using writing assignment designs to mitigate plagiarism

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Teaching Sociology41(1) 94105

American Sociological Association 2013

DOI: 10.1177/0092055X12461471

http://ts.sagepub.com

Getting college students to write a good sociology

paper can be a challenging task for instructors.

Instructors want to see well-written papers and, of

course, to have students produce their own work.

The issues of academic integrity and academic

misconduct are complex. Students may justify

cheating, copying, and plagiarism by dismissing

the significance of these actions because every-body does them (Brezina 2000). Faculty may be

reluctant to react to cheating because of concerns

about student evaluations of their teaching (Albas

and Albas 1993). Change in access to higher edu-

cation has influenced university cultures so that

behavioral expectations of students, faculty, and

staff may or may not be shared (Van Valey 2001).

Institutional context may be important, as some

universities may increase penalties for misconduct

whereas others may increase the availability ofwriting centers so students can learn about proper

writing and citation styles.

This paper provides a brief review of the literature

on academic misconduct, describing its nature and

extent. The current study uses data from three differ-

ent weekly writing assignments to foster critical

thinking skills to evaluate how assignment design can

be used to both detect and prevent plagiarism. This

inquiry will address how instructors may design their

own assignments to mitigate plagiarism.

Nature and the Extent of AcademicMisconduct

Studies of various forms of academic misconduct

in the United States date back to the 1940s. Drake

(1941) found that almost one-fourth of students

461471 TSOXXX10.1177/0092055X12461471Teaching SociologyHeckler et al.2012

1Union University, Jackson, TN, USA2University of North Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA3University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Nina C. Heckler, PhD, Sociology Department, 1050

Union University Dr., UUBox 1858, Jackson, TN 38305,

USA

Email: [email protected]

Using Writing AssignmentDesigns to Mitigate Plagiarism

Nina C. Heckler1, David R. Forde2, and

C. Hobson Bryan3

Abstract

Growth in large courses, particularly in public higher education institutions, poses a number of critical

challenges within the context of dramatic increases in Internet use in the larger society. Now studentsfind it easy to copy others work without citation, extension, or application of critical thinking skills. If not

appropriately addressed, such plagiarism threatens the very authenticity of the educational experience, with

such concerns as quality and effectiveness of instruction seeming almost irrelevant. This research focuses

on the design of writing assignments to detect and prevent plagiarism. Three types of writing assignments

were examined using the Turnitin detection system to gauge potential plagiarism. The conclusion is that

faculty can design assignments to mitigate plagiarism.

Keywords

plagiarism, critical thinking (skills), critical pedagogy, active learning, student writing

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Heckler et al. 95

surveyed admitted to cheating in one form or

another. In fact, by most accounts, instances of

academic dishonesty in higher education increased

during the last few decades and remain high

(Bernardi et al. 2008; Macdonald and Carroll2006; McCabe 2001). Plagiarism constitutes a

significant segment of academic misconduct and is

of particular concern, since incidences of this type

of cheating are steadily increasing (Tackett et al.

2010). Authorities speculate that the contemporary

academic environment and computer technologies

heavily contribute to the increasing rates of plagia-

rism (Anderman, Freeman, and Mueller 2007;

McCabe 2005; Vowell and Chen 2004).

Commercialization of higher education representsthe latest trend that, among other variables, has

affected the academic environment. Factors that

began during the enforcement era (1945-1999) in

higher educationlarger and less personalized

classes, emphasis on learning as product rather than

processhave become even more accentuated (Pul-

vers and Diekhoff 1999). At least two issues have

contributed to the commercialization trend: financial

difficulties of colleges and universities caused by

decreases in funding to higher education from the

1970s to the 1990s and a shift to universal access

to higher education (Milliron and Sandoe 2008;

Slaughter and Rhoades 2004; Thelin 2004).

The development of computer and Internet tech-

nology, with its instant access to information and

cut-and-paste technology, also creates an optimal

climate for plagiarism (Dee and Jacob 2010; Walker

2010). Researchers note that in the past, plagiarism

required a lot of work: going to the library, searching,

reading, and copying. However, a paper can now be

put together by using online sources within a short

period of time (Batane 2010; Tackett et al. 2010).

Adding to the problem, the body of evidence indi-

cates that digital or Internet plagiarism has surpassed

these conventional forms of copying (Butakov and

Scherbinin 2009; Tackett et al. 2010). Martin, Rao,

and Sloan (2009) found that instances of digital pla-

giarism were actually higher than students were will-

ing to admit in self-report surveys.

Effects of Internet Technology

Observers point to computer technology and the

rise and spread of the Internet as now playing a

major role in both student behavior and institu-

tional responses to issues of academic integrity

(Maruca 2005; Townley and Parsell 2004; Ward

2003). The new trend is cooperative cheating,

whereby students attempt to help themselves whilehelping others through the sharing of resources via

the Internet and divvying up the work required on

assignments using computer technology (Bertram-

Gallant and Drinan 2010:25). Students of todays

Internet generation have been immersed in a cul-

ture that revels in trying on different personae and

sharing freely (Blum 2009:2).

Two trends of instruction in higher education

trace their genesis, at least in part, to Internet tech-

nology. One that both reflects and compounds theissues of the current commercialization phase in

higher education is the distance education move-

ment. Initially geared largely toward the adult

learner and those in rural areas without easy access

to higher education, distance education is expand-

ing as Internet technology gives higher education

officials the opportunity to extend their institu-

tions reach. Realizing that public universities in

particular can no longer rely on state revenues and

traditional students, administrators see the poten-

tial of online courses to increase their enrollments

and funding streams substantially (Sileo and Sileo

2008; Tate 2010). Another Internet technology-

driven trend is the increasing use of hybrid

courses (i.e., conventional courses with a signifi-

cant online component). These are considered to

be efficient generators of student credit hours pro-

duction; large numbers of students can be taught

with small numbers of faculty (Sileo and Sileo

2008; Tate 2010).

Institutional Response

The emerging institutional response to academic

misconduct has advanced from an enforcement

emphasis to a more holistic approach (Bertram-

Gallant and Drinan 2010; Sutherland-Smith 2008).

The idea is to balance the threat of punishment of

the institution with sound pedagogy of the faculty

(Compton and Pfau 2008; Long et al. 2009;

Sutherland-Smith 2008). Facultystudent interac-

tion is an important component of the holistic

approach. Students report that they are less likely

to cheat when they perceive instructors to be

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96 Teaching Sociology41(1)

friendly, approachable, and respectful in their

interactions (Garavalia et al. 2007). Faculty at

institutions of higher education have an important

role in preventing, allowing, or even encouraging

academic misconduct (Roache-Fedchenko 2009;Sutherland-Smith 2008).

A second component of the holistic approach

is problem recognition. That is, recognition by

the instructor of the nature and extent of plagia-

rism and acceptance of responsibility for deter-

ring it are pivotal in reducing it (Howard and

Davies 2009; Staats et al. 2009). Crown and

Spiller (1997:127) point to the implications of not

addressing the cheating issue, noting that when

cheating is not addressed, students may perceivethe environment as unfairly weighted towards

those who do not play by the rules, and respond

by either refusing to participate or joining the rule

breakers.

The holistic approach depends upon social con-

trol within the classroom, which is also in the

hands of the faculty (Lovett-Hooper et al. 2007;

Tackett et al. 2010). An instructors reputation in

regard to how he or she deals with cheating inci-

dences contributes to this factor (Faucher and

Caves 2009; Sutherland-Smith 2008). Disincen-

tives for academic dishonesty, likelihood of being

caught, and perceived severity of penalties by the

institution were all found to be factors in mitigat-

ing plagiarism (Dee and Jacob 2010; Tackett et al.

2010). When students perceived the instructor to

be vigilant and fair, they were less likely to cheat

(Ledwith and Risquez 2008; Lemons and Seaton

2011; Milliron and Sandoe 2008).

In sum, faculty have the most important role in

mitigating plagiarism in higher education (Van

Gundy et al. 2006). To the topic of this research,

the first line of defense for faculty is course design.

In fact, some authorities maintain that faculty can

and should be designing out plagiarism (Gan-

non-Leary, Trayhurn, and Home 2009:446).

The Case for Assignment Design

Numerous researchers point to course design as a

potentially important factor in preventing plagia-

rism (e.g., Compton and Pfau 2008; Gannon-Leary

et al. 2009; Parameswaran and Devi 2006; Samuels

and Bast 2006). Among the most integral elements

of course design are assignment strategy and struc-

ture. Specific strategies include designing assign-

ments for collaborative work (Hart and Friesner

2004; Kasprzak and Nixon 2004; McCord 2008;

Pedersen 2010), having students turn in the actualsources used in research assignments (McCord

2008; Samuels and Bast 2006; Sterngold 2004),

collecting students field notes (Pedersen 2010),

having students submit work through plagiarism

detection software (Batane 2010; Gannon-Leary et

al. 2009; Walker 2010), having students turn in

progressive work products for large projects

(Gibson et al. 2006; McCord 2008; Samuels and

Bast 2006), varying the nature and frequency of

assignments (Batane 2010; Bernardi et al. 2008;McCord 2008; Sutherland-Smith 2008), and devel-

oping assignments that require evaluation and

reflection of material rather than collation of mate-

rials (Batane 2010; Howard and Davies 2009;

Sutherland-Smith 2008).

Since the aforementioned design strategies

were inferred from students self-reports of cheat-

ing, research assumptions, or student and faculty

perceptions for reducing cheating behaviors and

were not tested, there appears to be a dearth of

empirical evidence to support specific strategies.

The research hypothesis for this study is that the

more students are required to evaluate critically

and to apply the content that they read about, the

less they will plagiarize assignments. In the con-

text of the cognitive tasks, these types of assign-

ments necessitate hands-on activity (or active

manipulation of information) and are not laid out

for the student on the Internet or in a book. Stu-

dents have to operateon the information, not just

regurgitate it.

Plagiarism Detection

A key problem in researching plagiarism has been

the lack of reliable empirical data on the frequency,

nature, and extent of plagiarism in written assign-

ments. With the development of plagiarism detec-

tion programs (e.g., Turnitin, My Drop Box,

EVE, Safe Assign, PlagiServe, CopyFind, and

Wordcheck), a widely used array of tools for

operationalizing plagiarism have emerged

(Ledwith and Risquez 2008). Although not detect-

ing all plagiarism, these services provide a way to

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Heckler et al. 97

measure the level of similarity between students

work and material publicly accessible online. An

advantage to the instructor is that the searching and

reporting are automated, so time is saved in pre-

senting the results and in determining the plagia-rism source. However, the instructor needs to

understand that a computerized detection system is

an imperfect tool with results that must be read and

interpreted by the instructor (Gillis et al. 2009).

Turnitin detection software is the most glob-

ally used plagiarism detection service available

(Batane 2010; Butakov and Scherbinin 2009). The

system compares submitted papers to papers from

its database and provides a report that indicates the

percentage of similarity between the two (Butakovand Scherbinin 2009; Davis and Carroll 2009;

Sutherland-Smith 2008). Although not all studies

support the accuracy and effectiveness of this text-

matching software (e.g., Potthast et al. 2010), a

large body of evidence suggests that this software

can be an effective tool in detecting plagiarism

(e.g., Batane 2010; Ogilvie and Stewart 2010;

Tackett et al. 2010; Walker 2010).

The Present StudyEmpirical data on mitigating plagiarism through

assignment design appear to be largely absent or

nonexistent; therefore, the present study sought to

investigate plagiarism using Turnitin overlap

scores across three assignment designs.

Specifically, we sought to investigate the extent to

which plagiarism occurs and how these respective

strategies compare in instances of plagiarism. The

primary hypothesis was that assignment types

requiring critical thinking and personal involve-

ment (i.e., sociological quasi-experiment) with the

course material would have fewer incidences of

plagiarism.

METHODS

Sample

There were 2,826 participants enrolled in

Introduction to Sociology classes at the University

of Alabama; all were taught by the same instructor.

The university has a student handbook that

describes a student honor pledge where students

promise not to be involved in cheating, plagiarism,

or misrepresentation of their work. For plagiarism,

academic misconduct will be dealt with at a

departmental level. For repeat offenders, a depart-

ment will send a student to the deans office, whomay report a guilty finding to central administra-

tion. Anecdotal evidence within the College of

Arts and Sciences showed that the deans office

most often sent a student back to the faculty mem-

ber and requested a new assignment for the student

to complete in lieu of getting a reduced grade.

However, in more severe cases, the student will

also be sent to a campus writing center to learn

about proper citation styles. The class sizes for this

study were 861 students in fall 2008, 968 in fall2009, and 997 in fall 2010. Participants included

1,055 (37.3 percent) males and 1,771 (62.7 per-

cent) females. There was a marginally significant

difference in student enrollment by gender across

the years, (2) = 11.09,p< .01, due to a slight (6

percent) increase in females in 2009. The 2008

participants included 483 (56.1 percent) who were

classified as freshmen, 249 (28.9 percent) as

sophomores, 89 (10.3 percent) as juniors, 36 (4.2

percent) as seniors, and 4 (0.5 percent) as post bac-

calaureate. The 2009 participants included 494

(51.0 percent) who were classified as freshmen,

303 (31.3 percent) as sophomores, 112 (11.6 per-

cent) as juniors, 56 (5.8 percent) as seniors, and 3

(0.3 percent) as post baccalaureate. In 2010, par-

ticipants included 496 (49.7 percent) who were

classified as freshmen, 299 (30.0 percent) as

sophomores, 126 (12.6 percent) as juniors, 70 (7.0

percent) as seniors, and 6 (0.6 percent) as post bac-

calaureate. There was no significant difference in

class standing in college, (8) = 14.31,p> .05 (see

Table 1).

Procedure

The participants submitted weekly written one-

page assignments partially to fulfill requirements

for a hybrid Introduction to Sociology course. The

researchers obtained permission to use three

semesters of archived data from the Institutional

Review Board of the University of Alabama to

examine students papers to identify potential pla-

giarism. Students in each semester were provided

identical instruction regarding the academic integ-



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98 Teaching Sociology41(1)

rity policy of the university in the class syllabus;

no changes to the policy were made during the

study. The results of the study were not used for

grading purposes.

Three weekly assignments were randomly cho-

sen from each semester, and the same week was

used for all three semesters. Accordingly, the 2008

student population generated 1,429 submitted

papers, 2009 generated 1,588 submitted papers,

and 2010 generated 1,614 submitted papers, for a

total of 4,631 submitted papers.

Dependent Variables

The Turnitin plagiarism detection system was used

to operationalize plagiarism. The detection system

compares submitted papers to the ones from its

database and provides a report that indicates the

percentage of similarity between the two and cate-

gorization based on the possible source of the over-

lap. In brief, Turnitin functions in the following

way: Once a text is uploaded to Turnitins system,

the software provides an originality report. The

report provides an overall percentage of the stu-

dents text that matches sources within the database

and indicates the level of match with a percentage

score. Turnitin reports four categories of overlap,

based on the source of the material with which it is

found to overlap: overall overlap, Internet overlap,

publication overlap, and student paper overlap.

Turnitins system reports originality scores using

ranges: 0 percent, 1-24 percent, 25-49 percent,

50-74 percent, and 75-100 percent. However, for the

purpose of this study, researchers created a separate

group for the papers that scored 100 percent to form

an individual group to test for complete plagiarism.

Thus, the groupings used in this study were 0 per-

cent, 1-24 percent, 25-49 percent, 50-74 percent,

75-99 percent, and 100 percent. These groupings

were also collapsed at a second step in the analyses,

grouping them as no overlap (0-24 percent) versus

likely overlap (25-100 percent).

Independent Variable

The independent variable for this study was the

type of essay, which varied across the three semes-

ters. The goal was to analyze how the type of essay

assignment influenced plagiarism. The first assign-

ment type (2008) was designed to elicit students

opinions in relation to the sociological concepts

presented in the textbook. The second assignment

type (2009) used different randomized questions

within the assignment; that is, questions were

assigned randomly by the computer to prevent

students from receiving the same questions (Batane

2010; McCord 2008; Sutherland-Smith 2008).

These questions centered on textbook content, and

references to the text were required. The third

assignment type (2010) consisted of assignments

requiring application of concepts and personal

involvement with the material (Batane 2010;

Howard and Davies 2009; Sutherland-Smith

2008). These assignments involved students con-

ducting mini-sociological quasi-experiments and

then analyzing the data using sociological concepts

Table 1. Cross-tabulations for Gender and Class Year by Assignment Type

Assignment Type

Demographic Opinion (2008) Random Question (2009) Quasi-Experiment (2010)

Gender Male 344 (40.0%) 321 (33.2%) 390 (39.1%)

Female 517 (60.0%) 647 (66.8%) 607 (60.9%)

Class year

Freshman 483 (56.1%) 494 (51.0%) 496 (49.7%)

Sophomore 249 (28.9%) 303 (31.3%) 299 (30.0%)

Junior 89 (10.3%) 112 (11.6%) 126 (12.6%)

Senior 36 (4.2%) 56 (5.8%) 70 (7.0%)

Post baccalaureate 4 (0.5%) 3 (0.3%) 6 (0.6%)



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Heckler et al. 99

and theories from the textual material. References

to the text were required.

Analyses

Analyses were performed using SPSS for Windows

Version 19 (SPSS). Frequencies and percentages

were used to describe the data, and a chi-square

test for independence was used to assess whether

there were differences in percentages of plagiarism

by assignment type.

RESULTS

Table 2 displays the cross-tabulation of submitted

paper overlap across the three assignment types

reporting cell counts and column percentages.

Overlap of some sort (1-100 percent) was identi-

fied in 34.2 percent of the opinion assignment used

in 2008, 65.1 percent of the randomized question

assignment used in 2009, and 65.9 percent of the

sociological quasi-experiment assignment used in

2010. A chi-square test for independence was con-

ducted to determine whether there was a relation-

ship between the assignment types and overall

overlap, that is, whether the distribution of overall

plagiarism differed across assignment types.

Results indicated a significant relationship between

these variables, (10) = 523.2,p< .001, such that

there were greater percentages of overlap in the

randomized question and in the sociological quasi-

experiment than in the opinion assignment. Table 2

also showed similar results, (2) = 172.9,p< .001,

when publication overlap was grouped as 0-24

percent versus 25-100 percent. There was substan-

tially less overall overlap for assignments when

students were asked to write their opinions.

Table 3 presents the cross-tabulation of submit-

ted assignments categorized by Turnitin as having

overlap from publications. A chi-square test for

independence was conducted to determine whether

there was a relationship between assignment type

and percentage of publication overlap, that is,

whether the distribution of overlap of publications

differed across assignment types. Results of this

analysis indicated a significant relationship

between the variables, (10) = 200.1,p< .001, as

publication overlap was more likely to be found in

the randomized question and the sociological

quasi-experiment compared with the opinion

assignment. When we grouped the data as 0-24

percent versus 25-100 percent, the results indi-

cated a significant relationship, (2) = 52.0, p

using writing assignment designs to mitigate plagiarism

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