An active introduction to academic misconduct and the measured demographics of misconduct

An activity designed to actively introduce first year students to issues related to academic misconduct is described. The activity involves computing students writing a short essay on a topic related to the history of computing. The essays are subsequently automatically checked for non‐originality and the outcomes made available to the students. The results of approximately 350 students from two different sessions are analysed for any demographic influences. The only significant findings were that non‐originality was a predictor of non‐completion of first year studies and of a lower percentage outcome.

[1]  Richard G. Harris,et al.  Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers , 2002 .

[2]  J. Carter,et al.  Addressing student cheating: definitions and solutions , 2002, ITiCSE-WGR '02.

[3]  Linda Klebe Trevino,et al.  Individual and Contextual Influences on Academic Dishonesty: A Multicampus Investigation , 1997 .

[4]  B. Whitley,et al.  Gender Differences in Cheating Attitudes and Classroom Cheating Behavior: A Meta-Analysis , 1999 .

[5]  Thomas Lancaster Using freely available tools to produce a partially automated plagiarism detection process , 2004 .

[6]  John Waldron,et al.  A technique for measuring plagiarism in automated & distance learning environments , 2004 .

[7]  Stephen E. Newstead,et al.  Undergraduate Cheating: Who Does What and Why?. , 1995 .

[8]  Peter Vamplew,et al.  An Anti-Plagiarism Editor for Software Development Courses , 2005, ACE.

[9]  Paul D. Clough Measuring Text Reuse in a Journalistic Domain , 2001 .

[10]  Kevin C. Almeroth,et al.  Technology and Plagiarism in the University: Brief Report of a Trial in Detecting Cheating , 2003 .

[11]  J. Underwood,et al.  Student attitudes towards socially acceptable and unacceptable group working practices. , 2003, British journal of psychology.

[12]  James T. Neill,et al.  Who cheats at university? A self-report study of dishonest academic behaviours in a sample of Australian university students , 2005 .

[13]  Judithe Sheard,et al.  Influences on cheating practice of graduate students in IT courses: what are the factors? , 2003, ITiCSE '03.

[14]  Mike Hart,et al.  Plagiarism and Poor Academic Practice – A Threat to the Extension of e-Learning in Higher Education? , 2004 .

[15]  Kevin C. Almeroth,et al.  An Automated System for Plagiarism Detection Using the Internet , 2004 .