Running head: INTERNET PLAGIARISM
The Growing Trend of Internet Plagiarism: New Cause
for Concern in Canadian Schools
Jillian L.O. Bussiere
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INTERNET PLAGIARISM
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Introduction
Over the last few decades, technology has revolutionized the way people send and
receive information. Laptops have become more commonplace than home computers, email has replaced letter writing, and text messaging has enabled people to make instant
contact anywhere in the world. These rapid changes in technology have created a sense of
urgency that today’s youth must not only learn how to use technology, they must learn
how to use it effectively. Whose responsibility is it to ensure this happens? If you ask
many of today’s educators, it appears that the job has been given to them by default. This
is a huge task, one that many educators do not feel equipped to handle, especially given
the fact that technology is always changing. What makes this task even more arduous is
that as this technological revolution continues, teachers are noticing that more and more
students are becoming adept at using technology to take shortcuts when completing their
assignments rather than relying on their own creativity. This has lead to an increase in the
occurrence of Internet plagiarism in many classrooms across this country and around the
world. While plagiarism is something educators have seen before, Internet plagiarism has
given them new cause for concern given its scope and its implications for teaching.
Although we know it is a problem, finding a way to address Internet plagiarism
appears to be more difficult than we originally thought. Instead of feeling like we have
the answers, we are faced with a whole new set of questions that need to be answered if
we are going to teach this new generation of young people to be “responsible stewards of
information.” Some of these questions include: Why do students plagiarize? Who is to
blame for its widespread growth in learning communities throughout Canada and around
the world? Are plagiarism detection programs necessary in order to reduce the amount of
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plagiarism that occurs in schools, or is there a better solution? Finally, as teacherlibrarians, what can we do to equip students and teachers with the tools they need to
address the growing problem of plagiarism in schools? In order to provide a solution for
the problem, we need to have all of the background information!
Background Information
Before we can address the problem of Internet plagiarism, we need to know why
it exists in the first place. This can only be accomplished when we thoroughly examine
the existing research and begin to draw our own conclusions. When we do this, we
discover that students plagiarize for a variety of reasons: Some students are so busy
trying to do everything else, that they leave their assignments until the last minute and in
a rush to get it done, choose to submit someone else’s work rather than their own
(Whiteman & Gordon, 2001). Others purchase assignments from the Internet or use
chunks of text from various sources because they want to get good marks (Hamilton,
2003). Another group of students who plagiarize do not even know that they are doing it
because they have never been taught what it is, or how to properly cite Internet
documents (Snodgrass & Bevevino, 2005). A final group of students plagiarize because
it’s easy and they think they can get away with it (Renard, 2000). In her article entitled
Plagiarism: Librarians Help Provide New Solutions to an Old Problem, Denise Hamilton
(2003) provides further insight into the problem:
Some students just don’t care. They claim they are too short on time, or that the
assignment is “bogus,”or the course isn’t within their major and so it doesn’t
matter anyway. Some overachievers fear that what they write themselves won’t be
good enough, and then there is the contingent of students who are just plain lazy.
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There are also honest students whose plagiarism is unintentional, because they do
not fully understand how to summarize, paraphrase, and make correct
bibliographic citations. (p. 26)
This realization is frustrating for today’s educators who are already skeptical about the
role that technology plays in education and disheartened by the fact that Internet
plagiarism appears to be on an incline rather than a decline. Hamilton offers some
comfort when she notes that, “Technology has made plagiarism easier, but it has also
made it easier to detect” (p. 26).
In a similar article called Cut and Paste 101: Plagiarism and the Net, Lisa Renard
(2000) puts all Internet cheaters into one of three categories: the unintentional cheaters,
the sneaky cheaters, and the all-or-nothing cheaters. According to Renard, the
unintentional cheaters are those students who don’t know they are cheating because they
have never been taught how to cite Internet sources or how to put text into their own
words. The sneaky cheaters understand that what they are doing is plagiarizing, but they
do it anyway because they rarely get caught. Finally, the all-or-nothing cheaters are
Renard’s version of students who put off doing the work and end up running out of time.
While both Renard and Hamilton recognize that students who plagiarize do it for very
different reasons, they also acknowledge that this doesn’t make it right. If we are going to
minimize plagiarism in our classrooms, then students need to be shown that there are
alternatives to cheating. Rather than contributing to the problem by pretending it doesn’t
exist, we need to help find a solution.
Who’s to Blame?
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Doug Johnson not only believes that educators need to help find a solution, he
believes we are part of the problem. In his article The Other Side of Plagiarism, Johnson
(2004) contends that students cheat because the assignments that we give them make it
too easy for them to do so. He maintains that, “As educators, it is our ethical failing if our
assignments do not help students learn necessary academic and life-long skills. Research
assignments that only reach Bloom’s Taxonomy levels of Knowledge and
Comprehension do neither” (p. 98). In other words, Johnson believes that students
plagiarize because assignments do not challenge them to use higher level thinking skills,
critically analyze texts, or develop their own hypotheses and conclusions. If students are
only required to “regurgitate” information that they have read on the Internet, then why
would they make the effort to put it into their own words? Of course one can argue that
regardless of assignment design, students still have the choice whether to plagiarize or
not, but to what degree does this responsibility lie with educators?
Based on evidence from other studies, I would have to agree with Johnson’s claim
that teachers are partially to blame for Internet plagiarism. Like Johnson, these educators
believe that if teachers continue to give assignments that only require students to use
existing information, they will be more and more likely to hand in assignments that have
been “borrowed” from online sources (Drogemuller, 1997; Rocklin, 2000; Whiteman &
Gordon, 2001). In her article, Pushing Against Plagiarism Through Creative
Assignments, Kate Cummings (2003) points out that, “We as educators need to take a
look at what we do to contribute to this situation. Can we restructure our assignments to
make plagiarism less effective? Are we willing to make the effort?” (p. 22). Instead of
complaining about the problem, Cummings encourages us to do something about it and
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suggests that a good place to start would be to change our assignments. We can do this by
using WebQuests, giving students choice, or using inquiry-based projects to direct
students’ learning. These types of projects lend themselves more to original work, than
assignments that simply ask students to recite facts. Cummings states:
We need to help our students become comfortable being creative. We need to
encourage them to digest information and to reformulate it by giving them a
venue that requires them to present information in a new light or with a unique
twist. This approach may mean more work for the educator, but I believe that one
of the best solutions to the problem of plagiarism lies in the assignment. (p. 23)
If we believe what Cummings is saying, then we are going to have to put the time and
effort into making our assignments creative. If we do not assign tasks that are relevant to
students and that encourage them to contribute to their own learning, then we cannot be
surprised when students hand in work that is plagiarized. Instead of being part of the
problem, we need to be part of the solution!
Being part of the solution means more than just redesigning assignments. It also
means teaching kids what plagiarism is and how to avoid it (McCullen, 2003). It means
showing them how to cite Internet documents and holding them accountable for it
(Drogemuller, 1997). Being part of the solution means walking students through the
research process and expecting them to hand in rough drafts at each stage of the project
(Renard, 2000). It means showing students how to summarize, paraphrase, and take
proper jot notes (Snodgrass & Bevevino, 2005). Most importantly, being part of the
solution means having clear expectations for students’ work and firm consequences when
these expectations are not met (Bugeja, 2004). In his article Designing Cyber-
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Assignments, Richard Drogemuller (1997) gives us a set of guidelines to follow when
designing assignments for students:
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Make the assignments interesting and relevant to students.

Involve the parents in the research process.

Make sure students hand in at least one rough draft.

Teach students how to reference and give credit to their sources and then allow
them to practice this skill.

Make students hand in an original copy of one item that is on their reference list.
Drogemuller believes that in order to eliminate plagiarism in our classrooms, students
need to be taught what good research practice looks like. They need to be guided through
the process and then held accountable for each stage of their learning. When we do this,
we encourage good work habits and put the onus back on our students to produce work
that is both creative and original. Ultimately, we want them to take responsibility for the
work they produce and the decisions they make!
Based on what we are currently seeing in our classrooms, not all of our students
are taking this responsibility seriously. In classrooms throughout Canada, students are
still submitting work that has been copied from other sources. If we truly believe that
educators should be held responsible for their part in the problem, then it only makes
sense that we hold students accountable too. Research shows that most students who
plagiarize are not making a conscious choice to cheat (Snodgrass & Bevevino, 2005). For
these students, the solution is really quite simple: They need to be taught what plagiarism
is and how to avoid it. What about students who plagiarize even though they know it is
wrong? For these students, the issue becomes one of morals and ethics, something that
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they seem to be lacking. In an article entitled The Price of an A: An Educator’s
Responsibility to Academic Honesty, Sherri Whiteman (2001) claims:
Students will always be stressed and over-scheduled. Capitalists will always
tempt students to spend their parent’s cash in order to slack off. Teachers will
always assign papers that are less than perfect than they could be. But isn’t the
key of the matter the integrity of our students rather than our ability to entertain
them? Our students must learn that cheating is wrong, not only because there is a
distinct possibility of getting caught, but also because they have a moral
responsibility. (p. 30)
When we teach our students what plagiarism is and show them how to properly document
Internet resources, we are satisfying our responsibility to teach them these morals. When
we show them how to paraphrase and give credit to the original source, we are giving
them the tools they need to make ethical decisions. Once we have done our part, the rest
is up to them!
Plagiarism Detection Programs
Although “the rest may be up to them,” educators can still take some precautions
to guard against plagiarism in their schools. One of these precautions is to use a
plagiarism detection program like Turnitin.com. This type of software enables educators
to copy student papers into the Turnitin.com database to see if any or all of the paper has
been plagiarized. Although the program is both useful and effective, I have to wonder if it
is worth the thousands of dollars that school divisions are spending on it. Isn’t there a
more cost-efficient way to check students’ assignments that is equally as effective?
According to Lisa Renard (2000) in her article Cut and Paste 101: Plagiarism and the
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Net, there are many ways that we can check to see if students’ assignments have been
plagiarized that do not incur any costs at all, other than our time:
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Searching the Internet using key words or phrases from students’ papers.
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Checking students’ reference pages.

Asking students questions about their papers and “terms” used within their papers.
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Obtaining a sample of all students’ writing at the beginning of the semester so that
there is something to compare it to.
Instead of paying thousands of dollars for a plagiarism detection program like
Turnitin.com, we can teach our students to be accountable for the information they use
from the Internet and how they use it. If students know that we will be checking their
reference lists and asking them questions about their papers, they will be less likely to
cheat and more likely to produce original work.
Teacher-librarians Role
While it is important to hold students accountable for the information they use
and how they use it, it is equally important to hold teachers accountable for teaching
these skills. Before we can do this, we must ask ourselves the following questions: Can
we expect teachers to demonstrate these skills if they have never been taught them? If we
expect teachers to redesign assignments or check papers for phrases that have been
plagiarized, but don’t teach them how to do it, is it realistic to expect them to develop
these skills on their own? If we haven’t shown teachers how to detect, avoid, and teach
students about plagiarism, then can we be surprised when the problem is getting worse
instead of better? The answer to all of these questions is of course, NO! We can’t assume
that teachers have these skills just because they are teachers. Instead, we must provide
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teachers with the same learning opportunities that we would give our students. In her
article Plagiarism: Librarians Help Provide New Solutions to an Old Problem, Denise
Hamilton (2003) tells us that the most logical person to provide this instruction is the one
trained as an information specialist, the teacher-librarian. Hamilton believes that teacherlibrarians can guide educators through the learning process by providing links to sites on
referencing, teaching mini-lessons about plagiarism, and even creating Web pages for
students and teachers that deal with these topics. Hamilton believes that, “Plagiarism will
not disappear, nor will the problems associated with detecting it. Librarians can help by
sharing their expertise with both students and educators” (p. 28). The reality is, that if we
want teachers to be part of the solution, then we need to teach them how!
Teachers must also be taught how to use “authentic assignments” to guide student
learning. This is another skill that we can’t just expect teachers to learn without giving
them examples and offering them our support. Nor can we assume that just because they
aren’t doing it, means they don’t want to. The reality is, that there are many teachers who
want to learn how to design assignments that are authentic, that go beyond requiring
students to simply reproduce facts, but no one has ever shown them how. Whose
responsibility is this? I believe that this responsibility lies with teacher-librarians. First,
we need to show teachers how to reformulate their ideas and reshape their research topics
in order to encourage students to use higher level thinking skills. Then we must teach
students “how to use available research materials to create and support an original idea”
(Minkel, 2002, p. 51). Teacher-librarians are in a good position to be able to provide
assistance in both of these areas by collaborating with teachers on their assignments and
working with students to develop good research skills. Annette Lamb (2004) shows us
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what this collaboration looks like in her article WebQuests, stressing the importance of
involving teacher-librarians in the research process:
Library media specialists play an important role in the use of WebQuests by
making certain that Web-based materials are carefully selected to support
information needs. In addition, they often collaborate with teachers in promoting
student knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to become effective users of
information. (p. 39)
When we collaborate with teachers on authentic assignments, we not only provide
opportunities for students to think critically, creatively, and independently, we show them
what good research skills look like!
In addition to seeing what good research skills look like, our teachers and our
students need to see what good assessment looks like. If we expect to see a reduction in
the amount of plagiarism in our classrooms, authentic assessments should be used to
evaluate authentic assignments. In her article Building Rubrics into Powerful Learning
Assessment Tools, Joette Stefl-Mabry (2004) reveals that, “Complex learning cannot be
assessed with simplistic measures. Both the processes and the products of student
learning must be carefully documented through authentic assessments that can measure
authentic learning” (p. 21). The more authentic our assignments are, the more important it
is to provide assessments that evaluate whether or not our students have achieved higher
level thinking skills. What type of assessments can tell us this? Stefl-Mabry believes that
the most effective tool for evaluating authentic assignments is the rubric, not only
because it allows teachers to “measure specific results,” but also because it allows
students to be part of the process. Stefl-Mabry states:
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Ultimately, a good rubric is a promise to the learner that the elements outlined in
the rubric are the valued, and therefore gradable, elements. A carefully
constructed rubric allows teachers and students to independently assess what the
student has or hasn't learned. (p. 21)
Rubrics eliminate the “guesswork” from assessment and make students and teachers
accountable for their part in the process. Rubrics also make it easy for students to see
what they have to do in order to achieve the grade they want, and then allow teachers to
support this learning. When we use authentic assessments like rubrics, we show students
that they must be responsible for each step of the learning process, not just the final
product.
How can teacher-librarians help promote the use of authentic assessment in their
schools and help reduce plagiarism? They can do this by showing teachers how to
develop and use their own rubrics. As these rubrics are being developed, teachers can be
encouraged to include components that invite creativity and original work, as well as
components that give value to each stage of the learning process. Rubrics can include
marks for drafts as well as final products, in an attempt to teach students “the process is
just as important as the product.” Teacher-librarians can post links on their Web sites that
give examples of reproducible rubrics than can be changed to suit any assignment. They
can sit down with teachers and show them how to access and use sites like Rubistar.
Once rubrics have been created, teacher-librarians can help evaluate student projects
using these rubrics. By making the process easy for teachers, and allowing them to see
how rubrics can be “tailor-made” to fit any project, teacher-librarians are not only
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encouraging authentic assessment, they are helping reduce the occurrences of plagiarism
in their schools.
Conclusion
The viability of reducing or even eliminating the amount of plagiarism that occurs
in Canadian schools depends on how committed we are to ensuring that it happens. It
depends on whether we are willing to put the time and effort into redesigning our
assignments, educating our students and our teachers about plagiarism, and creating
authentic assessment tools like rubrics to evaluate assignments. Now that we have all of
the facts, the decision is up to us. Are we going to hold our students accountable for the
decisions they make? Are we prepared to follow through with consequences if they
don’t? If the answer is yes, then we need to be willing to move beyond traditional ways
of instructing, giving assignments, and assessing these assignments. We must focus on
one common goal: to teach this new generation of young people to be “responsible
stewards of information” who are both willing and able to produce work that is both
creative and original. By addressing the challenges that educators face when confronted
with plagiarism: uninspired assignments, student morality, easy access to sites where
papers can be bought, lack of teacher training, and lack of knowledge about how to avoid
plagiarism, school divisions must begin to implement programs that require teachers and
students to be accountable for their learning. Teachers must be given opportunities to
learn about plagiarism and become involved in professional development initiatives that
will prepare them to teach these skills to their students. This is the only way that we will
even get close to achieving our goal.
References
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Cummings, K. (2003). Pushing against plagiarism through creative assignments. Library
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Drogemuller, R. (1997). Designing cyber-assignments. Australian Science Teachers
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Johnson, D. (2004). The other side of plagiarism. Library Media Connection, 23(1), 98.
Lamb, A. (2004). WebQuests. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 21(2), 38-40.
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Stefl-Mabry, J. (2004). Building rubrics into powerful learning assessment tools.
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