How Cheating Helps Drive Better Instruction
By Greg Van Belle
Department of English, Edmonds Community College
gvanbell@edcc.edu
Cheating, and specifically the time-honored act of plagiarism, has been receiving a good deal of attention in education circles of late. The rise of the Internet as a virtual paper mill has tuned educators in to the fact that students, when given the chance, will often resort to dishonest measures in order to get high marks in a course. Many of my colleagues have reacted very strongly to the rise of Internet cheating. Some have strengthened their policies on the matter, others have added new paragraphs to their syllabi addressing the issue directly, and still others have been spending hours online trying to find any paper they believe to be pilfered from a source other than the student's brain.
I question this type reaction. In fact, as an educator and a scholar interested in curriculum development and instructional methods, I welcome the new challenge of creating "cheat-proof" course materials. Because of my perspective on this issue, I am often the lone voice in opposition to tougher, "zero-tolerance" policies on academic dishonesty. Instead I would like to turn to the faculty and present this issue not as a problem deserving reactionary policies, but as an invitation to rethink our course content, how we present material to our students, and how we assess what we teach.
What follows are some simple measures we can all put into place to help slow the flood of plagiarized work.
Rotate the Curriculum
Many of us teach the same course repeatedly throughout the academic year. After a while, students catch on that Professor Adams always assigns an essay on William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily". It doesn't take long for a loosely organized group of friends to share these essays. If two or more instructors are assigning very similar essays it is even easier for these papers to re-circulate. To combat this one does not have to rewrite the entire curriculum. Develop two essay assignments, each with a unique twist, and rotate them. This small measure is often enough to discourage cheating. Clearly, the more variety you have the better. This has the side benefit of keeping your preparation and instruction vitalized.
This is good practice even when academic dishonesty isn't an issue. Keeping the curriculum fresh helps keep students and teachers interested.
Build Process-Oriented Assignments
I am amazed how few teachers think of this. Simply asking that your students provide concrete evidence of the process of their work is sufficient to stop "cut and paste" or paper mill cheaters. Create small, specific in-class exercises that provide evidence of the writing process. This can be as simple as asking the entire class to spend five minutes writing a summary of their argument. Don't wait until after the assignment is turned in.
Write Original Assignments
Take a moment to browse the paper mills and one thing becomes apparent: the variety of available work is not great. Write assignments that ask students to look at old materials in new ways, or write assignments that address new works. Asking students to write about the "hero syndrome" as it is portrayed in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises will likely net you some stolen papers. Add a twist. Add an autobiographical element to the essay in which students have to relate to the literature.
Assign Unique Readings
Students have to read the classics, but in addition to the standards why not assign modern readings? Look outside of the anthologies and collections. Even in most standard texts there are ignored or forgotten pieces of literature. Look there for sources of original, though-provoking essays.
Consider Other Assessments
I am not going to suggest that writing isn't important or that we should abandon composition as a demonstration of critical thinking ability, but by balancing this against project-based learning you can at least know that the student has to do some original thinking. Such an approach makes sense even if it clashes with our classical aesthetic. Students often resort to cheating because they can, not because they have to. It is very hard to cheat on a group project or an artistic response.
Working in peer groups also has a deterrent effect on cheaters. Conscientious students will often let you know if they think a classmate is not doing his or her own work.
Keep a File
I always assign an in-class, diagnostic essay in the first week of class, which I use for two purposes. One is purely diagnostic (to help decide how much attention I need to pay to grammar and mechanics). The other is to begin a file on each student. Before I return subsequent essays I photocopy the first page of every one and add it to the file. By the end of the term I have a running record of the students' growth and change. I don't do this to catch cheaters (that is merely a byproduct of my efforts). I use it as a piece of the assessment for the class. Once grades are posted I typically recycle these files unless I suspect there will be a problem later on.
Be Proactive in Policy and Procedure
At the beginning of every term I walk my students to the computer lab where we search the Internet and school network for helpful sites related to the course material. In this demonstration I also show them the ten most popular cheating sites. More than one student has commented that this let them know that I was "with it" and that cheating in my class wouldn't be the best gamble to make. Other instructors hand out a list of cheating sites with their syllabus.
Write a clear, concise statement on academic dishonesty. Be sure this policy is consistent with campus guidelines, and be sure you can enforce whatever you decide on. There is nothing wrong with telling students that you punish cheaters.
Conclusion
I have found that the perceived increase in student cheating has helped my teaching. Rather than resort to policing my classes for the dishonest, I have taken on the challenge of creating courses that will challenge the honest, hard-working student and will ultimately deter the student with a tendency toward cheating. Even on large campuses, students talk. They know who the easy targets are. They know which teachers won't put up with anything less than honest.
Ultimately I have decided that I want to reward the honest student rather than spend my time punishing the dishonest student. I challenge you to use the threat of academic dishonesty as the fuel to revitalize your instruction and assessment.