Students' understanding of plagiarism and collusion and recommendations for academics

Abstract

Plagiarism and collusion are forms of academic misconduct. In academic institutions, plagiarism is on the increase and with the ready availability of information though the Internet and essay mills, it is becoming an issue of concern. Although, plagiarism and collusion are regarded as academic offence with severe penalties, a large number of students are still committing this offence, sometimes with intent. This paper discusses how and why some students plagiarize, collude or collaborate (when collaboration is not allowed). It also details different forms of plagiarism and reports the results of an experiment to understand students' understanding and perceptions. A questionnaire was constructed with a number of simple scenarios and students were asked to determine whether they were instances of plagiarism, collusion or collaboration. Results show that whereas students think they know what plagiarism is, they cannot always identify it when presented with different scenarios. The paper also mentions a number of plagiarism detection tools and suggests strategies for the lecturing staff to adopt - to deter students from submitting plagiarized work.

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