Plagiarism Detection and Prevention

I think it is important for instructors to incorporate the topic of plagiarism into their courses. Students need to be aware of other options and what the consequences could be. There are a lot of software programs now available for institutions to help check for plagiarism. Additionally, encouraging the student to recall on their own experiences and teach them how to properly cite sources could help deter them from plagiarizing, intentional or unintentional.

What plagiarism detection software is available to online instructors?

Turnitin.com, mydropbox.com, and scanmyessay.com are great tools for online instructors to check papers for plagiarism. Additionally, the students can upload their papers directly. This saves the instructor time and may help the students keep in mind proper rules of citations knowing their papers will be reviewed.

How can the design of assessments help prevent academic dishonesty?

Assessments can be created to encourage students to respond in their own words or based on their own experiences when possible. This would help eliminate academic dishonesty as the student would need to recall their own past experiences.

What facilitation strategies do you propose to use as a current or future online instructor?

I would be sure to educate my students regarding what plagiarism is, what the consequences are, and how to properly cite resources. According to Christine Jacoy and David DiBiase (2006),  “…students who received no explicit plagiarism instruction plagiarized twice as often as those who participated in active instructional activities such as class discussions of definitions of plagiarism, review of Turnitin.com plagiarism reports, and exercises requiring students to identify instances of plagiarism in example essays (pp 5).”

I would follow similar strategies to reduce plagiarism such as require students to upload to Turnitin.com and activities that help students identify plagiarism.

What additional considerations for online teaching should be made to help detect or prevent cheating and plagiarism?

Knowing your students can help. If you are familiar with their writing style in the discussion boards and how they interact with others, you can use this information when reviewing their papers. If the writing style is completely different then in other assignments, you may want to take a closer look. Additionally, if you know your student is struggling in writing or not properly citing resources, you could provide additional support.

References:

Jocoy, C., & DiBiase, D. (2006). Plagiarism by Adult Learners Online: A case study in detection and remediation. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 7(1), 1-15. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Week 5: Impact of Technology and Multimedia

Technology can greatly enhance the online learning environment for the student. New technology available today can be used for collaboration, which is extremely important for online learning. “Collaboration can energize learners, promote deeper learning, and make learners more self-reliant (Horton, 2000, p 334).” Examples of collaboration tools are Wikis and Discussion Boards. New technology software also allows for live collaborative tools including Adobe Connect, Skype, and live chat.

In addition to making collaboration easier, technology also provides a way for individuals to enhance the instructional material to allow for interactivity. This would include technology used for games and simulations that enhances the students’ learning.

It is important for the online instructor to consider how well they know the technology, how well they feel their students will be able to use the technology, the level of support needed, and how the technology will help accomplish the course objective.

There are many technology tools out there, many of which the instructor may not be familiar with. It can be an overwhelming task to feel like you have to learn them all. It is a best practice to learn a few you feel will help meeting your learning goals and discipline (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010).

It is also important to consider how the instructor will support the students in the event they have trouble using the technology implemented. Technology that may be complex in nature can frustrate, distract, and discourage learners. This can cause them to feel like they wasted valuable time or give up altogether (Horton, 2000).

To help reduce any frustrations or the time it takes to support the students, only technology relevant to the course objectives should be used. “Focus on the essential tools, and build your first course around those tools. You can branch out later as you teach the course a second or third time and gain experience, confidence, and a sense of exploration (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010, p 57).”

Usability and accessibility of the technology tools is very important in the online environment. To keep students from becoming distracted or discouraged with technology issues, it makes sense to use technology tools that more students will be able to access. Instructors should avoid unnecessary technology to reduce technical hurdles. It is important for the instructor to consider what technologies their learners may already be familiar with and use those rather than require them to learn new technologies (Horton, 2000). If the students do not have the proper web browser or plug-ins to access the course’s multimedia, the students can easily get discouraged.

Of the tools I have become more familiar with, the ones most appealing are Wikis, Discussion Boards, and synchronous collaboration tools like Adobe Connect.

Technology, if used properly by the instructor, can provide significant benefits to the students’ learning experience in the online environment. Technology is always used, even just the Course Management System that displays the basic instruction. It can be frustrating for students if there is a long list of technology requirements to attend the course. Students that may be less familiar with technology may be more inclined to pass up online class altogether (Horton, 2000). In addition, instructions must be able to provide the proper level of technical support for their students.

If you are able to overcome the possible technical hurdles, technology can really enhance the user experience. There is a considerable amount of technology available for online learning, a lot of which now has tutorials to learn it and may come at no expense. “These tools make it possible to design almost any learning experience that you have designed for your face-to-face environment (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010, p 58).”

References:

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). Phase One:What's Happening, Themes, and Tools. The online teaching survival guide: simple and practical pedagogical tips (pp. 57-62). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Horton, W. K. (2000). Overcoming technical hurdles. Designing Web-based training: how to teach anyone anything anywhere anytime (pp. 334-484). New York: Wiley.

Week 3: Setting Up An Online Learning Experience

It is important to know what technology is available to you when designing an online course. It is especially important when designing activities and other learning assignments. Knowing which activities you can utilize or create may vary depending on the tools available to you. According to Boettcher and Conrad (2010), there is a variety of tools that can be used for virtually any learning experience. Additionally, you can simply choose the one that is best suited for you and your class. Without know what is available, it would be harder to design activities.

It is very important for learners to know what is expected from them. In an online learning environment, it may be harder for an instructor to tell if a student is clear or has a misunderstanding until after the project of activity has already been completed. “Clear and unambiguous guidelines about what is expected of learners and what they should expect from an instructor make a significant contribution to ensuring understanding and satisfaction in an online course (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010, page 55).”

In addition to knowing your technology tools and communicating clear expectations to learners, it is also important to have a sense of presence and community online. According to Boettcher and Conrad (2010), an online community builds knowledge and competencies among the students and is a network for mutual respect and encourages the sharing of ideas.

It is important to try and make the online learning experience as successful as possible. Some individuals will struggle with online technology and how it varies from traditional face-to-face classroom instruction. Knowing this ahead of time can help you prepare your learners for the online environment. Helping them achieve their learning goals and objectives is significant.

After further research, it is clear that a social presence, community and clear expectations are important factors in the overall success of the online class. While this has been mentioned quite often, I didn’t realize how it can impact successful learning. “Presence is the most important best practice for an online course (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010, page 53).”

I will keep this in mind as a requirement for the class, not just an added value.

 

Reference:

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). Phase One: What's Happening, Themes, and Tools. The online teaching survival guide: simple and practical pedagogical tips (pp. 51-70). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Week 1: Online Learning Communities

Having an online learning community where the students can interact with each other will help impact learning and their experiences. The online classmates can provide support, as well as, challenge each other in positive ways in taking the learning to a new level. Students can provide each other professional, honest feedback in a way that an instructor may not be able to, considering the relationship with student-to-student differs from instructor-to-student. Students may feel more comfortable discussing certain projects and topics with each other, and look to the instructor for guidance and knowledge. These communities help to build and foster positive relationships and possible friendships.

It is important for the instructor to create the online community, monitor it, and increase participation. It is important to develop a supportive online course community that balances the dialogue between student-to-student, and student-to-instructor. It may help to section an area of your CMS that will focus solely on discussions, student-to-student interaction, similar to Walden’s “Student Lounge”.  It is also important for the instructor to be familiar with the technology of these communication tools and to help make it easy for students to use.

An orientation class would be helpful to teach students how to learn communication tools online. It is important that students are comfortable using these communication tools so this online community will continue and be beneficial to the students.

Effective online instruction includes strategies for developing online communities. According to Conrad and Donaldson (2004), “In a learner-centered environment, those experiences are honored and woven into the academic experience through discussion and activities that provide opportunities for learners to lead (p 19).”

Reference:.

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Designing Online Engagement. Engaging the online learner: activities and resources for creative instruction (pp. 16-23). San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass.

Reflection

Based on the growth of distance education in the past 10 years, I presume that it will continue to grow at a rapid rate over the next 5 to 10 years. Once individuals’ perceptions are cleared up about the quality of distant education programs, more individuals may be inclined to take classes. Web technologies are created and enhanced to allow for more effective communication and learning. As these technologies continue to grow, it will help enhance distance education courses and communication methods. It seems probable that distance education will become more main stream and be used in unison with traditional face-to-face classrooms.

As an instructional designer, it is important when creating distance learning environments, to utilize the tools available today. It is important that we stay current with web technologies and continue to advance forward to keep our learners engaged. We can incorporate our ideas and proven learning methods that incorporate distance learning in our work. I think it is also important that we be willing to try new technologies to test the effectiveness as new learning tools are introduced. This will keep us moving forward with technology and avoid being “stuck in the past”.

In addition to our own work, we can also share our ideas and our findings (backed by research and proven results) with our colleagues, friends, and family. This will help us improve the current perception of distance learning.

Week 7 Application - Converting to Distance Education

For this assignment, I do feel it is important for this frustrated trainer needs to plan, plan, plan.

He should consider his trainees and how they will respond to the online format, will they have the support they need to learn the new web technologies the trainer will incorporate? There is also a lot to consider in regards to how the cirriculum may need to be revised. Utilizing the web to add to his training class could provide a great benefit, as long as he plans the online portion, provide proper expectations to students, and make sure everyone has the proper technical support.

Click here to open PDF document.

Week 5: Application - Open Course

For our week 5 application, reviewing open course websites, I chose Open Yale (http://oyc.yale.edu) to see how well it was designed for distance learners.

While the class does appear to be carefully planned as far as the instructional material goes, it does not appear to be designed for a distance learning environment. The course material is the same material given in a classroom setting. Each class has a video, audio, or a transcript you can choose from of a professor teaching the material in front of a classroom. It also provides PDF documents of the mid-term and final for the class.

According to Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2009), faculty should do more than simply have course handouts and lectures displayed on the web and call it teaching online. Without additional online activities for students, it’s almost as if they were attending the class themselves, only instead of sitting in the classroom they are sitting at home (or wherever there is internet connection). “Online activities for students should have specific pedagogical or course management purposes.” (p. 248). Unfortunately, the only online material present in the Open Yale courses are videos of the actual lecture, and copies of the tests handed out in class. There are no additional online activities, designed specifically for the distance learner, or collaboration efforts to aid online students with communicating with other learners.

Simonson et al. (2009) discusses several fundamentals of teaching online and gives advice to help aid faculty in creating effective online learning courses. One of the recommendations is to ensure the organization of the course is clear to students and properly display the expectations and requirements to complete the class. One thing that Open Yale succeeds on is creating an online syllabus that goes over the description of the course, what the requirements are, and how the grading is done. Students will be able to know what the expectations are before continuing to the class material.

In addition to being clear on the requirements, Open Yale administers test questions applicable to the course material as it relates to the field. Simonson et al. (2009), recommends avoiding objective online testing, as these types of questions are “…not likely to be typical applications of the course material in the real world.” (p. 250) While the questions themselves are relevant and apply directly to the knowledge necessary to acquire, the tests are not administered in an online format. The mid-term and the final are PDF documents available on the web. It even comes with an answer key to grade your own test. Students would need to demonstrate a high level of discipline in studying without an instructor available to answer questions. Students on are their own in each course they choose to take.

Simonson et al. (2009) goes on to discuss the importance of integrating powerful web applications, applying adult learning principles, extend the course readings beyond the classroom required text, and assist students in this environment with learning the different technology tools. These are all valid recommendations, but clearly not what Open Yale had in mind when choosing to upload class courses online. While there is no question about the quality of the instructor and course materials, or that it is designed for adult learners, there is, however, a lack of web integration, collaboration between students and instructor (and students to students), and nothing reaching beyond the actual classroom to try and expand student interest and knowledge.

Open Yale did not incorporate online activities to engage students in this course. There are no ways to communicate with the instructor, chats, projects, online quizzes or tests, or even a discussion board for online collaboration.

The bottom line is Open Yale has great learning material, available free to anyone wanting to learn the subject, but not designed for an online learning environment. Simonson et al. (2009) states, “…courses previously taught in traditional classrooms may need to be retooled. The focus of the instruction shifts to visual presentations, engaged learners, and careful timing of presentations of information.” (p. 127) To save time (and probably money), classes are simply uploaded to the website, for others to download; no communication or collaboration necessary.


References:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Instructional design for distance education. Teaching and learning at a distance: foundations of distance education (4th ed., pp. 125-247). Boston: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson

Online video lectures and course materials — open yale courses. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2011, from http://oyc.yale.edu