mind, which can help you flag potentially useful material in subsequent reading and lectures. (If you feel you have a special fear or block about writing papers, or procrastinate excessively, or just don't seem to be able to organize and prioritize work, make an appointment at the Bureau of Study Counsel.) 2. Don't use secondary sources for a paper unless you are asked or explicitly allowed to. Especially, if you feel stuck or panicked, don't run to the library and bring back an armload of sources that you hope will jump-start your own thinking. Chances are they will only scatter and paralyze your thinking. Instead, go to your instructor or section leader for advice - or try jump-starting your paper in another way (e.g. by freewriting or brainstorming, by re-analyzing the assignment it self, by formulating a hard question for

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 19 yourself to answer, by locating a problem or conflict, by picking a few key passages and annotating them copiously). 3. Don't rely exclusively on a single secondary source for information or opinion in a research paper. If you do, your paper may be less well-informed and balanced that it should be, and moreover you may be lulled into plagiarizing the source. Using several different sources forces you to step back and evaluate or triangulate them. 4. When you take notes, take pains to distinguish the words and thoughts of the source from your own, so you don't mistake them for your own later. Adopt these habits in particular: •

•

•

Either summarize radically or quote exactly -- always using quotation marks when you quote. Don't take notes by loosely copying out source material and simply changing a few words. When you take a note or quote from a source, jot the author's name and page number beside each note you take (don't simply jot down ideas anonymously) and record the source's publication data on that same page in your notes, to save yourself having to dig it up as you are rushing to finish your paper. Save even more time by recording this information in the same order and format you will use for listing references on your final draft. Take or transcribe your notes on sources in a separate word-processing file, not in the file in which you are drafting your paper. And keep these files separate throughout the writing of the paper, bringing in source material from your notes only as needed.

5. Take notes actively, not passively. Don't just copy down the source's words or ideas, but record your own reactions and reflections, questions and hunches. Note where you find yourself resisting or doubting or puzzling over what a source says; jot down possible arguments or observations you might want to make. These will provide starting points when you turn to write your paper; and they will help keep you from feeling overwhelmed by your sources -or your notes. 6. Don't try to sound more sophisticated or learned than you are. Your papers aren't expected to sound as erudite as the books and articles of your expert sources, and indeed your intelligence will emerge most clearly in a plain, direct style. Moreover, once you begin to appropriate a voice that isn't yours, it becomes easier accidentally to appropriate words and ideas - to plagiarize. Also remember that, when asked to write a research paper using secondary sources, you are expected to learn from those sources but not to have the same level of knowledge and originality, or to resolve issues that experts have been debating for years. Your task is to clarify the issues and bring out their complexity. The way you organize the material t o do this, if you take the task seriously, will be original. 7. If you feel stuck, confused, or panicked about time, or if you are having problems in your life and can't concentrate, let your instructor or section leader know. Make

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 20 contact by e-mail, if it's easier for you, but do make con tact - even if you feel embarrassed because you haven't attended lectures or section or think you're the only student in the class who is having trouble (you aren't), or if you will have to lose points for a late paper. Losing points will be a much smaller event, in the story of your life, than being required to withdraw for plagiarism. 8. Don't ask to borrow another student's paper if you are stuck or running late with an assignment. Reading it will probably discourage or panic rather than inspire you, and it may tempt you to plagiarize. Instead, ask the student to help you brainstorm some of your own ideas. 9. Don't write a paper from borrowed notes, since you have no way of knowing the source or the words and ideas. They may, for example, come directly from a book or lecture, or from a book discussed in lecture. 10. Don't do the actual writing of a paper with another student, or split the writing between you - unless you have explicit permission. Even if you collaborate on a project, you're expected to express the results in your own words. 11. Don't submit to one class a paper - or even sections of a paper - that you have submitted or will submit to another class, without first getting the written permission of both instructors and filing the permission with your Senior Tutor or Assistant Dean. 12 Always back up your work on diskette, and make a hard copy each time you end a long working session or finish a paper. This will reduce your chances of finding yourself in a desperate situation caused by computer failure. IF YOU ENCOUNTER "YOUR" IDEA IN A SOURCE Don't pretend that you never encountered the source; but don't panic either. If it's your major idea and you're near the end of work on the paper, finish writing your argument as you have conceived it. Then look closely at the source in question: chances are that its idea isn't exactly the same as yours, that you have a slightly different emphasis or slant, or that you are considering somewhat different topics and evidence. In this case you can either mention and cite the source in the course of your argument ("my contention, like Ann Harrison's, is that..." or "I share Ann Harrison's view that..."), but stress the differences in your account, what you have noticed that Harrison hasn't. Or you can go back and recast your argument slightly, to make it distinct from the source's. If the argument in the source really is the same as yours, and you are in the midst of a long paper, go to your instructor, who may be able to suggest a slightly different direction for your paper. If you aren't writing a big paper, and haven't time to recast, use a note of acknowledgement: 12. In the final stages of writing this paper I discovered Ann Harrison's article "Echo and her Medieval Sisters," Centennial Review 26.4 (Fall 1982), 326-340, which comes to the

Academic Standards Committee Year End Report Spring 2006 21 same conclusion. See pp. 331-2. Don't try to use such a note to cover plagiarism. Your instructor will know from your paper whether you had your own, well-developed ideas before reading the source, and may ask you to produce your rough notes or drafts. (To be safe, always hold on to your notes and drafts until a paper has been returned.)


Appendix Faculty Survey Input From the Academic Standards Committee Survey and the COBA survey

Survey Summary

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Reports: Summary and Detail

1. UNR Academic Dishonesty (AD) Faculty Survey 1. I teach at UNR as a… Response Response Percent Total Tenured faculty

37.6%

123

Tenure-track faculty

13.1%

43

Non-tenure track (full-time) faculty

22.9%

75

Adjunct faculty

4%

13

LOA instructor

10.7%

35

Graduate student instructor

0.3%

1

Graduate student teaching assistant

0.3%

1

Emeritus faculty

0.6%

2

Administrator

6.4%

21

4%

13

Other (please specify)

Total Respondents (skipped this question)

327 5

2. My Recent Experiences With AD 2. What do you do in your courses to inform students of what is acceptable academic behavior, and what is considered academic dishonesty? (check all that apply) Response Response Percent Total I do nothing specifically addressing this.

11.3%

28

I define acceptable and unacceptable behavior in the course syllabus.

65.3%

162

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3/28/2006

Survey Summary

Page 2 of 7

I describe acceptable and unacceptable behavior in class.

52%

129

I describe acceptable and unacceptable behavior directly on assignments/exams/etc.

27%

67

I inform students of the penalties for academic dishonesty.

48%

119

I refer students to the UNR student handbook for academic dishonesty policies.

34.3%

85

Please provide additional comments as appropriate.

1.6%

4

14.5%

36


Total Respondents

248

(skipped this question)

84

3. In your academic classes over the past 3 years, how many students have been involved in cases of AD? Response Response Percent Total Number of students (approximate is ok) involved in cases of AD

99.6%

239

Total number (approximate is ok) of students in these courses.

88.3%

212

Total Respondents

240


92

4. Consider a memorable case (preferably in the past 3 years) of academic dishonesty and please briefly describe the situation (i.e., what happened that caused you to identify it as academic dishonesty)? Total Respondents

186


146

5. Continuing…For this most recent case, what action(s) did you take (select all that apply)? Please provide additional comments below as you see appropriate. Response Response Percent Total None—did not confront suspected offenders

4.1%

8

None—did confront suspected offenders

6.6%

13

Gave suspected offenders a warning

25%

49

Penalized them via their course grade

36.7%

72

Gave them a failing grade in the class

23.5%

46

Placed an “incident report” for the student in department files

10.7%

21

Reported incident to UNR Student Judicial Services

26%

51


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Survey Summary

Page 3 of 7


39.8%

78

Total Respondents

196


136

Total Respondents

166


166

6. Continuing…How did it turn out?

7. What "type" of student would you estimate you have observed to be most often involved in AD cases in your classroom? Example: if you have found trends in a course involving only upper division students, check 3rd & 4th year. Response Response Percent Total 1st year

21.2%

45

2nd year

13.2%

28

3rd year

14.6%

31

4th year

13.2%

28

5th+ year

1.9%

4

Graduate

5.7%

12

International Students

5.7%

12

Transfer Students

0.9%

2

I have seen no discernible trends

42%

89

24.5%

52


Total Respondents

212


120

8. Have you been involved with any cases of AD outside of the formal classroom? Please identify as appropriate. Response Response Percent Total Presentations, performances, or exhibits

12.5%

9

Research projects

19.4%

14

Seminars (attendance, etc.)

4.2%

3

Theses

6.9%

5

Dissertations

5.6%

4

Publications (students)

5.6%

4

Intellectual property (patents, etc.)

2.8%

2

Other (or describe more fully if you would like).

13.9%

10


3/28/2006

Survey Summary


Page 4 of 7

63.9%

46

Total Respondents

72


260

3. Familiarity with Student Judicial Services 9. Considering your present knowledge of the broad issue of AD at UNR, where did you learn about this issue and how cases are handled? (Check all that apply). Response Response Percent Total UNR new faculty training

8.2%

19

The UNR student handbook

19.9%

46

The UNR faculty handbook

18.6%

43

Word of mouth (other faculty, chair, dean, etc.)

52.8%

122

I have a basic understanding of the process, but don’t recall where I learned it from.

22.9%

53

I have never received training (or don’t recall it if I did) on the issue of AD at UNR.

36.4%

84

Please provide additional comments as you see appropriate.

3.9%

9


26%

60

Total Respondents

231


101

10. The UNR office of Student Judicial Services handles cases of academic dishonesty... Response Response Percent Total I was not aware of the existence of the office of student judicial affairs

21.3%

50

I am aware of the role of the office, but have not dealt with the office.

34.5%

81

I am aware of, and have had dealings with the office in the past

35.7%

84

8.5%

20



235 97

11. Should UNR require faculty to report all instances of AD to Student Judicial Services? Response Response Percent Total


3/28/2006

Survey Summary

Page 5 of 7

Yes

36.5%

85

No

48.1%

112

No Opinion

15.9%

37

Total Respondents

233


99

12. Are you aware that the UNR catalog currently states that instances of AD should be reported to Student Judicial Services? Response Response Percent Total Yes

37.8%

88

No

62.2%

145

Total Respondents

233


99

4. Other questions regarding UNR Policies 13. Should UNR require faculty to use standardized language regarding academic dishonesty on all course syllabi? Response Response Percent Total Yes

40.8%

95

No

23.2%

54

Maybe

36.1%

84

Total Respondents

233


99

14. Should students receive AD "training" during freshman orientation? Response Response Percent Total Yes

90.2%

211

No

2.6%

6

Maybe

7.3%

17

Total Respondents

234


98

15. Should UNR implement a program for recording instances of AD on student transcripts (temporarily or permanently). Response Response Percent Total Yes


57.9%

128

3/28/2006

Survey Summary

Page 6 of 7

No

42.1%

93

Total Respondents

221


111

16. Should a student's major/minor/advisor be notify when they are found guilty of AD? Response Response Percent Total Yes

85.2%

190

No

14.8%

33

Total Respondents

223


109

17. Do you use (or know of) any methods, (technological or otherwise) to help address AD? Please describe if you can. Total Respondents

98


234

18. Would you find it useful if UNR were to develop a set of recommended "sanctioning guidelines" and/or case studies to help faculty develop consistent sanctions campus wide? Response Response Percent Total Yes No Maybe

64.5%

151

6.4%

15

29.1%

68


234 98

19. Should UNR use a system of standardized (mandatory) sanctions for various forms of AD? Response Response Percent Total Yes

26.5%

62

No

33.3%

78

Maybe

40.2%

94


234 98

5. Other Questions 20. Do you have any other suggestions on how the AD issue can be better dealt with at UNR? Please comment.


3/28/2006

Survey Summary

Page 7 of 7

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Total Respondents

108


224

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What do you do in your courses to inform students of what is acceptable academic behavior, and what is considered academic dishonesty? (check all that apply) 1.

I define plagiarism in the syllabus, and caution against it in class.

2.

My syllabus warns of the consequences of cheating and refers to appeal procedures in the student handbook. I remind students of what constitutes cheating prior to each exam.

3.

I dedicate one class period to discuss the ramifications of academic dishonesty, and what constitutes plagiarisum. The course is for first semester freshmen only.

4.

I have students sign a form saying they understand the nature and penalties of plagiarism in my CH classes, where this is the biggest problem.

5.

I reference a statement in the UNR catalogue.

6.

Present/discuss professional ethics/profesional honor and the honor code

7.

what is included in academic dishonesty? I treat each differently? do you mean plagiarism or cheating during class exams.

8.

I post warnings on my UNR homepage

9.

It is handled by the SOM

10.

I actually give students exercises in recognizing what is acceptable and unacceptable in paraphrasing, for example.

11.

I teach off-campus to mostly adult audiences. This is not a structured classroom.

12.

The exams all have the same questions but are color coded in 3 different versions. Check the students ID after the exam

13.

While I do not teach, in my position I do refer both faculty and students to the appropriate documents and procedures as part of orientations for graduate program directors and for graduate student orientation (see how anonymous this survey is!)

14.

The medical school has an honor pledge which students recite at the opening White Coat Ceremony. It is in their handbook and referenced in the syllabi.

15.

I humorously suggest that if a student intends to copy someone else's answers he/she better choose wisely!

16.

I teach three mid-term lectures. Issues of AD are discussed by other lecturers.

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17.

I do not teach formal classes,but teach resident physicians at the VA hospital.I discuss with each group of residents what I expect from them in terms of patient treatment and consultations. No indication of dishonest has ever come up.

18.

In FYE class, plagiarism is one of topics covered: what it is, with egs, & what alternatives are. Also, statement on all syllabi: "Academic Honesty. Be sure to be aware of, and follow, UNR’s policies on academic dishonesty. The definitions and procedures are presented in the 2005-2006 General Catalog. Academic dishonesty can result in severe consequences."

19.

This and the following questions are inapplicable to my discipline

20.

I inform students I work with of the nuances in plagiarism - sometimes they just don't understand that paraphrasing is dishonest, too.

21.

Full class-day lecture on academic dishonesty, plagiarism, found at http://unr.edu/homepage/cmk/respwrite_files/frame.htm

22.

This is covered in the department residency policy manual and in the medical school professionalism curriculum.

23.

all departmental syllabi include a statement of the UNR and school AD policy

24.

Guest speaker - sally Morgan + teaching prof.

25.

I do everything but stand on my head -- lecture, remind repeatedly, include on syllabus, assignments, and an extra handout.

26.

I have it as a question in my intro quiz

27.

I provide a powerpoint on academic dishonesty for their discussion

28.

I have appended the exact verbiage regarding AD from the student handbook on to my syllabi and I discuss it during the firast class periods.

29.

Generally speaking, as an Extension professional, I have not yet been involved in course-for-credit classroom teaching.

30.

I have them sign a form saying they have read and understood the policy and punishments for violating it.

31.

I often structure assignments that make it difficult for students to cheat because they require concurrent experiential components which they then integrate into papers or other assignments.

32.

I include a short statement in the syllabus and address it only briefly during the first class meeting.

33.

I illustrate on an overhead how simple it is to credit sources, turning plagiarism into documented research.

34.

I give part of a class over to discussing and defining plagiarism.

35.

My syllabi state that academic dishonesty will not be tolerated but do not define it. Progressive penalties for first and second offenses are stated.

36.

I provide links on the course website to web based resources explaining and giving examples of plagiarism.







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Consider a memorable case (preferably in the past 3 years) of academic dishonesty and please briefly describe the situation (i.e., what happened that caused you to identify it as academic dishonesty)? 1.

Student photocopied another student's homework assignment, crossed out the name, placed her own and submitted for credit.

2.

I had given two different types of exam in class and one student had all the right and wrong answers copied from the type other than his. Later confirmed he copied from the student next to him.

3.

A student wrote a paper that had entire paragraphs lifted from internet references, making up roughly half of the paper. I informed the student by registered mail, failed the student in the class, and sent a letter to Sally Morgan for his record.

4.

Stduents had "used the same computer" to complete a history and physical exam write-up on another student as assigned. The two papers were essentially the same. The students probably thought that because different faculty graded them that they could get away with it. They didn't know I, as course coordinator, looked all papers over for just this sort of activity. This was quite a few years ago.

5.

A recurring problem is that students will copy text from scientific articles and submit the text in their own essays. The plagiarized text is usually obvious because students tend not to write in that style or in that much detail.

6.

n/a

7.

I usually write 2-3 different versions of exams that contain a few questons that will be irrefutably diagnostic of copying from another's exam. I've caught many cases like this over the years (Of course I don't catch the majority of cases). One student (more than 3 years ago) angrily denied cheating and became personally threatening. I reported this incident to Sally Morgan who informed me that this student had actually been reported in at least 2 previous incidents.

8.

Two students turned in essentially the same paper (only the introductory paragraph and names were different).

9.

n/a

10.

Student plagiarized

11.

In all cases, two projects were 95 percent identical or two test had identical wrong answers. In all cases, the students admitted to AD.

12.

I have caught several students cheating on exams in the past. Each time I worked with the UNR Student Judicial Services. Each student was issued an F for the course, which is the harshest consequence


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available. I feel that being expelled from school should also be an option. 13.

An MBA student (they are the worst about cheating) copied her paper from the UPS website. In another case a woman that had not worked on a paper with her group but was a free rider, took their work and rewrote it but did not want them to get credit for the rewrite - even though the original work ws theirs

14.

Student provided false documantation regarding a missed exam

15.

Paper was copied from "Sparknotes" on the Web. Style of the paper did not sound "right," so I looked it up.

16.

I had repeated complaints about a pair of students cheating during exams. I estimate about 20 individual students complained. One of the students was witnessed cheating myself and two proctors, and I gave her a failing grade. She appealed, hired a lawyer and went it went before an appeals board, the students on the appeals board sided with the student resulting in a hung jury. I think the student part of the jury did not appreciate how many students were upset by the cheating behavior and seriously questioned the value of honesty given that the student's grade was reinstated. If there is a next time, I will try to include a student witness, but this is very difficult to do, because (i) the appeals board is a very hostile environment, (ii) most students want nothing that might be viewed as tarnishing their record, especially if they want to be admitted to medical school. Throughout the whole process, Sally Morgan was a consummate professional. Another incident involved a student who witnessed highly inappropriate behavior between a student and the professor of the class. The incident was handled very poorly by the relevant authorities. This had an adverse effect on the morale of students who knew about the incident.

17.

One case was an instance of a student turning in a paper obviously written for another course. I checked SYS, and found that the student had taken a sociology course for which the paper could have been written. I contacted the professor for that course, confirmed that the student had indeed written the paper for that course. I failed the paper.

18.

The most common case of AD is students who "save as" files in Excel and pass them to other students who fill in data rather than creating the formulas. I used to flunk students for this but they would appeal three times... once saying they didn't cheat (which I can prove unequivocally), then they would appeal the sanction (which would always stick because of the very specific wording in the syllabus and on the assignment), and then they would appeal the grade. All of these appeals caused a backlash from Administration as parents were supporting their students in these appeals and there was a great deal of time and stress involved. I have not changed my policy on the syllabus, however, in dealing with a case only yesterday and was much less stringent in my response. The reason I felt I could be less stringent is that Student Judicial Services told me that they would require students caught cheating the first time to undergo an ethics and character workshop. I talked to the three students involved, took points off for any work they did not do themselves (which turns out to be about a ½ grade level, i.e. 50 out of 1000 points) and I do not think that they will appeal. I also think they will not cheat again.

19.

The student quoted an article without attributing the words to the author

20.

Copying homeworks

21.

A final research paper was clearly plagiarized--perfectly-written, colon and subtitle, the whole bit. This was from a student who barely attended class and turned in very poor papers, when they were turned in at all. Would have failed the course even with an A on that paper, so I took no official action. Case referred to in #5: suspected 2 students of sharing answers on an in-class quiz.

22.

Since I've become an administrator, I haven't taught until last semester--and I didn't have any problems then.

23.

A paper from a previous year was submitted with minor modifications by a different student the next year.

24.

It was plagarism. Phrases picked up from the internet and used in "creative" work. I recognized the phrases and also "Googled" them and found them easily online.

25.

Students copying off each other's objective test answers. A large number of identical wrong answers supports statistical probability that they were collaborating, or that one person was copying from a unaware test-taker. In the past 3 years, this cheating event has happened at least 20 times--3 or 4 times per sememster--in this 100+ enrollment lecture class over the past 6 semesters.

26.

n/a

27.

Four students submitted the same paper with typos, grammar mistakes, etc. exactly the same.


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28.

Students don't understand why they need to cite even after it's explained to them. They don't think that it is a big deal.

29.

total plagiarism of an academic paper from a student drawing on WWW sites; we suspected (too sophisticated a vocabulary, esp. with technical term use) that the work was not the student's, and just typed in a couple of sentences in Google -- up came the original source. We printed those out, kept them with the paper, and required that the student come in and meet us.

30.

The student used language and diction that definitely flagged the work as not being theirs. I did a "google" search that didn't turn anything up... because, like many other students, the student had run the quotations through a thesaurus. So I had to run a "thesaurus" term search of various combinations that ultimately found the source.

31.

A student posted a note on the door stating that the test and class had been cancelled, Half of the class had left prior to my arrival..I had to postpone the test.

32.

no cases observed in my classes

33.

I discovered a term paper that was purchased on the internet. Now I require that term papers be based on one of the issues in the text. This has helped a great deal.

34.

Most of my experiences are similar--plagiarism on a written essay, identified with a google search.

35.

use of language by a student was beyond the normal vocabulary and writing samples of that student.

36.

Two students turned in the same lab report.

37.

n/a

38.

On Monday of this week I gave an exam. I explained that I did not tolerate AD and that since I also taught ethics, I took this especially seriously. I told them to be sure, if they needed to think, to look up towards the ceiling; if I saw any glances to the side, it would be assumed to be cheating. I told them to spead out (plenty of room in the class). I told them the least that could happen would be they would receive a "0" on the exam, but it could be the basis for failure in the course. Within 15 minutes, I witnessed a young woman in the second row (no one in front of her and I was seated directly in front of her!) glance at the paper of the woman next to her. I watched carefully and waited until it happened a second time.

39.

Cheating on exam. Observed by instructor and monitor.

40.

It was plagiarism on a final paper in a graduate class. The paper was obviously taken off the internet.

41.

The only case of AD that I encountered was during an exam - the one student was blatantly looking and copying text from a friend taking the exam at the same time.

42.

N/A: no AD cases

43.

A student copied work from another student's exam; the two students had different versions of the exam so the numbers and substances involved in the problems were different. Another case involved a student caught with a "cheat sheet" during an exam.

44.

na

45.

This occurred in a general capstone course. Simple search of web for matching phrases. Student was confronted with this and responded "I didn't understand what constituted plagiarism." After discussion with student's adviser (in another department), I allowed the student to rewrite the assignment. This made me develop a form that I require all students to sign the first day of class. The form basically acknowledges that the student understands what constitutes plagiarism and that it is punishable by failure in my course and possible expulsion from the university.

46.

Core Humanities. The student like several others cut and pasted material off the web to fulfill a writing requirement in the course. When she was caught, she was devastated. Said she knew it was wrong but was very tired one night due to working almost full time as well as taking a full load of classes. She accepted full blame. I was tempted to go easy on her, ie not fail her in the course but went ahead with it anyway as others had suffered the same penalty. I ended up feeling that part of the problem was the amount of non-academic work students do to make money. This student's parents apparently had little idea of the pressures of academic life, feeling (according to the daughter) that though they could afford to help out they should make their daughter work to pay for her education. Having to work more than 15-20 hours per week to earn money is almost bound to be detrimental to student academic performance. This girl wanted to be a lawyer, which tore me in both directions -- ie failing the course


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would be bad for her record, but learning to cheat would be bad for her legal morals. 47.

A paper was too well written to be that student's writing

48.

Student took answers from a prior semester assignment and submitted them as her own even though students were warned that theyu should not do this and that they would be found out if they did because the assignment had changed.

49.

Same anwser from Exam and HW

50.

A student plagiarized at least 90% of her research paper. I looked at some of the papers she cited as well as did a web search for phrases from her paper that seemed uncharacteristically well-written (this student does not typically write well).

51.

The CH lecturer identified a web site which his students had copied for a paper. He asked all his discussion leaders to check for similar wording and answers. I found 5 such papers and the lecturer dealt with 4 of them.

52.

Taking a passage directly from a journal without citing it.

53.

NA

54.

I haven't had a "memorable" case in the last 3 years. The majority of cases in the last 3 years consist of "colluding" on take-home exam preparations - I have not pursued it because they usually do very poorly on the actual in-class test questions based on the take-home prep. The most memorable case in previous years happened when a student actually got ahold of a teacher's solutions manual and shared it with friends. The students were submitting assignments verbatum out of the manual. When confronted they indicated that is was "appropriate" to cheat if it helped them "learn" the material

55.

Obvious plagiarism without use of quotes or references.

56.

the language the student was using was not typical and representative of her verbal skill ability.

57.

Two students handed in identical computer assignments. The term "identical" means that they could have been xeroxes of one another.

58.

The ten I mentioned above all cut and pasted summaries of dramas instead of writing out original summaries.

59.

students were suspected of using IM on the computer to take a web course exam. Their answers were identical, timed identically, and wrong identically

60.

Each of the cases of clear AD has been memorable. The most recent (and most commonly experienced) case involved a student taking words from a Website and not referencing them. It is extremely easy to identify such blatant cases, because the writing is very different from the student's typical style. In cases where I suspect that AD has occured, I put a questionable phrase into Google. Most times this is successful in quickly identifying the source of the plagiarized material.

61.

I watched two students sharing answers on an exam. Went to confront them by standing behind them and they continued to cheat, not even realising I was right behind them.

62.

The students were given a writing assignment and allowed to discuss and develop ideas for the paper in class. Two students believed that this meant that they could turn in nearly identical papers. I was unable to do much about it, as the students argued that becuase they worked on it together it was invitable that they would turn in very similar work.

63.

Two students turned in exactly identical papers.

64.

A student in my 098 course had been doing very poorly on his weekly writing assignments. When he turned in his first big essay for the semester, the essay was well written and contained writing that didn't match the student's previous writing style. I checked the internet for various sentences in the essay and found parts of the paper on a website.

65.

N/A

66.

A student handed in workbook pages with his own first page and someone elses subsequent pages. It was the second time he had done attempted to do so.

67.

None memorable. Dishonesty identifiable by the same,(completely individual and completely wrong), mistakes on class quizzes.


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68.

I have had no such cases.

69.

The paper was clearly plagarized which we were able to identify with a web search. The student did a much longer and more detailed paper than necessary so the paper called attention to itself.

70.

student using old exams when forbidden student using classmates work on quiz

71.

N/A

72.

I haven't had a particularly memorable or significant case in the last several years since I started explicitly teaching students about academic dishonesty and what constitutes that behavior.

73.

none memorable--mostly just turning in the same exact homework

74.

USING NOTES DURING A TEST, ANOTHER PERSON TOLD THE FACULTY

75.

Just last semester (fall 2005), I had a graduate student turn in an assigned term paper that was almost entirely plagiarized from the references. Instead of putting the information in his own words, the student lifted entire paragraphs and pages from his references. I recognized the paper as being potentially plagiarized because it was too well written in the short time that the student had taken to write the paper. Although the assignment was given in the syllabus at the beginning of the semester, the student had come to me 5 days before the paper was due with no clue about what to do. Another professor and I gave him some references to read and others to find so that he could get started. I knew that there was no way that this student had produced such a well thought out paper in only 5 days. This case was referred to Sally Morgan.

76.

A girl copied a lengthy section of text directly from a Web page, typos and all, and inserted it into her paper with no attribution at all. Students also lied about me on their evaluations, which obviously can't be corrected, but which I consider academic dishonesty, as well.

77.

Student ripped out pages of text book and brought them hidden in his notes to use on a test.

78.

Copying another student's lab paper. Copying was verbatim paragraphs shuffled around.

79.

The student was to do an off campus observation of a facility. Then, she was to obtain a signature for verification. She forged the signature.

80.

same answers on a quiz

81.

The student turned in a major class project which was a not-well-disguised version of a previous student's work.

82.

two students were copying from each other during an exam

83.

Student copied info from textbook, could not synthesize own thoughts into cohesive essay.

84.

Student was to participate in a practicum at a local elementary school. He wrote up the experience as if he went and participated, but he did not. The elementary teacher and others in his group all said he never showed up. The write up gave quite a bit of detail on how he taught the class, etc.

85.

student taking a monitored exam on film; caught cheating

86.

None

87.

While not memorable as a single case, a general issue is the difference in expectations and definitions of AD between domestic students and international students. Secondly, I am struck by the wide range of individual response by faculty when faced with the issue. Lastly, I have been very troubled that in the appeal process the faculty has most often been overturned which seems to reinforce the concept that the penalties are minimmal.

88.

I am fairly certain that a student hired a professional paper writer to write a term paper. I say that because the style and quality of the paper was dramatically different from the student's earlier work.

89.

student looks at neighbors exams for answers

90.

I had a plagiarism epidemic in my CH201 class in Fall 2005. An assignment which I thought to be arcane was addressed on a major "cheat" website. The first paper was discovered because it was clear that the points made are not those made by college students. After the website was identified, the rest of the plagiarized papers could easily be identified.

91.

there were no situations or cases of AD.


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92.

Resident stated certain procedures had been followed, when they actually were not.

93.

One student turned in a paper that was a near-copy of a paper that another student turned in. The degree of similarity was the telling detail. Another student had plagiarized from an online reference work, which my grading assistant had tracked down.

94.

Saw students looking at other students' tests.

95.

Nothing outstanding. Just the same VERY wrong answers on quizzes or take-home exams. Since their final is a one-on-one oral exam at which they cannot cheat, they know they do themselves no favors by not learning the material along the way.

96.

As Dept. Chair, an LOA case brought to me was memorable - a student took the case solution from a CD in the instructor's computer at front of class duringn a break and brought to the team for use in solving the assigned case.

97.

The student used an online translating program to write and essay. (She wrote in in English and had the program translate it into Spanish.)It was very obvious. The student denied it and complained to the supervisor that other students it the class used the same resources and did not understand why she should be penalized.

98.

I was asked to a witness for the University in a case of student copying in an exam

99.

AN extra credit paper was offered. Student submitted a paper which I was sure was far above her capabilites. I did a Google search on phrases and basically the whole paper was lifted from various sources!

100. Students' writing was too inconsistent in style and type of words used. 101. Witnessed the student copying answers from another student during a test 102. 3 cases: (1) Student's submitted paper didn't sound like student work. I googled the first sentence, and up popped one of the sources. Entire paper was word for word from two sources. Clearly deliberate because I required sources to be attached to assignment and these were not the sources that student used for paper. (2) & (3) Two pairs of students submitted work that was partly completed by them and partly completed by the other in the pair. 103. The _most MEMORABLE_ case is a student writing an opening and a closing paragraph and then cutting and pasting eight pages of a scholarly paper in-between. The _most RECENT_ case involved a wellknown UNR student athlete cutting-and-pasting roughly 3 pages worth of text from a published source into her 6 page essay. 104. A young woman in my Core Humanities 202 class submitted a paper that was clearly not in her "voice" and even somewhat familiar sounding. I did an internet search of a key phrase and up popped an article that I had previously downloaded and had in one of my folders of notes on the subject. 105. Two papers were handed in that were done with a word processor and were identical. One student admitted that she had "copied and pasted." 106. I have had two cases in last five years of student laborers falsifying hours and have dealt with it sternlyfired both and took additional action as punishment. 107. I ask students in a 400/600 class to write their own abstract of a published paper, 6 times over the semester for about 1/4 of their grade. Details of the assignment define plagiarism and point students to resources describing how to avoid it. One grad student turned in an abstract of one of my papers, containing several of my sentences word-for-word. Student received 0/10 points on that abstract, and was told to try again. It took two tries for the student to submit an abstract free of plagiarism, after which I graded the abstract but deducted a full grade, my standard penalty for any late assignment. This penalty figured in the students course grade but in the end did not affect their letter grade. To be fair, I also conducted spot checks of other students' abstracts, searching in the text of the paper they had abstracted (from the UNR Library's on-line journals) for key phrases of low likelihood. No other plagiarism turned up that semester. 108. Two students turned in the same homework assignment via e-mail. When I looked at the document properties they were the same and when I looked at detailed headers of the e-mail the documents came from the same computer within minutes of each other. 109. Turning in work done in a previous semester. The assignment had changed, giving away the old work. 110. student used a prior's semester's research paper and turned it in as their own (problem: the research


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paper had a completely different focus) 111. Two students downloaded identical papers from the Internet. Both claimed it was there own work -- until I had the students exchange papers with each other. 112. All cases involve plagiarism, the lifting of material off the internet and pasting it into a student paper. 113. 50 students in my class participated in an event in which students falsified class records (ratings of student presentations), forged signatures of other students, and handed in falsified documents for other students. All 50 students were successfully charged and the event now appears on their UNR records. 114. Plagiarizing a paper from an internet source. 115. A paper was obviously not in the student's own language (I had other samples of his writing) and did not follow the assignment. 116. A student did not plagiarize the entire paper but following the structure and much of the language from an article that was in her works cited list. She insisted that she didn't know it was plagiarism but ended up acknowledging it after going thru the first stage of the appeal. My chair supported me in this case. 117. NA 118. A student submitted a term paper with severely outdated references, text that referenced as current a point in time several years previous to that date, and obvious evidence that the paper had been scanned into a computer -- capital "G" presented as "(;". When confonted, the student tearfully insisted that she had indeed written the paper and was no longer in possession of the references used, since she had shredded the photocopies she had made after finishing the paper. Asked to explain the evidence of scanning, she suggested that it might have ocurred due to using different word processing software in the writing of the paper. And when asked to explain the outdated nature of the references insisted that nothing had been written about this member of the US Supreme Court in the past 6 years. 119. I give only essay exams, so the main thing that comes up for me is one student, who does not know what they are doing, directly copying the work of another during the exam. I catch this by just noticing how similar the answers are, when no other two tests are so similar. 120. I don't have one. 121. Student turned in a group project that they took from another group - did not inform their partners. 122. n/a 123. When I read the take-home Final Exam essay of a female student in a Political Science 211 class, some of the words, phrases, and sentences were familiar to me because I had read the same in another (male) student's paper. The two had been in the same small group presentation. I compared the two papers & determined that they had in common some paragraphs in the exact language. I contacted the two students by e-mail about this, with a cc to my department chair. The female student admitted that she copied from the male student, and apologized for her conduct. I assigned a grade of F to both students' final exams. 124. copying during exam 125. None. 126. I have caught many students by using the program TurnItIn.com. I had a graduate student turn in a paper, which turnitin identified as being 80% copied from another source. I located those sources and outlined all the places where they were the same. I gave a copy to my chair. My syllabus says that you fail the assignment, which would have failed the student, and forced her from the progam. My chair said it's not possible that she did it, that she must not have known it was wrong and told me that I had better give her a chance to redo it. In fact, out of 15 grad students in the course, 8 had plagiarism problems which is why the chair said it had to be my problem, and not the student's. On another occassion I found 5 students, members of an athletic team copying answers to a take home quiz from each other in front of a class. The quiz had a statement that they had to sign saying that it was closed book and that they would talk to no one else. As I saw them, I collected the papers and failed them all--writing a formal letter and attaching it to a copy of their quiz with the grade of zero. I did say that I would keep this between us and not notify their coach, this time. They all maintained innocence even though I saw them and 4 of the 5 dropped the course saying I would not be able to be unbiased toward them. The fifth accepted the penalty as stated in the syllabus and actually did well in the course. 127. A student plagiarized sections of her final paper in an ethics class. It was obvious when reading her paper because a section of the paper was very well written and used a vocabulary the student wouldn't use


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under normal circumstances. 128. A student took large sections of his paper from a website and reproduced them verbatim. After I informed him of the violation and tried to be understanding (while failiing him on the assignment instead of the course), he then plagiarized on two other occasions with language that was slightly adjusted to differ from the web source except with key phrases. After that, I enforced the penalty described for plagiarism in the syllabus which was failure of the course. 129. An intern stated and documented in her H&P that a patient had an indwelling suprapubic catheter, on cursory examination it was obviously a foley. She tried to explain my discordant finding from her documented exam as a typo. 130. None 131. The cases are primarily plagiariam. Last spring (05) a student turned in a paper entirely from the web. Two sisters turned in the same report, word for word. I could list at least 4 more memorable cases that occurred in the last 3 years. 132. direct plagiarism of a print source with which i was familiar 133. Quoted without citing source 134. students shared an excel file for a cost-benefit analysis 135. Students were taking a closed book mid-term exam on WebCT. I noticed that a few students had entire paragraphs verbatim from the text or content modules that I had posted. I then sent a message expressing concern and distress about that and asked how many students had been dishonest by looking up information. Approximately 1/2 of the class admitted looking up information (in some cases the students reported looking up only one answer or verifying only one multiple choice answer). Others admitted looking up entire short answers and copying from the book or content module. 136. One student turned a test back in for regrading with obviously changed marks on the test. 137. 4 exams had similar answers to some questions. My TA and I confronted the 4 students. 1 admitted copying, 1 adamantly denied copying --I believed him-- and 2 others denied copying. I gave 3 students 50% of the grade they earned on this exam. I also wrote letters to the dean but never sent them. This was a very frustrating experience. I took much time trying to sort out guilt/innocence and it was emotionally draining. This class was the worst class I have taught in 40 years. 138. In a pass-fail class, a student fabricated a faculty observation and discussion that never occurred. I found out only because I sent a thank you letter to the faculty member, a routine courtesy, thanking him fo ropening his classroom door to graduate studeents. 139. Subjective answers were identical. 140. direct plagiarism from website materials (multiple sources) 141. I saw language in the paper that seemed not to match the tone and vocabulary of the student's usual writing. Chunks of the paper looked like encyclopedia descriptions of the authors and didn't directly address the question. Other papers I have caught have had quotes in them that are inaccurate, inaccurately attributed, or not from our assigned readings but attributed as if they were. In all cases I found the internet source material by googling the suspicious phrases. 142. Student copied several pages of material from an online source and represented it as his own work. 143. A student turned in a paper last semester and I knew it wasn't his. After reading student papers, you know their voice, tone, etc. I typed in a line on Google and there came the paper. The student wrote the last two sentences of the paper but the rest was from the Internet. The student is an athlete and contested the claim. It went to judicial services and he was ultimately failed from the class. All I heard was that it's great that students have someone looking out for them. My question at the time was just who was looking out for me. It was a frustrating situation to say the very least. 144. 1. Within the last 2 years several students have presented research papers that were simiply a cut and paste copy of a webpage--some including graphics and photos. 2. This was more than 3 years ago--got a paper that was sounding a bit familiar. Turn to page 2 and in the header next to the page number I read "Your Name." This was bviously a paper submitted in a template form and the student plagarizing it didn't pay enough attention to cover his/her tracks. At least it was a good laugh. 3. Also more than 3 years ago, possibly the same class or semester as #1. Received a paper critiquing a play production in San Francisco. It was so different in writing style from anything else written that semester that I suspected the student plagarized a newspaper or similar review. I did a bit of searching to see if I could


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find the source but had no luck. I wrote my suspicions on the paper and returned it. This student responded that she had done the work herself and that in fact she was a journalism student and a good writer. When I questioned the discrepancy with earlier work I received no convincing answer. 145. The student "double-dipped," turning in a paper marked "Psychology 101" for my English 101 course. 146. Students collaborated on a take-home quiz on which I clearly said they should not work together. However, since I could not prove that they worked together, I did not pursue the issue and on the next take-home quiz I no longer told them to work alone. 147. Did not have any cases in this period. 148. Repeated, fairly obvious, gazing at other student papers during an exam. I have witnessed several incidences of this and usually make a mid-exam announcement about "eyes on own paper" or something like that. 149. The Internet was used to ferret out the plagiarized passages in the essay by the student. The student received an "F" for the paper and the course. 150. WEB CT exam was taken together as a team verses individually 151. plagiarism--two studnets turned in identical essays. 152. plagiarizing from internet source 153. Student changed answers on a test that was handed back and requested new grade. 154. Had two papers turned in that were virtually identical. It was easy to identify because one of the students typically spelled words phontically. I had noticed this in previous assignments the student had submitted. When I received a second paper from another student with similar spelling oddities, it caused me to compare the two papers. Sure enough - almost identical! 155. Plagiarism- student copied work from a previous student(cousin) and claimed it as their own. 156. None identified during this period, nor did I observe anything that would lead me to suspect AD (in the three courses that I teach/direct) 157. exam average was 95% 158. A student, working as part of a group, emailed the answers to a project to the members of a different group. Both groups handed in the same answers to the project. Students were told at the beginning of the semester that they had to work on the projects within their own groups and not share answers among groups. 159. Similar papers 160. Copied a term paper 161. Student plagerized a paper for my course (copied directly out of a text book). When confronted he went throught the standard array of emotions: denial, anger, blame (blamed me for assigning a paper), then acceptance/bargining together. Followed by lots of crying in my office and become angry again at which point I threw him out of my office and refered him to student judicial affiars. 162. none 163. Well-written and coherent book review written by student with very poor writing abilities; answers to questions about a film that perfectly matched another student's, word for word. 164. movie review lifted intoto from Internet. My TA spotted it because we had earlier suspected same student of plagairizing a book report but could not document. Nailed him on the movie review thanks to Google. Failed him in class, sent letter to Student Affairs. 165. Student copied and pasted text from websites directly into a term paper - no effort to paraphrase or cite references. 166. The student cut and pasted almost the entire assignment from an article on the internet. 167. Student emailed file completed by another student and presented it as their own work 168. Two students handing in the same assignment as their individual work. Copying information from the internet in termpapers without providing citations.


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169. Plagiarism case in which the student noted the text used in the reference list and then (helpfully - to me) marked the passages he plagiarized, verbatim, from the text. This student copied huge pieces of the text without giving acknowledgement (e.g., quotation marks, specific reference within text) and virtually included no words of his own throughout the paper. I recognized this as plagiarism because the style of writing was much more sophisticated and grammatically accurate than this student's performance in the past had led me to expect. I therefore followed up with a visit to the library to seek out his references and found the work he used for his paper. 170. I caught one student blatantly looking at the test of another student in order to copy the answers. 171. Changing answers on the scantron after test was returned. 172. A typical case: Two students in the back of the room. One holds up his exam paper so that the other can read it. I saw a similar example just today. 173. None of memorable proportions this past three years; about 10 years ago I had 7 male student-athletes turn in what was essentially the same research paper, which had been written and passed around by one female student; I called each in, explained AD/plagiarism, referred them to Jud. Aff., cut their grades. that's not happened since with papers; in classes, I caution people who are looking off another's Scantron, and issue a verbal warning if it persists; it always stops then. 174. Student turned in someone else's final report, and in addition, cheated on 3 quizzes. 175. A student contacted me 1 hour before an exam, informing me that he had a pre-arranged meeting with another instructor that could not be rescheduled, and could he schedule a make-up exam. I informed him that I would conditionally allow him to take the exam, with an official letter from the instructor stating what he had told me (that the instructor had required this meeting at that time, and the instructor knew that he was missing an exam). I recieved an unofficial note, and after contacting the other instructor, was informed that the student chose the time to meet, and it could have been rescheduled. The instructor was unaware that the student was missing an exam. The student then informed me that he would only be able to take a make-up exam after the date that the exams were to be handed back, which is against class policy. Another student came forward and told me that the student wishing to take the make-up exam was only using that as an excuse to have a chance to acquire the questions/answers to the exam from another student who did take the exam. 176. n/a 177. The student's work was obviously far superior than previous work and at a more advanced level. The Spanish used by the student was at a professional, native-speaker level. It was easy to find exactly where it was "lifted" from the WWW. 178. A teaching assistant came to me with documented plagiarism on a course paper (one of two assigned); approx. 50% of the paper was copied verbatim from two different websites. The TA had noticed the writing style shifting abruptly and also referencing previous topics which were not included. 179. A student pasted text from the Internet into his paper and did not put quotes around it nor provide attribution for the text. He inisted that he had been doing this for all his papers and I was the first prfessor who ever objected. We went to a hearing on the issue and the committee ruled in favor the F I had given him. 180. Plagiarism is often self-evident: the paper uses vocabulary and concepts unfamilir to the student, it is on a topic peripheral to the course, and so on. Most students who plagiarize use the internet to do so. With Google it usually takes just a few minutes to document plagiarism 181. A student plagiarized sections of his book review, which was clear because he used phrases that were far more sophisticated than the rest of his writing. 182. Two students (lab partners) took a WebCT quiz, one after another, from the same IP address, getting the exact same answers. I.e., they were both together taking the exam that was to be done individually. 183. A particularly stupid one was when a student copied the answer to a case used in the prior semester which looked the same as the case in the current semester. The student did not even bother to change my typo! 184. N/A 185.

Here is a description of a case that I sent to Sally Morgan a couple of years ago. This student had great difficulty with english. In fact, I am amazed he was able to move through our curriculum to the capstone course. I have not had any personal interaction with him until now, and it was hard for me to tell if he


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understood a word I was saying. He was basically unresponsive. The plagiarism on his final draft was new (i.e. it was not part of his first draft), although the first draft contained other minor examples of plagiarism that were pointed out by the TA and repaired on the final draft. By the end of our (one-way) conversation the student said that he purposely copied the material because his english was so bad. He confirmed that he knew he was doing wrong when he plagiarized. He is planning to graduate in August, so we have the summer to work on the problem without disrupting his plans. I plan to give him an incomplete in the course, and I gave him the option of re-writing his critique or starting over from scratch with a new article. The article he had chosen was a very difficult one, so I thought he might be better off starting over with an easier article. 186. n/a -- i have had none Page Size: Show 250 per page






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Continuing…For this most recent case, what action(s) did you take (select all that apply)? Please provide additional comments below as you see appropriate. 1.

I usually give a grade of zero for the plagiarized assignment, and confront the student. No student has plagiarized again.

2.

n/a

3.

An F in the exam, in this case, gave him a F in the course anyway.

4.

n/a

5.

Notified the department chairperson and the associate dean of the college

6.

Explained my concern and had the student re-write the paper

7.

Referred them to Student Development Committee that is part of our school.

8.

Invalidated the exam, meaning that they have a "0" on one of their four test grades. I wrote the offenders a note on the returned exam indicating my decision. Not once have I been challenged on my decision, though on two occasions the guilty party admitted that the other person was unaware of the cheating. I indicated in my written decision that if anyone challenged my ruling, I would report the incident and we could all go together to testify at a hearing.

9.

n/a

10.

Required them to do the paper over if they wanted to receive 50% of the original points (they lost 50%). Because they were foreign students from another department and I wasn't positive if they understood that what they had done was wrong I asked them to sign a form that stated they had read UNR's policy and that they understood what they did wrong.

11.

NA

12.

requested a re-write of the paper or otherwise a failing grade would be recorded. It was difficult to determine if the student understood the specificity of referencing; she thought as long as some credit was given, then exact replication of the document was not necessary plagarism

13.

didn't encounter any AD so far.

14.

I have penalized her grade, but have not yet filed the reports. I will once I've spoken to the other woman involved.

15.

Student was given the option of taking a new exam to replace the one on which she cheated.


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16.

N/A: no AD cases

17.

na

18.

See comment above

19.

Gave her a failing grade on the assignment, which was a major portion of the course grade

20.

The lecturer dealt with the students. He acted as above and sent them letters concerning his actions.

21.

I have no seen any such cases.

22.

Counseled the student on use of literature, use of references, use of quotes and definition of plagiarism. Had student revise the plagiarised paper into an acceptable format

23.

Explained the gravity of the situation to the person and possible consequences. Then ask the person to rewrite the paper before a grade would be entered for that assignment. At this point in time the assignment was treated as incomplete

24.

I gave the student a 0 for the assignment with a stiff warning. In this particular case, I also notified the athletic advisor and coach of this case of misconduct.

25.

I gave both students a zero on the exam.

26.

I explained rules about plagiarism to the student and he agreed to never attempt to copy work again.

27.

I have had no cases

28.

Made her re write paper.

29.

N/A

30.

I gave her a failing grade until she corrected the work. Fortunately, the papaer was in a late draft stage.

31.

Reminded the class about the penalties and then stood very close to the person(s) in question.

32.

current proceedures on AD would tie me up for too long

33.

I asked the student to provide documentation of when and where the data were gathered. He did not do so and received an "I" when later became an "F".

34.

separated them for the next exam

35.

No cases in recent memory.

36.

See comments above

37.

I could not prove this actually occurred so I was highly critical in my grading of the paper. In my criticism, I invited the student to come in and discuss the paper if they disagreed with my comments. The student never pursued the issue.

38.

If a student does not cease the suspect behavior, when h/she turns in their exam, I put it in a separte pile; and tell them to come to see me during me office hours the following week. They always say "Why?" I tell them: "to discuss what to do about their behavior during the exam."

39.

No cases.

40.

Discussed the case, the ramifications of not following protocol and the negative impact on our profession if the standards were not followed.

41.

I attempted to give a failing grade, but the student had withdrawn.

42.

Separated students in that test and in all future tests

43.

Note that I've been working on this topic in COBA, and some faculty ask students to withdraw from class rather than bother with the formal procedure.

44.

I have not encountered a case of AD. I am a new faculty and have taught only a few lectures.

45.

I offered her the opportunity to redo the assignment in my office without the use of a dictionary etc. The supervisor told her that was a generous offer under the circumstances and the student chose to get a zero on the assignment which lowered her grade quite a bit.


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46.

I recommended an F for the course to the instuctor. After the hearing verified his suspicions he gave the student a B

47.

Once it appeared they really didn't understand plagerism I gave them a chance to rewrite the papers. These were graduate students!

48.

assigned additional work (paper)

49.

Followed through with Student Judicial Services on clearly deliberate one--certified letter, documentation, etc.

50.

These days a D grade on the transcipt is more meaningful than an F, since many students get Fs simply because they forget to drop the course properly.

51.

No AD, no action

52.

gave them an F on the assignment

53.

NA

54.

Allowed the student to submit another paper for full credit based upon the direction of the department chair not to penalize the student.

55.

n/a

56.

n/a

57.

N/A

58.

Said the assignment was unacceptable, but they could redo it with a one grade penalty for being late. I explained carefully what they did wrong, referring to the discussion and lecture we had had on it, and let them know if something close happens again, then they fail the class.

59.

Intern reminded that her patient documentation in the medical record is a legal document, with severe hospital (withdrawl of privileges) and state (Board of Medicine) penalties for falsification.

60.

None

61.

All reports that I know have been plagiarized receive a 0 with a note quoting the UNR Academic Dishonesty Policy.

62.

student wrote an additional paper on academic honesty and integrity in the nursing profession as a criteria for a passing grade (C maximum) in the course

63.

Discussed seriousess in class

64.

Required all of the students who admitted AD to retake a different version of the midterm as a traditional paper-pencil test. They had only one opportunity to take this second midterm and would receive a failing grade for the midterm if they did not show up on the one day and time I offered this opportunity.

65.

Discussed this with chair.

66.

Provided documentation, including note from faculty member, memos for the record, copies of syllabus, etc.

67.

required an additional paper paper had to be on academic dishonesty

68.

For #1 in above question, clarified that this methodology was plagarism and gave students the opportunity to rewrite.

69.

spoke with the students and docked their exam grade

70.

No action required

71.

changed all exam questions for the next class

72.

If I were involved in such a situation this is how I would handle the problem.

73.

it didn't occur

74.

Had the students meet with the associate dean of the college to describe how they cheated


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75.

A couple of cases that happened more than three years ago and were more severe - penalized students via their course grade

76.

I have reported some students to the UNR Judicial Services twice in the past, but that was many years ago.

77.

n/a

78.

N/A







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Continuing…How did it turn out? 1.

Students talked with Judicial services and lost credit for the assignment

2.

Students accepted the penalty.

3.

It was the end of the semester, and I never heard from the student again.

4.

The students were terrified! They went on through the program without incident. Later, after graduating, one of the students told me she was unaware that the other student had used her paper to write his.

5.

No student has plagiarized a second time.

6.

n/a

7.

He chose not to fight the charge, received an F in the course, and apparently dropped out of UNR before any action was taken.

8.

The students seemed contrite. I failed both for the paper, which lowered their course grades. They reported that they thought this was fair (understanding they could have received a failing grade for the course or have been referred for disciplinary action by the University).

9.

n/a

10.

Student redid assigment and received a penalty in her grade.

11.

O.K.

12.

THey cheated in other classes as well - probably all of them. However, both of them received their MBAs

13.

Student failed the class

14.

Student dropped the class. (This was prior to midterm.)

15.

In most cases, the students responded very well and turned their behavior around. However, see (4) above as well. Warnings are an excellent policy provided they can be given without drawing attention to the student from others.

16.

The student contested the poor course grade (the failing grade on the paper brought it down). The student used the grounds that the current academic dishonesty policy did not explicitly forbid "doubledipping" as such. The grade dispute didn't get anywhere, however, since I used the broader term "academic dishonesty" (rather than just palgiarism) and included mention of fraud and cheating. This case, to me, constituted fraud.


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17.

We'll see. I hope they do not appeal. These particular students admitted to the dishonestly and took responsibility.

18.

The student did much much better

19.

I confronted both students, saying they both had some oddly similar wrong answers. Their reactions suggested they had been "caught."

20.

Student submitted new paper but did not receive credit for new paper. Student Development Committee required a written paper on honesty as an issue of professionalism. Student wrote this paper also.

21.

The student was very contrite, believed the incident resulted from a misunderstanding when she moved into a new area of creativity and as far as I know has not had a repeat incident.

22.

Students involved stop cheating. No student has ever challenged my decision since I had compelling data to prove their collaboration.

23.

n/a

24.

They did their own work, with four doing well, and two struggling but willing to come to me for extra help.

25.

Student failed; since it was a required class, had to take the class the next time it was taught, and passed it the next time.

26.

Kid denied it, even when confronted with it. Then said that "pressure" had caused it. Then cried and wanted a meeting with me to express that she wasn't a bad kid.

27.

I now tell my students that if a test or class is to be cancelled, either myself or my TA will be there to tell them.

28.

Student failed course and was identified with Student Judicial Services.

29.

student did paper over

30.

One student earned an F for the report and wrote a letter of apology.

31.

n/a

32.

The offending student has admitted to the AD.

33.

Student have been caught before and the student left school.

34.

No further issues

35.

I believe the student passed the class - there were no additional incidences.

36.

N/A: no AD cases

37.

The student who copied was given a zero on the exam but allowed to complete the course. The student with the "cheat sheet" was failed in the class.

38.

na

39.

Student ended up with a passing grade and (I think) learned a lesson.

40.

Student failed course. No protest as the evidence was clear.

41.

A lesser qualityb paper was turned in

42.

Uncertain. No feedback from UNRJDS so far. Studnet attempted to drop the class. I do not know if that was successful.

43.

OK

44.

She accepted the penalty, which ultimately reduced her grade in the course at least one full grade

45.

I never heard from the students again.

46.

It stopped

47.

NA


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48.

Students accepted a zero on all copied assignments. Nothing more can be noted.

49.

ok to my satisfaction. A "learning" experience for me and student.

50.

the student re-wrote the paper

51.

I suspect this turned out badly for me. Two students gave me all "1's" on my teaching evals and said I was unfair. I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect these two students were the ones who gave me those evaluations.

52.

I gave a grade of F in two cases where students did the same thing a second time.

53.

director cut the knees out of the sanctions by reversing decision on failure and not supporting faculty, claiming the infraction could not be proven

54.

The coach demanded that the student rewrite the paper properly, for no credit. I received a formal apology with the corrected paper.

55.

Both students came on talked with me after the event expresssing a great deal of remorse.

56.

Both students acknowledged their mistake. One moved on and never saw her again. They other turned out to be one of the best graduate students I have had since I arrived.

57.

Both students were doing poorly to begin with. The "F" grades on the papers resulted in "F" for the course for both students.

58.

Later in the semester, the student turned in another plagiarized paper. This time I confronted the student, and he claimed that he should not be punished for plagiarism because his friend was the one who wrote the essay and his firend was the one who copied off the internet. At this point I gave the student a failing grade for the course and spoke with him about making bad decisions in his life and academic career.

59.

I agonized over the appropriate action to take, but decided to go with a relatively harsh action because it was a second offense.

60.

Nothing noticeable on final.

61.

N/A

62.

She apologized, did not question the decision and rewrote the paper.

63.

Generally, students that I have warned have rewritten assignments in front of me without sources to make up for the failed grade.

64.

no more cheating on homework

65.

STUDENT WAS DROPPED FROM THE PROGRAM AFTER SHE THREATENED ANOTHER FACULTY

66.

Sally Morgan is handling the case. I do not know the final outcome.

67.

She corrected it by quoting and attributing the work.

68.

The student got a D in the class overall and lost his sports scholorship

69.

Student's did their own work in future papers.

70.

She re-took the class.

71.

They stopped

72.

it hasn't, yet

73.

they did separate for the next exam

74.

Student failed my course and got a D in the course when she retook it the next semester from another instructor.

75.

I have no idea, I never saw the student again.

76.

no protest

77.

NA


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78.

As I noted, faculty who make the effort to abide by the policies and enforce them are not supported for their efforts.

79.

Without fail, the student shows up for office hours the next week in distress, admitting that they tried to copy answers. Because I alter questions (imperceptibly) it is highly unlikely that a student's attempt to copy pays off. The students who do not know the material do poorly regardless. We discuss the futility of cheating, the reasons to study, and try to identify ways that they can become more adept learners. If they are not receptive to any of these, I would give them an "F" and may report the incident. That has never happenned. Indeed, every student who has gone through that experience has improved dramatically over the semester.

80.

The students who were plagiarizing in a minor way accepted the grade penalty. It is my understanding that the F I assigned to the major plagiarizers, which I reported too to Sally MOrgan, was assigned in each case. One student appealed but was convicted.

81.

Resident has improved behavior, still a challenge, but much better.

82.

I don't know. Student Judicial Services was supposed to oversee a grade change to F (a new policy for students who withdraw), but the change has been slow in coming, and SJS didn't respond to my most recent query about the case.

83.

Students who I suspect were cheating did not pass class

84.

As Chair I had many discussions with the student. He first thought it was an acceptable "use of available resources," but finally was convinced that it was dishonest. He did not appeal the grade.

85.

This student wrote scathing things about me on the student evaluation.

86.

see above

87.

Never heard a word from the student.

88.

One rewrote and one dropped the class.

89.

Student completed paper and was also docked point on the exam.

90.

Don't know--never heard back.

91.

Most memorable case: Reported it to student judicial services (who was slow but carefully responsive), confronted student--but student services chose not to act because student did not re-enroll (it was discovered that the student had cheated multiple times with LOA instructors in my home department who chose not to report anything because they had no confidence in the depart'l leadership and UNR officials to do anyting about it). Most recent case: Reported it to student judicial services--who ignored repeated emails. I also contacted the student academic advisor, who was very reponsive. I left it there (no idea what action was taken--I suspect none because you would not want to screw up the team, would you...)

92.

I handed her back her paper with a note on it and, if I remember, a copy of the article she had plagiarized. There was not one peep out of her!

93.

No Ad, no action

94.

Nothing that egregious occurred again, but of course on take home assignments there is always copying.

95.

One student had to subsequently take class from me, after falsifying hours on time sheets. I treated the student fairly in class, and at the end of the class he thanked me for forgiving his behavior and treating him fairly.

96.

I think the grad student in question did learn something about plagiarism and AD.

97.

Gave them a zero for that assignment. Told them if I caught anything again I would fail them for the course.

98.

OK. Student took the warning to heart. No more trouble.

99.

student had to take another capstone class due to the weight of that grade

100. I hope I scared them enough to disuade them from further cheating 101. The students failed the course. 102. As I said, 50 charged, 50 guilty. However, seven students challenged the sanction. This was ridiculous,


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and the sanction panel underminded the whole effort by reducing the the sanction of those who challenged by 50%. Now, I have a zero tolerance policy in my class. Any dishonesty, no matter how small, earns the student a failing grade in the class. I have students sign a contract to this effect. This new policy has been used once on a student who plagiarized, and resulted in no appeal. 103. Student retook the course. 104. NA 105. Student received a C on the second paper and a C in the class. 106. I like to shock students, and it they admit what they have done, offer some grace. This seems to be effective. 107. Student went through the appeal process. I was never informed of any consequences 108. Both students accepted the penalty I imposed. 109. the student failed the test anyway because of poor performance 110. This just happened this week (4 cases). Students turned in new papers. We shall see if they repeat it throughout the semester. 111. The student has to re-take the class. I encouraged her to take it from another instructor. 112. I don't know. I was under the impression that judicial proceedings were covered by confidentiality protections. 113. She has been more careful since. 114. In the case of the web plagiarism, there was no response from the student. In the case of the sisters, they claimed not to know that "writing a report together" was plagiarism. I told them "Now you know." 115. student earned a C in the course after meeting all requirements to remediate the AD behavior 116. Student stopped behavior 117. The students wanted to remain in the class and said that they felt a 0 on the assignment was fair. 118. Some students were disgruntled; most were grateful to have the opportunity to re-do the test (especially since my syllabus stated any episode of AD would result in a failing grade for the course) I also still had them take the final via WebCT, but restructured the final exam with a much shorter time period allowed so that there would be virtually no time to look up anything or the student would be "kicked out" of the final because of exceeding the time limit. They were all told in advance that this would happen. 119. She didn't try this again. 120. Students accepted the penalties. 121. Student admitted wrong doing, appealed to one level. Two department members sought clemancy for the studnet whom they admitted was "gguilty as sin" because he "was a nice person." On advice from Sally Morgan, I gave the student an F for the fabricated assignment, a course requirement, resulting in a failure for the course. 122. students got the point 123. OK I guess - student was not caught cheating or plagiarizing again 124. In my recent cases that I have failed and referred to SJS, all but one of the students have just accepted the consequences and walked away. One talked to Phil Boardman and Sally Morgan about appealing and his father wrote me a letter and insisted on meeting with me to try to talk me out of it. I was able to convince the father why I needed to stick to the policy on my syllabus. 125. Student did not return to UNR. 126. After the appeal from the student, I was happy to learn that my reaction to the case was upheld. 127. 1. Can't recall what all did but I know at least one student did not rewrite and therefore got a failing grade for the paper. 2. Can't recall. I think I gave them a failing mark on the paper and it was not questioned. 3. I believe we agreed to disagree but I can't recall what I did with the grade.


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128. Fine. The student was a first-semester student, and I considered my full explanation of the rules governing AD and the letter to Judicial Services sufficient punishment. Otherwise, he was a decent student. 129. I found the UNR judicial services to be very helpful and supportive. 130. A student submitted a collection of homework marked 10/10, saying that I had not recorded his grades. However, it was not me who graded those assignments, and I told the student so, saying that his action constitutes cheating. I did not hear from the student again. 131. Still suspected students, but behavior seemed to be somewhat controlled. No direct interaction taken students weren't really benefiting from act by getting a good mark. 132. The student received an "F," and her official tanscript stated that she had been guilty of academic dishonesty. 133. The students said they did not relaize exam was to be individual and were happy with solution and apologized to me for their actions 134. so far, so good--both students are now taking a second class from me. 135. Student received F and report in file. 136. Student received lower grade in course. 137. I met with both of the students individually and although their stories weren't identical, they did admit to having worked together on the paper. Strangely, a year later I ended up working with one of the students as his academic advisor. He now calls me quite regularly for assistance! 138. Plagerism-One student will recive a zero on the assignment and talk with Sally Morgan. The another decided to drop the class (incident reports for both are still on file). 139. exam average went down 140. What do you mean? Everyone was upset, the student who sent the answers (which he didn't create another member of his group actually created the answers) confessed that he sent the answers and person from the other group who accepted the answers confessed. 141. Very well 142. Students denied the offense and protested the sanction. 143. other than the student recieving an F in my course (which he was getting anyway) nothing happened. This was a very clear case of cheating--I highlighted the copied parts and they were ~50% of the entire paper copied verbatium. He should have been thrown out of school for at minimum of a semester!!! 144. not applicable 145. No repercussions; student accepted grade 146. He readily confessed, said he was too busy to do the work, appologized to me 147. I used to file an incent report with judicial services, but then considered this might be harsh for freshmen in their first semester. I usually contact the offender and notify them of my action. Almost never receive any feedback. 148. Student failed the class. 149. They received a zero on the assignment. 150. Behaviors were corrected and did not reoccur. 151. One student was given a failing grade and the other was placed on academic suspension for one year. For this second student, there were other circumstances besides the plagiarism that led to this outcome. 152. The student did not cheat again in my class and actually became much more engaged in the learning process for the remainder of the semester. 153. Suspects did not repeat offence. 154.

They appealed their course grades -- and won!! It was their word against mine, basically. Realistically,


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successfully following up a case of cheating at this University is bound up in so much red tape it's practically impossible to obtain a guilty verdict. See above. 155. I won. 156. The case was appealed, but the student didn't show up to the appeal. 157. When confronted, the student became angry and subsequently dropped the class within a few days. No further action was taken. 158. n/a 159. The student got the message regarding the seriousness of AD. He did not engage in it again during the semester. 160. The student came to my office and pleaded for a lesser penalty. I did NOT grant this, but let the failing course grade stand. 161. Student, to this day, believes he was right. 162. This student ended up dropping the class. He plagiarized to begin with because he was simply incapable of doing work at the required level. 163. Students denied it to the end. Both have since switched majors, leaving our program (they were freshmen at the time). 164. Uncertain. Student dropped the class due to being before the drop date. UNR SJS were to follow up and record the grade as an F but I have heard no more about it. 165. N/A 166. He wrote a new paper and successfully avoided plagiarism, so I replaced the grade of Incomplete with the grade he earned in the class (a "D"). Page Size: Show 250 per page






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What "type" of student would you estimate you have observed to be most often involved in AD cases in your classroom? Example: if you have found trends in a course involving only upper division students, check 3rd & 4th year. 1.

We primarily, only have 3rd and 4th year in our school, in the major.

2.

n/a

3.

1. International students - plagiarism incidents only - never caught one cheating on an exam. 2. Upper division pre-meds who are not quite making the grade - exam cheating.

4.

n/a

5.

Low sample size, but some international students have different standards which they go out of their way to alter when confronted. To the benefit of all concerned.

6.

Medical students- first year

7.

n/a

8.

I don't teach first years.

9.

The one common denominator I have seen, connecting at least three plagiarizers, is that they have been athletes on the football team.

10.

This is asking for a hasty generalization and I am uncomfortable with such a comment especially since "those caught" are not necessarily those who are academically dishonest. Those I capture are not necessarily typical or representative of the students and to classify them without more careful data collection is just dangerous and encourages stereotyping.

11.

n/a

12.

Easiest to identify in smaller classes where there are written assignments.

13.

student without a strong background in academics -- ie not just students who are not doing well in the course, but also students whose families may not have been to college and may not understand academic culture.

14.

Note: these are the only course years that I teach

15.

This is a bad question. It is impossible to observe or know about all the students who are dishonest and so my description would only be of those "dumb enough to be caught" which is a strange profile because it does not capture who is dishonest but only those who are bad at being dishonest.


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16.

Obviously, the students who do this have no respect for the rules, or think those rules don't apply to them.

17.

I have seen the entire range- from first year students all the way to graduate students. If I was to identify a trend, however, it would have to be with football and basketball players. The majority of cases I have experienced have involved these athletes.

18.

This does not relate to character but a basic misunderstanding of what AD is.

19.

athletes.

20.

My students were all freshmen, so I have no way of knowing the rate at which AD occurs in other classes.

21.

I teach almost exclusively at the graduate level.

22.

But remember this is all I tend to see in my position.

23.

The nature is different as 1st and 2nd year students seem to be more inclined to copy answers or change them after an exampe is returned. It is less common with upper division students but it is also more sophisticated when it occurs.

24.

Medical School is only "graduate students."

25.

I have not seen any cases

26.

Generally speaking it is an individual who simply does not want to do the work and is looking for a shortcut.

27.

none

28.

For my most recent 2 cases, it seems that students think that plagiarism only applies to published sources, and that it's not academic dishonesty to work together on take-home assignments and turn in each other's work as part of their own. This despite the fact that individual and group assignments are clearly distinguished in the course.

29.

My information is not systematic enough to project trends.

30.

I teach ONLY fourth year students and graduate students.

31.

CH courses and courses where out-of-class essays are written.

32.

No discernible academic level trend, however, almost all have been Criminal Justice majors.

33.

n/a

34.

Most often interns/residents from India or Middle East(many don't have much hands-on training and some are very reluctant to actually examine patients but unwilling to admit deficits), occ problems with interns from Caribbean schools. One problem intern from a D.O. school but most from India & Middle East.

35.

Athletes, sorority and fraternity members. They appear to have old reports on file.

36.

International transfer students (from TMCC) claimed they didn't understand the difference between group and individual work. They thought making their answers match on their own files was ok.

37.

For the past several years I have taught only graduate students and so cannot respond to type of student most often involved

38.

skewed as that is the only level I teach

39.

I have not seen enough AD cases to generalize

40.

All the plagiarism cases I have caught have been in my Core Humanities classes. I have not caught majors and minors in my departmental classes cheating or plagiarizing.

41.

One of the students who did the cut and paste webpage plagarism mentioned above has a learning disability (dyslexiz) and so formal writing is difficult for him.

42.

I teach in the nursing major almost entirely to 3rd and 4th year students

43.

Not applicable

44.

this studesnt was a senior but a non major in my class


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45.

I teach medical students and I havedn't seen any but the course coordinator probably has

46.

I teach first and 4th year students - far more freshmen cheat than Seniors.

47.

I only teach first year students so I have no comparison.

48.

I only teach upperclassmen.

49.

n/a

50.

I teach primarily upper-division and graduate courses. I have seen plagiarism in both.

51.

Only teach 4th year and grads. 4th year incidents are more common for me.

52.

Note that I have not taught many students in their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd years.







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Have you been involved with any cases of AD outside of the formal classroom? Please identify as appropriate. 1.

Assisted a fellow instructor in judging the legitamacy of an off-campus signature for an off-campus clinical observation requirement for her class.

2.

/Assisted a fellow instructor with judgement of the legitimacy of an off-campus signature for a required off-campus clinical observation.

3.

I was told a patient had been examined in full when this was clearly not the case

4.

I had a student in our program who had been accussed of plagiarsm by her Core Humanities professor. I assisted the student through the related judicial process.

5.

NA

6.

none

7.

A senior student plagiarized a paper that was a significant part of the grade. I allowed her to re-do the paper if she also went to the Writing Center (the parts not plagarized were very poorly written) for help with her writing (I also had her research the meaning and penalties for AD). The paper was submitted a second time with a note from the WC that it was "excellent". I read it and it was dreadful. I called the WC to complain and when I faxed it and the note, it turned out the student had FORGED the note!

8.

faculty research publication

9.

na

10.

no

11.

none

12.

I also teach the correspondence course for the University. Students have been able to get the solutions manual for the old textbook and have copied verbatum. I have revised the curriculum recently and am usually a different edition of the text. These things (like solutions manuals) apparently are popping up on the Internet. Instructors need to be aware of this possibility.

13.

No.

14.

N/A

15.

none

16.

group projects patient presentations


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17.

Students frequently don't realize that they are not entitled to copy information or artistic works and download or copy them illegally.

18.

see above

19.

Essay on program application. Not noticed at time of application, but noticed subsequently when course work was not up to par.

20.

none

21.

None

22.

Publications of colleagues in the field

23.

None

24.

I had a troubled PhD graduate student who listed reagents that are not available. He had a lot of problems, and left my laboratory for the laboratory of a colleague.

25.

Lab reports. Unfortunately, the sorority and fraternity groups facilitate this dishonesty. They keep lab write-ups and tests from previous years for upcoming students. I'd suggest take a look at these groups-they encourage good academic behavior but promote dishonesty.

26.

Masters thesis proposals

27.

None.

28.

My only experience is being on a few committees involving grade appeals, but few of these involved cheating issues.

29.

Described above- two blatant cases of falsifying hours worked on student labor time sheets.

30.

So far one student not giving another student proper credit for contributing to their presentation, and also a few cases of plagiarism in a draft thesis.

31.

I was chair of academic review committee at the college level. The committee reviewed a case of academic dishonesty and recommended that the student be expelled from UNR

32.

I work as an advisor on campus.

33.

n/a

34.

All incidents outside the classroom; all occurred in hospital or clinic settings.

35.

no

36.

A recent alumna was hired as an LOA to teach a class I normally do. I served as a mentor to her first teaching responsibility. This is a repeatable course and about 3 of the students presented a paper and oral report on topics they had used the year before. Amazingly, the alum who was teaching was in the class with them the year before!

37.

no

38.

posting information on a university website; using a university listserve for personal reasons

39.

None

40.

no

41.

balances stolen from the laboratory by a UNR student

42.

no

43.

I worked as an academic advisor in engineering in another university and dealt with this issue weekly.

44.

Several years ago (maybe 10) I noticed a film review in the Sagebrush that plagiarized the New York Times. I reported it to the editor in chief.

45.

One senior violated the rules of a national competition the class had entered and almost got her team disqualified. The team was penalized for her actions but not disqualified.

46.

Plagiarism from the Internet on term papers, but not during the past three years. "Google" now makes it


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relatively easy to investigate suspicious cases. Page Size: Show 100 per page






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Considering your present knowledge of the broad issue of AD at UNR, where did you learn about this issue and how cases are handled? (Check all that apply). 1.

I attended the new faculty training and if it was addressed, it would only have been in passing.

2.

I was on the Academic Standards Committee one year when we had consideration of student judicial process as an agenda item.

3.

It's also in the general catalogue.

4.

Sally Morgan and her staff have been very helpful and have given me a great deal of information and insight in dealing with AD.

5.

The process has changed over the past 35 years. AD was once a faculty member's prerogative--to report or not to reporrt--and I suspect that is no longer the case. While I think it is a good idea to have the judicial due process, I do not think some of us are willing to destroy a student's academic future with disclosure. Experienced faculty can often handle this with less severe strategies to keep minor cases off the record.

6.

A lot of my knowledge was based on my own experiences as a student K-16.

7.

Attended workshop for academic advising. The registrar presented information on the process regarding AD.

8.

I use the unr CATALOGUE as my guideline for the university policy.

9.

I was involved in a case where the student challenged my penalty for plagiarizing a paper, so had to go through the whole process.

10.

I learned a lot about it as a TA at the University of Michigan, also as temporary faculty at Cornell, where I had an egregious case.

11.

I encountered far worse cases of academic dishonesty when I was a post-doc at another university. My mentor there dealt with the first, most severe cases (I was present, but he was the authority). This has helped greatly for dealing with such issues since then.

12.

I have been teaching here over 20 years and have served on an AD committee or two evaluating cases of AD.

13.

I've had to go there for advice.

14.

I was on a university AD committee at the last place I taught

15.

Website Also, I sought out Judicial Services a couple of years ago when I caught a student turning in the


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work of another student from a previous year. The entire process was explained to me at that point. Before then, I hadn't had any formal training or introduction to how to handle these cases. 16.

I served on the Student Judicial Services committee one time. One of the regular members was sick.

17.

My mentor was very helpful in addressing these issues.

18.

saw how a faculty member at the univ. I attended graduate school handled this type of problem

19.

Dep't chair talked me out of taking action, said the requirements on faculty member are too stringent

20.

I would love to see a handbook, or receive training on UNR policies. It was never discussed or offered to me.

21.

From working directly with Sally Morgan

22.

I have been on faculty at a number of other universities--where I learned my preferrred technique. I am fully aware that UNR requires faculty to report all cases. I interpret "suspected cases" as distinct from "cases." In any event, my approach does not necessarily include reporting.

23.

Sally Morgan came to talk to faculty

24.

I learned about it when I became Chair - through asking other Chairs and the Dean how to advise faculty. I had caught students before but didn't know there was a process.

25.

Supervisor

26.

much of my knowledge is from the press.

27.

Think I got basic info from General Catalogue and then called Sally Morgan.

28.

No training. General impression is that UNR doesn't care about AD.

29.

UNR needs to make an honor code more conspicuous- at Stanford their honor code is widely publicized. It is inconspicuous, if not totally buried in rarely consulted documents, at UNR.

30.

I feel it is my right as an instructor to set AD policies for my class, so long as I fully inform the students.

31.

I think each instructor has a different method because each class is different. AD in an English class is going to be different from AD in a math class. I had to decide how I was going to handle AD my first semester and that may different from other faculty.

32.

class I was taking in EL

33.

I figured it out myself when first faced with the issue. I talked with my dept. chair, who then had me call the folks at judicial affairs. They walked me through the process.

34.

CH meetings

35.

I generally call Sally Morgan when ever an issue arises and get her advice

36.

I conduct research on academic dishonesty.

37.

I have served on some grade appeals and academic dishonesty hearings

38.

Judicial Affairs

39.

As a former journalist and involved with ethics, I am very sensitive to this issue. I have pushed conversations in my department, development of a department powerpoint presentation, and development of a department policy. HOwever, I don't think other faculty actually enforce it.

40.

I was not aware that UNR has any training for new faculty. And I've been faculty since 2001.

41.

A handbook and procedures at another college.

42.

GRAD 701 speakers on this issue

43.

student self disclosure

44.

Policy at my previous university was formally presented to new faculty and my approach reflects that experience.


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45.

I had it happen and then went looking for answers and help.

46.

Search for the info when I first had a suspected case; spoke with colleagues as well.

47.

presentation to chairs by Sally Morgan, conversations with her by phone.

48.

training is much needed

49.

I have also had Sally Morgan come in and give presentations in classes.

50.

the course coordinators at the medical school formally discuss academic dishonesty policies frequently, and have instituted a formal Honor Code for the medical students. There are official steps that are taen within the medical school to handle AD.

51.

UNR web site.

52.

Personally, I believe the only way to handle these problems is as follows: 1) advise students of the rules; 2) issue an official warning if violations occur; 3) fail the student in the course if it occurs again.

53.

it has been a part of my professional life since grad school

54.

Mostly through my graduate work in Educational Leadership program.

55.

I did, when having more problems some years ago, talk with Sally Morgan Filkins, who was very informative and helpful.

56.

online references

57.

One of my units (CH) has had seminars on the issue, and offers administrative assistance with filing the necessary letters etc.

58.

I hvae done research on AD for my faculty.

59.

Your survey leaves out some major sources: the university catalog, the grade appeal process, and faculty experience.

60.

experience as chair







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The UNR office of Student Judicial Services handles cases of academic dishonesty... 1.

I am aware of, and have had dealings with the office. They are a fabulous resource and extremely helpful.

2.

not until recently, and I am still not certain what that office is/ the role/ or most importantly does the office has any power or is it simply a mediation "place"?

3.

Sally Morgan is great!

4.

we refer cases at the medical school to the student affairs comm

5.

one instance 20+ years ago

6.

As Dept. Chair I have dealt with Sally Morgan on a number of issues over the last 13 years.

7.

Sally is wonderful to work with.

8.

I know of situations where faculty have not been happy with the outcome of cases that were turned over to Student Judicial Services. One was documented well enough so that I don't put a lot of trust in bringing Student Judicial Services into the picture.

9.

I am aware but have not dealt with this office for AD issues.

10.

My experience with the full process convinced me that it was a waste of time. The other instructor did not follow the result of the hearing. The resources devoted to the case were ridiculously elaborate and time consuming for alll involved.

11.

I was not aware of the service until I had to deal with the AD situation.

12.

I am aware, & have worked with the office. Please note, however, that the office is not listed on the UNR webpage for Faculty & Staff, nor on the webpage for Students. On Students' webpage, "Student Conduct" does describe academic dishonesty policies.

13.

This system is set up in favor of the students. Charging a student with academic dishonesty is like proscecuting a legal case. Faculty does not have a representative on "our side" to proscecute. Judical affairs plays both sides of the fence, advising both faculty and student -- which is inappropriate. Furthermore, the policy/process of appealing sanctions is ridiculous.

14.

I expect that some office handles this, but am unaware of which office.

15.

Have not had a need to find out about it.

16.

I contacted the office when I had a case of a student providing an alleged death threat in a paper. They contact the police and the situation was resolved to everyone's satisfaction


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17.

I knew about this resource and consulted with Sally Morgan after alerting my supervisor, Bill Cathey, and Marsha Read.

18.

Have worked with judicial services in relation to student grade appeals

19.

But, again, I have not had to refer a case to this office in many years. I do "threaten" to do so in my course syllabi.

20.

As department chair, I interacted with the student judicial services office on one case that was broght to me by a faculty member.







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Do you use (or know of) any methods, (technological or otherwise) to help address AD? Please describe if you can. 1.

For prevention - the best 'cure' - formal training of the students is necessary. Early on. It should be part of required freshman courses.

2.

The trick is discouraging them and catching them. I use turnitin.com and I walk around during exams. I talk to them about it before papers and exams. Still, I am never confident that I am able to catch even half of AD cases.

3.

In the previous question about advisor notification, I believe they should be notified FIRST when students are being accused. As for this question, I tihnk it would be helpful if there were a definite paragraph we all use to notify students of the process.

4.

no

5.

I used Turnitin.com for the first time last year in 1 course involving student written reports. I have students provide me with their signatures on a signup sheet during first week of class - and then ask for their signatures on every exam and assignment. (Even if don't have time to check every one on exams, it discourages paid test takers. I use my own methods for creating multiple versions of exams with differences diagnostic of copying (The different versions are unrecognizable by cursory examination by students) A number of (large state) universities have exam taking facilities, where students must show their IDs to take exams.

6.

Websites that can scan papers to determine if they were "bought" on the internet.

7.

no

8.

I feel like I am putting my finger in the dam with the water bursting through. Students really resent it when we tell them they cannot cheat. The Director of the MBA program has put pressure on faculty in the past to let cheating go. Ithink he is trying to change that since some of the faculty have worked with him on that.

9.

Clear communication of expectations and what constitutes cheating. Many students have very broad definitions of what constitutes ethical behavior. The ability to warn other professors of cheating (whether proven or suspected) would be invaluable. The most persistent offenders were cheating in many classes.

10. 11.

To find plagiarism, I just use Google--it nearly always finds the material copied. I also have checked the student's electronic records (as discussed above in the case of double-dipping). WebCT makes finding AD so easy. I have students name their files LastnameFirstname then I download all files to a zip file. I then use Coffee Cup free zip wizard to unzip the file. Coffee Cup allows the user to download all of the student files into one folder rather than into individual folders based on NetID. Then


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the user can list the files, turn on the author and can see if files were authored on the same computer. Files authored on the same computer are then opened to see if the properties show the same creation date and time. (This is recorded to the actual minute and second of creation.) Additional data is then collected to see WHEN the file was "saved as." For example in Excel, the instructor can view the files to see if column widths, other formatting and errors occur on multiple files. It is also easier to download files in this manner for use with Turnitin.com or Plagiarism.org. The University should have a site license for one of these programs. 12.

There are some computer/web programs--Turnitin.com, for example. Plagiarism can sometimes be verified by doing a simple Internet search of suspect language.

13.

When I taught composition, I used the internet. The course I am teaching now does not require paper, but rather journals.

14.

"Turn It In" software for papers. Statistical programs which can compute probabilities of identical test answers (I've heard there is such a program, but I've never seen one.)

15.

Tailor assignments to avoid known reasons for turning to AD.

16.

n/a

17.

We really need a subscription to on-line plagiarism-checking services such as those of plagiarism.com

18.

I konw that I used to be less stringent about it and "cut students a break," but now I am of the strong opinion that it can be like an addiction for students... and they are not going to fully understand how grievous it is unless they "pay" in some way. I do, however, think that AD "training" during freshman orientation might help as long as it was explicit: covering not only what comprises AD, but also going through different forms of it (paraphrasing, etc) so they recognize it, discussion of a zero tolerance policy on campus (i.e. you can't say you don't know what it is and how bad it is if you've had this training), and then accompanied by each student signing an affadavit of sort saying that they understand what it is and what are punishments for it. Perhaps every class should dedicate five minutes to it and require the same signing of a student honor code: I am v. tired of students saying that they "don't know" it's wrong even after it's been covered in class. AD is completely antithetical to the kind of student a university wants to produce.

19.

I use take home tests in some classes. I do realize that this opens up some poss ibilty of "cooperative learning" but I am not to concerned about that.

20.

As mentioned earlier, Google searches are a good method.

21.

I know there are computer programs which help to identify papers which are submitted that have undue amount of quoted material. I believe both College of Journalism and Dept. of English use these system; but I am not certain.

22.

no, but would like to learn about how to detect webcheating.

23.

I always use the internet to google any suspicious text.

24.

See comments on previous page. I think that students should receive information upon enrollment regarding what constitutes AD, and there should be serious repercussions (e.g., #15 above), otherwise the students will never take the issue seriously.

25.

It would be good if the university subscribed to one of the web services that enables teachers to check for plagiarism. It's quicker and better than google, although that isn't bad.

26.

na

27.

For questions 15 and 16, I think that these things should be done in some, but not all cases. In some cases, I think it is possible for a genuine misunderstanding to occur (especially with international students) and the student should be given the chance to show that he/she learns from his/her mistakes.

28.

Many web-sites exist and are able to re-invent themselves faster than I can find them. The students do not realize that they are not very good and usually (I think) give poor results.

29.

No.

30.

None other than what has been utilized on the UNR campus.

31.

Teachers should conciously work toward more vigilence in the classroom during examination time so an atmosphere is created which discourages cheating. The teacher and not the TA or some surrogate who


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doesn't know the students should proctor the tests. Common profs, we aren't that lazy. In addition, assignments need to be uniquely tailored (if possible) to avoid "store bought products"; which I realize is more difficult for some than others. Last suggestion: all papers should be submitted in handwriting -double spaced and in ink. Technology invites and professors nuture and demand technology; and then we are surprised at the result. The paper and pen worked many many years for both teacher and student. Why, or why must everything be typed in 12 font New Roman Times.... teachers can just get some better glasses, let go of their precious technology and trying engaging with the student on a personal, individual level. In addition, I think the Excellence in Teaching program should consider some staff development activity regarding this subject. In addition, on the College level -- I think there should be a task force so we can have a unified effort in addressing this problem. 32.

My sense is that the UNR administration does not support faculty in AD situations. We have to prove everything, and are constantly challenged when we do report things. If I see a student cheating on a test by looking at someone else's paper, how can I prove this? Also, we are held hostage by these teaching evaluations, and the only choice is to throw students out of class for even small AD infractions.

33.

I sometimes Googles passages that contain distinctive phrasing. I've gotten a number of students this way.

34.

web based programs that check for plagiarism.

35.

Put a questionable phrase or sentence into Google with quotation marks around it. I usually find the source in 1 hit. Also, I have a friend whose college requires students to turn papers in electronically so that they can be checked for plagiarism via a service.

36.

No.

37.

I am aware of software that can be used for detecting plagiarism in a variety of instances. I currently do not use this method. However, if I suspect AD (plagiarism in particular), it is usually very easy for me to track down the sources used.

38.

I look up sentences from papers on the internet, but this is the only means I know of tracking down copied papers. I'm sure that some slip thourgh my fingers.

39.

We are developing an Honor Code and Honor/Professionalism System at the medical school.

40.

As I said earlier, I specifically teach students what is and what is not plagiarism in my writing courses.

41.

You just have to be on top of things.

42.

There are software programs that can check electronically submitted student papers against known published papers/papers that appear on the Web. Requiring drafts of papers to be turned in helps cut down on student cheating. Having a sufficient number of room monitors during testing, could help cut down on cheating.

43.

no

44.

no

45.

I check out student papers on cheating websites.

46.

I attempt to create assignments that make academic dishonesty very difficult. I try to use mostly essay exams and assignments that are very specific and require students to cite specific material and argue points in unique ways. The only way to cheat in such assignments would be to pay others to do them.

47.

see "how did it come out"

48.

At the medical school, we are finding that careful clarity is EXTREMELY helpful. We are working to be sure that every syllabus states honor guidelines, i.e. in which projects and evaluative processes collaboration between students is encouraged and which require individual effort. Also reinforce documentation of resources used (no plagiarism). We are trying to proceed from a very positive perspective.

49.

I do not use any of the standard anti-plagiarism services, because they cost money and the institution would not pay for it. At least requests by me and some of my colleagues in the CH program have gone nowhere. I would definitely use these services, and even advocate making their use mandatory, if the accompanying legal problems could be properly addressed.

50.

turn it in.com

51.

Yes. I am working with Charles Carslaw on my COBA task force and will pass these along to him because


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they are numerous. Feel free to contact me: [email protected] 52.

It is a good idea to give 3 different version of an exam-- that way, looking at someone else's scantron is unlikely to be profitable. I have heard that there is a service that can identify plaigery (sp?).

53.

Yes. I rarely have cheating because I design my assignments as essays that cannot be taken from online paper mills or from prior student work. It is not fool-proof but is much better than short answers or open ended essay asignments.

54.

Sometimes Google works.

55.

Check the literature which is very clear on this issue. I recommend meta-analysis by Whitley 1998 in _Research in Higher Education_, which shows which general strategies work across many, many studies. Because every college has language prohibiting AD, the main issue is (a) enforcement (which hardly exists at UNR, mostly because of faculty inertia), (b) training (EVERY student I have ever caught cheating said "I didn't know"...which is a lame excuse, but given that there is no systematic training, there remains some doubt), and (c) student culture (foster climate that links excellence to honesty). -- Of all of these, faculty are the least interested in changing any approach to AD. Because it can get emotional, because it takes time and energy to prosecute, and because many want to feel like a friend an not antagonist of the student, sending people away with a slap on the hand is in faculty's self-interest.

56.

Only what I have reported above.

57.

Forbid electronic devices during exams where practical - especially cell phones.

58.

My daughter, a high school teacher, has caught plagiarized essays by "googling" sentences.

59.

It is easy to address plagiarism when students turn their writing in electronically. I can search the papers in their reference list for critical phrases of low likelihood. I had also done this using Amazon's search inside the book feature.

60.

I teach math, so I make different version of the exam in order to discourage cheating. I also explain to my students that getting a "17" on a test is better than getting a "0" because if I catch them cheating I will fail them. Additionally, I tell them that, from my point of view, it is the most awful thing in the world to have to confront a student who has cheated. It makes you sick to your stomach -so don't do it.

61.

There are electronic units, in use internationally, that block all wireless activity in a local area. I don't kinow if these are legal in the U.S. But they should be. And their existance would be a huge deterant.

62.

turnitin.com--online service for plagerism

63.

-Spread students out around the classroom during exams -Run periodic "Google" checks on papers

64.

The two questions below (18 and 19) are worthless to gain my perspective. T Based upon my experiences with proscecuting the LARGEST case of academic dishonesty in the history of this campus, the only worthwhile sanction is zero tolerance -- failing the student in the course. I agree students have a right to appeal/challenge the charge. But the sanction for everyone who is guilty should be the same -- failure in the class. Thus, I agree with the two statements below ONLY IF the mandatory guideline for all instances of academic dishonesty is Failing the Course -- and that is only from the instructor's perspective. If the student has other AD charges on record from other courses, then there should be a clear policy for dismissing the student from the university.

65.

Yes. 1) For essay assignments, give a series of specific prompts that lead the students to do their own work. For example, comparing or including certain texts in certain way. You can have a prompt that is more open-ended but that requires that students still utilize, let's say class lectures and discussions. Avoid completely open topics and don't rehash your own assignments as a professor. 2) Leave a chair between students on exams and proctor those exams. 3) Be very clear with students that you MUST report academic dishonesty to Judicial and that you WILL fail them. I am finding that this "punishment" system works better than appealing to their ethics.

66.

turnitin.com is proving helpful in out department

67.

I like giving instructors flexibility, so they can adjust to the given situation.

68.

As an advisor - we are always informing student-athletes of potential AD issues.

69.

The workshop I attended said that there are computer software programs to detect plagiarized papers. But I don't remember what they are.

70.

no


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71.

Mostly, this is a matter of education. It would be useful to have a brief refresher in each of the CH courses, e.g. It would also be useful to bring something to ASUN. It's very important for faculty to define for each course what is AD, since it's not always black and white.

72.

TurnItIn.com (campus wide, unlimited contracts are available). I have had an individual subscription, for one year the dept had a subscription but I was the only one who used it. I also collect PDAs, cell phones, and backpacks at the front of the classroom before exams.

73.

Our department has had a subscription to Turn-it-in.com and I have used it to identify plagiarism in papers. I think establishing an Honor Code and getting buy-in from faculty and students to make it a real commitment could be more effective than harsher top-down administrative rules.

74.

There is the "Turnitin" software but I don't know how effective it is.

75.

A failing grade for a course or suspension from a university used to be considered an effective deterrent when I was a student.

76.

I wish I did. If I knew of any effective methods, I would certainly implement them.

77.

I know of methods- don't necessarily use them

78.

Turnitin.com and EVE4. I am discussing options with Mike Simons. The Biology Department uses Turnitin.com.

79.

I try to find things via google, but students are getting smarter about paraphrasing rather than copying word for word -- I'm *certain* I don't catch everything. There are "suspicious" assignments that I haven't been able to track down/prove in the past. Ironically, cliffnotes.com tells us: "You can submit papers or just portions of papers to HowOriginal.com, which will examine them against the entire content of the Web. Turnitin.com and PaperBin.com can organize and assess many papers at once. They will also render a report on each paper, examining the essay sentence by sentence, for the possibility of plagiarism. There's also a huge range of cheating-detection software. Some are search engines like Canexus.com, and others operate by keyword retrieval, like Wordchecksystems.com." (http://www.anchist.mq.edu.au/272/Plag1.htm) I've been told we aren't allowed to use these services at UNR for legal reasons... I WISH WE WERE ALLOWED. I WISH WE WOULD BE REQUIRED TO. I WISH THE INSTITUTION WOULD PAY FOR IT. It's crazy, that "for legal reasons" we have to allow the students to cheat. When I teach Core Humanities, I spend hours per assignment huting down sources of suspicious papers, and I'm confident that I am only finding a small fraction. This is a waste of my time, and it makes me very angry that I am giving college credit to students who are not earning it simply because I lack the time and skills of a perfect detective.

80.

For each of my essays I have students sign a form that confirms that what they are turning in is entirely their own original work. The form gets attached to the essay. My ope is that it makes them think before they plagiarize

81.

google searches on phrases in papers; I always have students sit every other seat (if there is enough room) when taking exams; I make it clear that I am paying attention to what is going on in the classroom during exams.

82.

Turnitin.com is incredible. It helps us spot plagiarism very easily and has been endosed by many of my colleages at other institutions. We have adopted it in the Biology department and hope the university will do the same soon.

83.

I refer my students to the Georgetown Univ. Web site noted below and suggest they look at it to further understand the meaning of plagiarism and copyright infringement: http://www.georgetown.edu/honor/plagiarism.html http://gervaseprograms.georgetown.edu/hc/index.html

84.

not applicable, however I would apply the three-wtep approach described above.

85.

google searches are very helpful fo instances of paper fraud.

86.

common sense intuition, willing to take time to do research on possible sources of plagairism

87.

no

88.

Websites can track for plagiarism and should be used if possible.

89.

Making students aware of the punishment (failing grade that stays on transcript and report to Student Judicial Services) if they are caught seems to help.


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90.

I am concerned about the ability of students to use cellphone text-messaging and other nuances to engage in AD.

91.

I have heard that there are some search engines out there.

92.

At some colleges students devise their own honor systems and students are in charge of handling incidents of ASD including hearings and determining punishments.

93.

Implement AD software for papers. Make it clear that AD will be permanently recording on transcripts, failure in the course, and potential expulsion. AD should be 0-tolerance.

94.

Documenting plagiarism via the internet.

95.

In writing-intensive courses such as the ones that I teach, plagiarism is often difficult to manage. The nature of the assignments is such that there aren't readily available resources from which to copy that will have the right "tone." Questionable phrases that seem misplaced are easy to search for online.

96.

Don't give students the benefit of doubt blindly.

97.

I recently began to use turnitin.com as a way to discourage and catch plagiarism.

98.

Turnitin.com We need a website for students and faculty The administration should make it clear this is important







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Do you have any other suggestions on how the AD issue can be better dealt with at UNR? Please comment. 1.

I see a few issues, some of which have been dealt with in this questionaire: 1) Faculty need to know what the recommended guidelines are, and these need to be supported by administration. In the past, I have had administrators at different levels encourage me to be less harsh on AD, and I have been left wondering whether I was the outlier in taking it seriously. 2) Faculty need to be kept up-to-date about cheating methods, and taught how to combat it. For example, I recently allowed cell phones to be used as calculators, until I discovered the potential for text messaging. 3) Students, especially international students, do need to be better trained on what AD is. I often find first offenses are teaching lessons on what is and isn't acceptable.

2.

If this develops in to a standardized form, I hope it will be more time sensitive than the grade appeal process. That is a considerable waste of time between hearings and doesn't serve the student or the institution well.

3.

Not at this time.

4.

A 'database" of students involved in cheating incidents - even if the faculty member dealt with the incident personally. This information should be accessible via consultation with Sally Morgan's office only. This is useful especially in cases where the instructor believes he/she can't truly prove cheating (e.g. the constant wandering eyes problem, apparent copying, unbelievably high quality of writing, etc). There should be an option to consult on a case with Student Judicial Affairs without the requirement to proceed with a formal accusation.

5.

Not at this time.

6.

I think UNR needs to be be much more aggressive with eliminating AD. Many faculty ignore it and/or do not take necessary precautions to make cheating more difficult. I also think expelling students should be an option.

7.

The "innocent until proven guilty" deal and dealing with the student judicial office is too tough. It is much easier to let it go than prosecute it.

8.

Warnings can be a very effective way of limiting the problem and if effective, AD should not necessarily be reported. Removing the 5 year statute of limitations on past AD offences would also be very useful as students return. Having a system to communicate instances of unethical behavior (again whether formally proven or not) to admissions committees would prevent repeat offenders from getting into graduate school. UNR (or no other school) does not need such candidates.

9.

This is a difficult issue to address, define and change.

10.

There needs to be consistency at departmental level--my own department has backed me on every case


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of AD I have encountered. I have heard of other departments (in the med school, for example) where teachers' accusations of plagiarism have not been supported. 11.

Administration needs to support instructors who sanction students. There needs to be more time for the instructor to discover, document and report AD. 10 days is not enough.

12.

When I was in an academic department, I found that there was no set way to handle AD. It was often dependent upon who you talked to about it. Although I had a few instances of AD, I just talked to the student. I one case I regret not having gone further with it. The only thing the student learned from talking to him was to get papers that written more on his level. I changed requirements to include draft that showed a progression in the writing to try to stop the AD from occuring.

13.

Early and rigorous orientation of new students. Signed "contract" for all students, attesting to their full awareness of what cheating is and the sanctions for it. Make this the student's responsibility, not the faculty member's duty. Any attempt to place more requirements on faculty--whether generated by the Faculty Senate or the Provost/President's offices--will fail. One result may be that particular faculty will simply practice a mild form of civil disobedience and continue to do things their own way, using formal judicial process only if the student challenges the instructor's decision. The other outcome will be that people like me will avoid any action--we will simply overlook mild forms of cheating--because we don't want to give up long hours of precious time in mandatory hearings, even if we are right and would probably prevail. I cannot imagine anything bad happening to a tenured faculty member who violated a "mandatory reporting" policy. I have not reported any AD in my long tenure at Nevada, but I've dealt with AD 100% of the times that I encountered it. The best policy is to use the judicial system when (a)an instructor chooses it for any number of reasons, or (b) a student challenges a professor's AD claim. It is one thing to have a "mandatory reporting" policy. But trying to enforce that policy will bring many more problems than AD ever has. Ask this question: when a faculty member discovers AD and does not report it, what will the university do? Try to fire the instructor? We have a good system now, with the judicial process apparently functioning well. Eliminate the "mandatory reporting" and you will have strong faculty support for your attempts to deal with AD.

14.

Education and information are the best tools. Also, faculty need to be willing to face the issue and follow it through.

15.

The Catalog states that a faculty member who 'suspects' an undergraduate student of academic dishonesty must notify the student of the charge in writing & judicial services(This is not the same as stating that reporting all instances of AD is required as noted in this survey). That said, when one 'suspects' AD, they are likely to investigate the question before 'charging' someone formally, an issue that this survey misses. There is no 'one size fits all' solution. Mandatory polices would seem to take it out of the hands of faculty (I would hope that this is not the goal). Students need to be better informed regarding the process and those who are 'charged' need to be told/explained what the process is not simply handed a charge or written statement of the process. I am an advisor who was told by a student too late to do anything about a discipline - with the long break, they missed the 35 day grade appeal. In establishing policies and imposing sanctions, it is important to keep in mind that many of our students are hoping to enter professional careers where sanctions/even allegations can seriously impact their futures.

16.

I am a proponent of a standardized sanction approach: takes it out of the individual prof's hands. This is why I regularly use Student Judicial Services -- it is, after the student is identified, not my problem... and it isn't about me being a "hard ass" or "unsympathetic." I do think that prof's who think they are doing their students a favor by allowing rewrites or failed assignment grades are doing their students, the university, and society at large a real disservice. This is a real problem on the campus... is it a greater problem than it was 20 years ago? Yes, I think so because of the relative ease with which it can be done via internet. And it doesn't help that people like Jim Gibbons are public figures who plagiarize and it doesn't damage their careers.

17.

No

18.

I think the biggest problem is that the information generally available (i.e. via the internet and media) is so frequently ITSELF plagiarized, that it is very difficult to get students to see that this is a problem. I think the training in freshman orientation would be a critical component of raising awareness, and is a very good idea.

19.

I am most concerned with "due process" regarding this process of dealing/coping with academic dishonesty. Who will determine if academic dishonesty has occurred, the level of intentional deception, and the appropriate response? Even in this document the wording suggests that professor is the judge (how many incidents of dishonesty have occured -- not suspected dishonesty. Suspicion is not guilt and to prove guilt is a different process which makes reporting directly "suspected" dishonesty to someone without any ability of the student to respond to this process borders on vigilantism. Is the solution to the


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problem in making rules about what the policy or acting proactively on the prevention rather than punishment of academic dishonesty. Frankly, the rule of university law never worked in my classroom to manage student behavior, I would prefer to teach a life long lesson rather than call in the Gestapo. If there is a process in place where a student's right to respond or react is present; then I would feel comfortable with a hard measures approach (appropriate punishment)for academic dishonesty (which still needs to be defined). Good luck committee. 20.

none for now

21.

I think gathering data on this is very important. I have college age children. They say cheating is rampant in both college and high school (they attended Reno high schools). Students also need to understand what plagiarism is. Many just plug in paragraph after paragraph of text lifted from other sources...and I've been told it is acceptable in other courses!

22.

See comment on #17

23.

Smaller classes. Noting that weak students are most likely to do this. More publicity for the problem, esp. in student orientations. Maybe repeat alerts to students as the semester gets tougher. Posters?

24.

make it a learning process. Do not ruin a kid's life because they did not know better and now are labelled as a "cheat". There should be an escalading scale of consequences but there should also be a way to have this removed from one's record after a peiod of regular behavior. Train kid's up front and set the rules up front..have them sign off that they are aware of the AD behavior and the consequences

25.

na

26.

It would be helpful if the university had a tool to help us check essays/research papers, etc. for plagiarism. The general search for phrases on the web worked for the student in my class last year, but more sophisticated students probably know how to get around that. It might also be helpful to have a support committee or something, especially for new or young faculty dealing with AD issues so that they can have some mentoring as I did when I first had to deal with some of these things.

27.

No. It has not been an issue in my classes. Certainly performance shows no benefit from such activity. I would prefer that this committee address grade inflation and academic standards per se.

28.

No. It has not been an issue in my classes. Certainly performance shows no benefit from such activity. I would prefer that this committee address grade inflation and academic standards per se.

29.

All instructors should penalize and report AD cases. It is my understanding from student comments that some professors are either oblivious or don't care. That gives students mixed signals.

30.

A straw poll in my department revealed that at least two thirds of the faculty had experienced at least one incident of student cheating last semester. At this point, I'm thinking that the one-strike-and-you'reout rule is our best alternative.

31.

Give profs some technological tools to help with the problem. Invest in a database or two so that suspected work can be submitted in part to determine plagiarism. Seriously study legal ways to obstruct Paper Mills. Look into ways to get at their databases or to sue them as agents promoting cheating. Support a case in which a college or university sues such a clearing house because it directly impacts their educational mission.

32.

Some cases of AD clearly need to be reported and dealt with at the university level. Others, I think, can be best dealt with at the level of the course. I do not tolerate plagiarism in my classes and make this very clear. Students will receive no credit for anything they turn into me that contains plagiarized material. This is enough of a sanction in most cases.

33.

In general, I would say that faculty and students first need to learn more about it. Most students do not know the basic ideas behind it. I am not sure about what faculty understand.

34.

Avoid the mandatory if possible. Students should be allowed to learn from their mistakes without serious penalties until the activity is identified as repeating or chronic.

35.

it should be handled on a case by case basis.

36.

Commit more resources to Sally Morgan and her office. She has an ever increasing load of AD to deal with. Also, producing a CD or DVD of examples of AD for instructors to present in class at the beginning of each semester would be helpful.

37.

Provide training on how to develop assignments/tests that students can't cheat on.


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38.

This is largely an individual faculty members choice, but there does need to be a set of clear rules that are printed on every exam and the consequences

39.

Students should have to go through university sponsored counseling and specific training if they are found guilty of certain types of AD.

40.

This is largely an individual faculty members choice, but there does need to be a set of clear rules that are printed on every exam and the consequences

41.

give the faculty prerogative and support to deal with it on an individual basis; case by case is best.

42.

The one appeals case on which I sat as a faculty member was interesting, esp. as regards the (perhaps unethical) behavior by the university administrator in charge of convening the committee.

43.

I have heard about several incidents of AD in our department, but not every one held up. It is obvious that students don't always have the same understanding of what is acceptable as instructors think is obvious.

44.

no

45.

No.

46.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I have only been at UNR for two semesters, so the AD cases are from my faculty experiences at other universities. (Hint: you could design your survey to control for these kinds of variations.) re: 18-19: In my opinion, our most important tasks w.r.t AD are to help UNR students (1) develop morals and to (2) know the real world consequences of cheating. We help them (1) develop morals by forcing them to ponder -- by themselves-- the right/wrong of AD -- which my experiences show THEY WILL DO if given enough time. I give suspects at least a week between putting their exam in a separate pile and their meeting with me. During those days they always ponder! And they always come to the desired revelation. (Surprise!) The idea for my approach comes from Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment." Rules vs discretion? We should/must have very clear rules against AD. But faculty, especialy tenured faculty, must be given wide discretion in enforcing sanctions against it in order to achieve the desired outcome that students learn to police themselves. re (2): "In the real world" the consequence of cheating is usually NOT getting caught or punished. Obviously, many adults in elected, promoted, authority, and powerful positions, get away with cheating-- even when caught; and college students are well aware of all that. We need to teach that the real problems with cheating is that it HURTS OTHERS too. The problems also appear down the road: when people cannot depend on us becasue we don't really know what the score suggests we know; when profits aren't what we said they were; when there aren't the threats we said were there...complications snowball when we get into something by cheating or lying. I believe that we should not treat UNR students like children ("do this OR ELSE") but as adults. That means we have to show them the snowballing bad consequences of not doing their own work, and the good consequences of doing their own work. If the consequences of any AD is "fatal," they will never be able to learn from their mistake/ if caught. But it is precisely those students who need to learn why not cheat. (We do NOT want to teach them to find better ways to avoid getting caught.) They need to feel/learn the payoffs of good behavior. In sum, to address AD takes more effort from faculty; more discretion. The burden of writing "cheat proof" assingments and exams should be the professors'. They have to design assignments such that the "payoff" for cheating is that it's useless-immediately. The cheater's poor scores or "F" grades are punishment enough for their AD. Next, the faculty has to have the guts and the incentive to confront any suspect in order to start the internalization and learning process. There is no reason for faculty to bother if there is a cooker-cutter process that is out of their hands. That turns what could be a learning process into just another "its bad if you get caught-- so just don't get caught" lesson. I refuse to buy into a system that further reinforces the lesson "just don't get caught." (And that how the "report all cases to someone else" system currently in place looks like to me.)

47.

Consistency across instructors is important, but some flexibility needs to exist in the system based on faculty knowledge of the situation and student involved. I personally believe that only very serious breaches belong on student records. Knowing what standards are available would help faculty decide what to do as it is easy to become confused when challenged by an angry or aggressive student and procedures give faculty a leg to stand on.

48.

After my epidemic, I wrote a long memo to Stephen Hayes about my experiences and my ideas about addressing the issue. I am confident that he shared it with the committee. -- Horst Lange

49.

No additional comments

50.

Educate the students/residents when they get to school.

51.

The above suggestions would be great. Training for all students, not just freshmen, would be better.


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Transfer students often need this info too. Some education in the International students office would be good, as the understanding of plagarism, for example, is different in other countries. Thank you! 52.

I heard from one colleague that 90% of the students in her undergraduate class cheated. Amazing!

53.

focus on the recommended guidelines. Students need a chance to appeal but this should not be so elaborate that it deters the instructor.

54.

A high quality survey would have defined what you mean by academic dishonesty so that we can be sure we have a common understanding of whether you mean cases that were "proven" or included our suspicions, as well as situations where it is clear the student was just ignorant of what plagerism is... Or has gotten away with it for some many years that they think that what they are doing isn't plagerism.

55.

Education is a good place to start--it's clear to me that many students have no idea what actions constitute AD, and, in the case of plagiarism, they don't know how to avoid it. Also, it sometimes seems that they may have been taught how to plagiarize, and/or rewarded for it in high school, perhaps inadvertently. In addition to orientation, the required core humanities classes could be good opportunities to teach about AD. Lack of a printed catalog is a serious problem for both faculty and students when it comes to these issues. My experience is that most students are unaware of what the Catalog is or why it might be relevant to them.

56.

I applaud the very fact that this survey exists--because it shows that there is some dissatisfaction--and need to do something. A central policy and central support and central registry of the offenses would work on the prevention (!) and enforcement side. The literature on AD (which I teach as part of my course "social psychology of education") clearly shows that previous successful AD is a good predictor for subsequent instances of AD.

57.

I'm presently inclined to think that any standardized guidelines would either have to be pretty elaborate or else flexible enough to allow for good administrative judgment calls given the many differents kinds of work that our students do and the many degrees of dishonesty. It is not an all-or-nothing affair. And, by the way, faculty members could use a little stiffening up, too! E.g., many of us have cribbed class lecture notes, diagrams, etc., from various sources without explicit acknowledgement, and often such acknowledgement would be rather tedious or awkward to furnish explicitly, e.g., by cluttering up slides, handouts, etc. in a way that might not be useful to students.

58.

Expell students convicted of AD.

59.

I think advice to faculty on how to detect AD, and maintaining facilities that help this, like student computing and the library's on-line journals and books, are very helpful. I think some faculty would also appreciate some advice on the norms of sanctions and procedures for dealing with AD. I think that mandating procedures and sanctions would just cast a pall over our collegial environment, and motivate faculty only to ignore the issue of AD. If I think I have detected AD, I can now go directly to the student and work out a solution. This way the student can learn something. If I had to fill out forms and feel that I had an ironclad case to take to the Student Judicial Board, then that would be too much work and I would only turn in cases of really heinous AD. The students would learn very little then about avoiding AD.

60.

I don't think that we need any sort of Freshman seminar on cheating. As it is I think that some of our students lack in personal responsibility. I have had students say to me "I didn't know I couldn't use her project as my own". This is ridiculous and we shouldn't feed into it. However, I believe that plagiarism may be a confusing subject that might need to be addressed but that might be more of an English department issue.

61.

AD seems to be a much bigger problem for large, lower dividion classes. The opportunities for AD are just too numerous, but there are ways of mitigating much of it. A much more serious problem is the occasional case among graduate students. For these students, the penalties much be much more severe. I believe that if we hold faculty to high standards, and make it clear we are watching and aware, and sophisticated in our understanding, much AD will be headed off.

62.

I still see lack of academic advisement going on...studen ts take too many classes and work too many hours, therefore, they take short cuts...better advisement would ferret out the students who are in over their heads..in addition, better eduaction about what AD is would greatly assist,some are just clueless about what this means

63.

Zero tolerance, mandatory class failure for instances of AD. Three strikes you're out. Appeals only for the charge, not for the sanction.

64.

Perhaps more discussion of the topic with students at the beginning of their time at the university.


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65.

The faculty member should have less leeway in determining penalties; perhaps another office could determine the penalties. For junior faculty it is hard to be strict. I had several cases where I felt I could not penalize the AD as harshly as I wanted because I had too much choice in the matter. At the other school I taught at, it was much easier since the penalties were standard and out of the prof's control.

66.

Look, the cheaters among our student body and faculty (yes, faculty too!) are going to be cheaters and corner-cutters for the rest of their lives. 99% of the time, you can't take an 18 year old and change their basic character in 4 or 5 years. The upstanding students at UNR enter upstanding and leave upstanding. The corner-cutters follow a similar path. We have nearly 2 million people in college nationwide and we should not be in the business of saving souls. The students are customers and we are providers. End of story. Let them know the penalties and what AD means and how to avoid it. After that, if they are found guilty of AD, then they should be expelled.

67.

The presenting instructors with case studies is a good idea, so we can see how others deal with particular cases. However, I do not like the idea of a one size fits all instructors model.

68.

Consistency across campus and departmentally would certainly help the students as well as faculty.

69.

Inform and emphasize morals and ethics in student orientation. Our society's general moral & ethical standards are deteriorating (one only needs look at the recent cases of fraud in journalism), and our students reflect this.

70.

Some faculty to not feel like the UNR administration will support them in a disputed case over academic dishonesty with a student. To make any progress at all, this will have to be solved.

71.

Need to look at what best serves the student to encourage learning, honesty, and self reliance.

72.

This issue is rampant. The problem is not just here. It's hard to deal with these issues, each one takes hours to check, recheck, write letters, and support the case. Most faculty don't have time to do this. So, students get away it and then it's reinforced that it's okay. Efforts need to extend the high schools where these habits begin.

73.

Consider developing a real honor code...

74.

No.

75.

Other than education for the students regarding what exactly AD is and consistent and strict sanctions, I have no suggestions. I would like to say that this survey is timely. I am very discouraged about this problem. During the 10 years I have taught at UNR, AD has increased a GREAT deal.

76.

I do believe standardized language and freshmen "training" would be helpful. However, I would not be supportive of a system that takes away the ability for faculty to deal with such cases on an individual basis. For example, a cases of over-using intellectual property without appropriate credit CAN (if handled appropriately) become a tremendous learning opportunity, rather than an offense that may easily end a promising student's academic career.

77.

Reporting and substantiating AD is a lot of work for faculty. I think the burden of proof that they did their own work should be more on the student, and less burden of proof for cheating on the faculty member. A 10 day limit on finding and reporting AD is ridiculous and encourages students to cheat. Students have too many appeals in this matter and no repercusions for appealing obvious cases.

78.

I think AD is very individualistic and single recipes for all students could be as unfair as mandatory sentencing by judges. All persons should have the flexibility to do what is needed to preserve the integrity of the university and protect students from themselves.

79.

I know of teachers in programming classes where copying of programs and submitting them as their own is common. It is so difficult to deal with in terms of instructor's time nothing is done.

80.

A web page with resoruces that faculty can address. Workshops on preventing and dealing with AD-faculty, unfortunately, are rewarded at UNR primarily for their research, not for their teaching. That climate needs to change if teaching is to improve. The Provost's Office, Deans, and Chairs need to emphasize the value of teaching, including preventing and dealing professionally with AD. It should be part of responsive, responsible teaching.

81.

Judicial Affairs does a great job!

82.

I think that faculty would benefit from consistent guidelines. Furthermore, it should be made clear to students that faculty have every right to give them a failing grade in the course if they are caught cheating, that cheating will not be tolerated at UNR, and that it may be a permanent blemish on their record. However, faculty should have the flexibility to adapt their responses to AD according to


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circumstance. Faculty should have the right to decide whether or not to report observed cases of AD. They are the closest to the student and the situation. Top-down, Draconian solutions are not the answer. 83.

There should be more information and consistency. When I warn students (repeatedly) that if I catch them cheating or plagiarizing in my class, they will fail it, they roll their eyes, and act like I am so much crazier/stricter than other instructors. When they get caught, they don't want to face the consequences and say I am unfair because I am stricter than others and their particular case was "unintentional" (how you can unintentionally copy the Cliff Notes word for word I don't know) or "a minor case." They don't consider copying off the web a big deal. When I was an undergraduate, all students had to attend a lecture on the honor code during freshman orientation and sign a form saying that they had been there and understood. There was also the threat that one could be expelled. I would be in favor of such a level of stricter sanctions combined with more information and accountability.

84.

I think it is important to train students about AD and I also believe instructors need to retain the authority and have flexibility in how individual cases are handled. Guidelines for ways to handle these incidences might be a useful tool for instructors.

85.

I think this is a serious issue and it's worth our time, and the student's time to address it. It is an important part of their education.

86.

I am new so have little experience with this. There was one student in the department who in appropriately used notes for a comp exam but it was handled by someone else.

87.

All cases of plagiarism should be considered extremely serious violations; students committing such violations should be immediately expelled from the university. The President of the university should make a public statement, covered by the media (including the "Sagebrush"), stating that all cases of plagiarism and academic dishonesty will be dealt with harshly. If the President makes such a statement, then students will have been warned by the administration as to the policy on the campus. Thus, there could be no excuses accepted for such behavior.

88.

Leave it up to the professor. If s/he thinks it is serious enough to warrant punishment that extends beyond the class itself, the entire matter should be turned over to an independent enforcement board.

89.

Academic dishonesty and misbehavior is flagrant on this campus. Something must be done immediately.

90.

Though we catch plagiarism all the time in our courses using turnitin.com, the punishment varies depending on the instructor. there needs to be a set of rules to follow that are well-laid out and fair (single warning, then more severe punishment).

91.

It would be helpful if faculty were given suggestions regarding how we may prevent and recognize that AD is occuring. As I've noted, I have not detected any AD in any of the students in the three courses that I teach but I'm not so naive as to believe that some AD may not have occurred.

92.

The fraction of students who are caught is so small that we must punish (or at least identify to other faculty) those students we do catch. Otherwise there is no penalty to the student other than [possibly] failing a course.

93.

The University's reputation is on the line as is the future of students. Students who skate through problems of this nature will learn no lessons for life. A mistake as a student can be corrected if the student is serious about his or her studies and the greater issue of morality and ethics. University life is the last opportunity for the education system to effect a change in a student's life.

94.

Faculty should be provided with a clear understanding of the level of support they will recieve from upper administration on this issue.

95.

It should be discussed at least once a year in dept meetings....TA training should be vigorous in this area.....Provost should send periodic updates on the issue to all faculty via email merely as a signal of its importance, Provost might also send information re major cases that appear in national higher ed journals, newsletters, such as the Chronicle of Higher Ed.....most faculty are not privvy to these sources

96.

I think a short discussion of plagerism would help. I have had students take comments directly word for word and they referenced the information but it was not done with any intent to do any AD.

97.

I am new to UNR, so haven't have much exposure to AD.

98.

I don't know--it's almost like the US has developed a lying/cheating culture and students don't think academic dishonesty is such a bad thing to do. A lot of it has to do with their busy lives as well. If students had more financial support and didn't have to work full time and try to study full time as well, maybe they wouldn't be tempted to download assignments from the internet an hour before they're due.


Survey Detail

99.

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Spell it out on the UNR website. Under Academic Dishonesty. What are the rules of the game?

100. Regarding the last question and a few others: I did have one student years ago who had access to campus offices due to his being a Campus Escort. He was caught looking around in our office (Criminal Justice) for exams late at night. We faculty decided to have him officially removed from our dept./major. Perhaps some general understanding of these types of options that are available - punishment fitting the offense - through case studies, would be of assistance to other faculty. 101. Students should be made aware, perhaps even sign an agreement, that they have been informed of what constitutes AD. The excuse of "I didn't know" or "No one ever told me that" is being used as a convenient excuse by alot of students. Ignorance should not be an excuse. Instructors should also feel more comfortable and knowledgeable about what exactly constitutes dishonesty, and not fear backlash from the students if they take action. 102. I hate to see my TAs spending a lot of time searching out AD. If it hits you in the face AND you can document it fairly easily, I tell them, then do it. If you suspect it but can't prove it, make careful notes and ask the student innocently whether s/he used sources that s/he "forgot" to identify, and take it no further. That's how I handle my own classes. 103. Students repeatedlly tell us that they cheat because grades are more important than learning and because faculty don't care enough to catch AD. 104. Some university transcripts differentiate between an F for failing and an F for cheating or plagiarism. I think this is appropriate. Many students now try to use the grade appeal process to negotiate lesser sanctions for plagiarism. This is not appropriate. 105. Broad discretionary powers over penalties for plagiarism seem to me the essence of both faculty governance and academic freedom. That said, I understand that the issue is serious. More training of faculty about the sanction options available and of students about the nature and consequences of plagiarism would be helpful. I imagine. 106. There is not enough training of faculty on how to handle cases properly. 107. Guidelines would be helpful but the instructor should retain some discretion. Large classes in nearly-full theater-style lecture halls provide temptation to students that other settings do not. The seriousness of wandering eyes during an exam is a judgment call. Whenever less than half the seats will be occupied, I ask students to leave an empty seat between them during exams. 108. We should get a campus-wide license for turnitin.com. I also think it is important to catch incidents of plagiarism, or other forms of AD, in the freshman and sophomore years. The penalties should be meaningful, but not devastating except for egregious cases. I think that such a meaningful engagement in this issue for underclassmen will go a long way in solving the problem before our students graduate. Page Size: Show 250 per page






COBA Faculty Survey

Prepared on March 31, 2006 for the Academic Dishonesty Task Force

1

COBA Faculty Survey Regarding Academic Dishonesty (n=34) 1. Following is a list of academic dishonesty practices from the academic literature. For each, please indicate approximately how many, if any, students you caught in this practice during the 2005 calendar year. Number of Students Caught in 2005 (number/% of faculty responding) None 1-2 3-5 6-10 over10 a. Using previous exams even though the instructor would 30 1 disapprove if he/she discovered it. (n = 31) 96.8% 3.7% b. Obtaining questions or answers for an exam from a student who 32 has taken the exam. (n = 32) 100.0 c. Collaborating on an assignment when the instructor asked for 15 7 9 1 individual work. (n = 32) 46.9 21.9 28.1 3.1 d. Submitting another student's work as his/hers (n = 32) 25 4 2 1 78.1 12.5 6.3 3.1 e. Taking full credit for a group project without doing their fair 15 6 6 4 share of the work (free riding). (n = 31) 48.4 19.4 19.4 12.9 f. Partially or entirely submitting someone else's work without 21 5 3 2 proper acknowledgement (plagiarism). (n = 31) 67.7 16.1 9.7 6.5 g. Using previously submitted work for one course to fulfill 28 3 requirements in another course. (n = 31) 90.3 9.7 h. Falsely citing a source or attributing work to a source from which 28 2 1 the referenced material was not obtained. (n = 31) 90.3 6.5 3.2 i. Making up or changing data to support the ideas or theories stated 30 1 in an assignment or a project. (n = 31) 96.8 3.2 Total number of responses (multiple responses possible) 29 21 7 1 1j. Please indicate below any other practices in which you've caught students, and approximately how many students you charged with each. • • • • • •

• •

I don't seem to have a problem with this. I haven't had any collaboration since 2002. Despite clear guidelines stating that late homework is not accepted, several students have requested that I accept their homework late for lame reasons--for example, they hadn't bought the book yet. In the past I caught a student using torn out pages from the text book tucked into his notes on a test. Copying answers during an exam from another student's paper I found one student with notes during an exam which was to be closed books and no notes. I haven't "caught" anyone, however I did hear from a few students last semester (2 to be exact) that a couple students had an old test of mine from years back. When I first started teaching I didn't collect them. Now I always collect and keep the tests and make-up new tests every time. I also scramble the questions for each of my 4 sections of MGT323 in case students are giving the answers or trying to give the answers to students in other sections. Most common thing is just copying another student's work during a test (Less than one student per year) I don't have much problem with exams because of the way I give an exam; however, I am very concerned about the papers I assign. A number of the papers I review have clearly used material from the Web - students just don't write that well! The College should invest in the best plagiarism software so that we can inform students that 1 out of every 3 papers will be tested


2

For each dishonest practice below, please indicate what you think is an appropriate penalty for students who no doubt committed it. Check as many as apply. Number Checking each Response Category F in class F on Ask student to Redo assignment withdraw from assignment / /exam class grade penalty

2. Plagiarism on a written assignment 3. Making up or changing data to support the ideas or theories stated in an assignment or a project. 4. Using unauthorized information during an exam (e.g., notes or other student) 5. Collaborating on a take home exam without the instructor's permission. 6. Obtaining questions or answers for an exam from a student who has taken the exam 7. Collaborating on an assignment when the instructor asked for individual work. 9. Submitting another student's work as his/hers. 10. Taking full credit for a group project without doing their fair share of the work (free riding). 11. Using previously submitted work for one course to fulfill academic requirements in another course. 12. Falsely citing a source or attributing work to a source from which the referenced material was not obtained.

Redo assignment /no grade penalty

No penalty /Discuss seriousness of problem

No penalty Other /ignore it (response next page) 6

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Activity 2. Plagiarism on a written assignment

Other penalty Indicated on previous question Zero on assignment F in class only on big infraction Discuss ethics with student/ Apology The penalty for this and the below violations depends on the extent of the violation (.e.g, plagiarising an entire paper v. one sentence). Noting this on student's academic record Depends on intent 3. Making up or changing data to support the Zero on assignment at a minimum ideas or theories stated in an assignment or a Discuss ethics with student/ Apology project. Noting this on student's academic record Depends on the % of final grade 4. Using unauthorized information during an Discuss ethics with student/ Apology exam (e.g., notes or other student) Noting this on student's academic record 5. Collaborating on a take home exam without the Zero on assignment instructor's permission. Last time I split the grade Noting this on student's academic record 6. Obtaining questions or answers for an exam This is a case by case situation. Question is too ambiguous as from a student who has taken the exam worded. For instance, I allow stdudents to keep exams. I change questions around from semester to semester. So, it is appropriate for students to have exams in advance. Alternatively, if This is the instructor's fault Both should be penalized - may depend upon how much information was exchanged. Hard to blame student for lazy prof. So, serious discussion with prof! Hard to know what penalty to impose here but probably not unlike cheating on any exam - F To both provider of information and recipient Noting this on student's academic record Just about impossiblr to prove Change exam rather than being so lazy 7. Collaborating on an assignment when the Last time I slit the grade instructor asked for individual work. Divide credit among students who generated the work Noting this on student's academic record 9. Submitting another student's work as his/hers. Noting this on student's academic record 10. Taking full credit for a group project without Students need to evaluate peers doing their fair share of the work (free riding). Grade penalty reduced grade including F depending on severity I usually have other group members grade their contribution reduced grade based on actual work done This is a group issue, groups can fire a student for not contributing, or let him/her have the grade - up to them In many cases idon't we do this with our reserach. 11. Using previously submitted work for one course to fulfill academic requirements in another If you have specifically said that this is cheating, then there should be a penalty. Sometimes expanding on a previous project could be a good course. thing. unless specifically indicated otherwise there is no problem with plagarising yourself for multiple purposes I don't necessarily consider this cheating It is the student's intellectual property

12. Falsely citing a source or attributing work to a source from which the referenced material was not obtained.

Depends on the % of final grade


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13. In the space below, please write any other dishonesty incidents you’ve caught, and what penalty you imposed for each.

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This is just an additional comment - no other place allowed for that. I think the penalty should increase with the grade level of the course - I think asking a student to withdraw from a course or failing an assignment is an acceptable penalty in a 200-level course. In a 400-level capstone course, the same infraction should probably result in failing the course. At some point (if cases of academic dishonesty have been documented) it should result in expulsion. stealing solutions to problems and using it to write paper/F on assignment Plagarism and cheating on exams seem to be the most common. Using technology to enable cheating is becoming more and more common. I asked students on a recent exam how to thwart some of these practices. Responses were mostly 'uninteresting' as it became somewhat apparent in answers that cheating wasn't that big of a deal. I have resigned myself to believe these students are okay with cheating themselves. SOrt of discouraging. A friend relayed a description of contemporary students - called them the "reset Generation" Borne from the gaming craze, many young people simply reset games when they don't go in direction they would like. Evidently the (cynical) view is many treat life in the same manner. Yikes! Cheating on an exam by copying answers of another student. F in course and not allowed to stay registered. Copying computer files from one student to another and submitting as their own work; I was not allowed to punish in any way academically because I took too long to grade the projects; I did recommend the students for a Judicial Review. I wanted to give each of them an F in the class. I have not caught any in the last few years; however, I believe that the writing assignments are not always original with the student. There is simply too much effort to track it down. That is way the College should invest in software to ease this process.

14. Now we'd like to know whether you agree or disagree with the following statements regarding your views and possible solutions to academic dishonesty found in the academic literature. Mean a. It is important for COBA to develop better strategies for improving academic honesty among our students b. COBA faculty should create guidelines for dishonesty penalties (for consistency across classes) c. Students should sign an academic honesty code in each class d. Students should sign an academic honesty code when they declare a COBA major e. There should be a student honor code in COBA f. Faculty should include information about academic dishonesty in their syllabi g. Academic dishonesty is currently a big problem among COBA students h. I am fully aware of the procedure for dealing with academic dishonesty through Student Judicial Affairs i. (If aware) I usually follow the UNR procedure for dealing with AD


4.50

Number responding 32

4.22

32

3.34 3.88

32 32

4.31 4.52

32 31

3.56

32

3.39

31

3.96

26

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15. Finally, what additional strategies do you think would improve academic honesty among COBA students? • Faculty should adopt evaluation procedures that make it almost impossible to cheat. For example no take home exams, different exams for different sections, make new exams for each new class and reduce group work to a minimum. • Essentially, better teaching leads to less cheating. Don't use the same exam questions in different sections; don't repeat assignments term to term; don't create what students view as busy work. Some of the responsibility lies with the faculty and this survey ignores that aspect of the problem. There are , of course, many items you have listed that indeed are the students' responmsibility, but you really are igniring a major cause of the problem if you do not address teaching practices. I have altered my teaching to reduce the opportunities for AD and have seen students respond to this. Most of our students are very good kids and want to do well honestly. I view a large part of our responsibility is to enhance and reinforce positive ethical values. There is nothing more frustrating to a student than a teacher they feel is disinterested in their education and personal development. • I haven't had to deal with any AD so I didn't answer question i. • I think in some instances we need to define academic dishonesty. If a written paper is assigned acceptable/unacceptable practices need to be discussed in detail. • Faculty creating new exams for different classes and semesters Using a plagiarism service where students submit all papers prior to grading Raising student awareness of dishonest behavior and penalties • Hard to know. Legally, what has held up is failing students on the assignment unless there is documented evidence of a consistent pattern of cheating - in which case an F is sometimes warranted. In our litiginous society even the lawyers cheat the system with their interpretations. As indicated, I take several steps to mitigate cheating but ultimately the strongest case I can make is create compeling arguments that dishonesty cheats the cheater most of all. • I doubt that cheating is a COBA problem--I think it is a UNR problem. Part of student orientation should be a long segment about the policies and penalties for cheating. I also think that students caught cheating should not be allowed to complete a course evaluation OF a faculty member-many students resent faculty for penalizing them for their cheating and "poison" the teaching evals with their responses. • I am not sure how signing a statement will help. Am I to assume that if they have not signed the code it is ok to cheat? Unless there is a big disincentive AD will continue. Maybe bar them from the College or not allow them to use University placement services. • There has to be a corporate culture in the College which does not tolerate cheating. This culture needs to be embraced by all faculty. • Minimize the paperwork, time and other penalties that accrue to faculty who detect and attempt to deal with dishonesty. This encourages faculty to assess penalties rather than look the other way. The student body is a very clever organism - it would not take long for it to realize that dishonesty IN FACT was being routinely detected and punished • As professors, it is important that we recognize this issue, and to this end, we must do our part by not using the same exams year after year, (recycling), and designing new assignments each semester. Thus eliminating a portion of a students ability to engage in dishonest practices. • I think it is important to be consistent, both across students and across professors, and to not have administrative pressure to go easy on a student. I think professors need to communicate what problems they find to their colleagues and what they did about it, even though student privacy must be respected. • training on what is AD, the harms and unfairness of AD, making them realize it is not the norm, peer pressure • A way to separate student evaluations - if you sanction a student, he/she should not be able to evaluate the instructor. • Software to help detect copying from the Web.


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Be harsh when you catch something blatant. Expect honesty, emphasize its importance, and treat students with respect unless caught

16. Please indicate your rank (n = 31) • Full Professor (25.8%) • Associate Professor (25.8%) • Assistant Professor (19.4%) • Lecturer (full time) (25.8%) • LOA or LOB (3.2%) 17. How many years have you been teaching at UNR? (n = 31) Average = 11.6 years; range is 1-35 years 18. Gender (n = 31) • Male (60.0%) • Female (40.0%) 19. Department (n = 31) • Acct/IS (51.6 %) • Economics (22.6%) • Managerial Sciences (25.8%)


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