Michael Wise, YAP3: Improved detection of similarities in computer program and other texts, Proceedings of SIGCSE'96, pp 130-134
Abstract
In spite of years of effort, plagiarism in student assignment submissions still causes considerable difficulties for course designers; if students work is not their own, how can anyone be certain they have learnt anything? YAP is a system for detecting suspected plagiarism in computer programs and other texts submitted by students. The paper reviews YAP3, the third version of YAP, focusing on its novel underlying algorlthm - Running-K arp-Rabin Greedy-String-Tiling (or RKS-GST), whose development arose from the observation with YAP and other systems that students shuffle independent code segments. YAP3 is able to detect transposed subsequences, and is less perturbed by spurious additional statements. The paper concludes with a discussion of recent extension of YAP to English texts, further illustrating the flexibility of the YAP approach.
James Harris, Plagiarism in Computer Science Courses Ethics in Computer Age, Gatlinburg, TN USA, 1994, pp133-135
Abstract
Plagiarism of computer programs has long been a problem in higher education. Ease of electronic copying, vague understanding by students as to what constitutes plagiarism, increasing acceptance of plagiarism by students, lack of enforcement by instructors and school administrators, and a whole host of other factors contribute to plagiarism. The first step in curbing plagiarism is prevention, the second (and much less preferable) is detection. History files and software metrics can be used as a tool to aid in detecting possible plagiarism. This paper gives advice concerning how to deal with plagiarism and with using software monitors to detect plagiarism.A summary is available.
Janet Cater, What the students said about plagiarism, ITiCSE, ???, posters, j.e.carter@ukc.ac.uk
Entire thing
Plagiarism is unfortunately an ongoing problem, and with the recent emergence of web sites devoted to providing assessment solutions, it is set to increase. Staff are addressing the issue in a variety of ways, but this poster presents the initial findings of some pilot research aimed at uncovering what the students themselves have to say about the issue.A group of undergraduate students were asked to complete an email questionnaire about their own working habits and their views on aspects of acceptable working practices for which their actions suggest a difference of opinion with staff. Their responses to the questionnaire were not anonymous, but they were assured of confidentiality.
In order to gain a representative cross-section of opinions by ethnicity and gender, a stratified sample of 50 students was chosen. The number of students was deliberately kept small because of the nature of the analysis of qualitative data. The response rate was 84%. The most common definition of plagiarism is "to steal the words, ideas, etc of another and use them as one's own", but many of our students hold different constructions for the meaning of the word. The students in this survey all stated that they believed understanding to be the key factor, rather than originality. If you understand the work you have handed in then learning has taken place. The fact that the plagiarism detector used by the lecturer has highlighted non- coincidental similarities in two solutions does not make the students think they are doing wrong, rather that the system is unfair.
William Evans, James Fletcher, Cindy Hanchey, Leslie Haguespack, Program Plagiarism Revisited: Current Issues and Approaches, Panel.
Abstract
Since the first courses were offered in progrsstming, pl8girrism has been a perplexing problem. Detection techniques, administrative procedures, rnd penalties Vary greatly. Instructors face an increasingly legalistic system when prosecuting plegirrism oases. Panel members will discuss the prevention, detection, and prosecution 8spects of program plagiarism and Will present legs1 and administrative views of the problem.
David Gitchell, Nicholas Tran, Sim: A utilitiy for detecting similarity in computer programs , SIGCSE'99, pp 266-
Abstract
We describe the design and implementation of a program called sim to measure similarity between two C computer programs. It is useful for detecting plagiarism among a large set of homework programs. This software is part of a project to construct tools to assist the teaching of computer science.
Peter Denning, Plagiarism in the Web, CACM, 28(12), December 1995, pp29-
Report on plagiarism in conference submission.
Janet Carter, Collaboration of Plagiarism: What happens when students work together
Abstract
This paper describes the findings of a small- scale case study concerning the collaborative aspects of student working practices. It is a pilot investigation into the strategies that are employed by students when attempting Object Oriented programming exercises outside the formal classroom setting. Some of the collaborative practices are simple cases of copying, but others, despite falling within the definition of plagiarism, are a beneficial, and possibly useful, means of enhancing; the learning process. Although ,this study only focuses upon a small group of students in one UK University, the practices highlighted are unlikely to be confined to this one setting.
Antonio Si, Hong Va Leong, Rynson Lau, CHECK: A document plagiarism detection system, ACM, 1997
Abstract
Digital documents are vulnerable to being copied. Most existing copy detection prototypes employ an exhaus- tive sentence-based comparison method in comparing a potential plagiarized document against a repository of legal or original documents to identify plagiarism activ- ities. This approach is not scalable due to the poten- tially large number of original documents and the large number of sentences in each document. Furthermore, the security level of existing mechanisms is quite weak; a plagiarized document could simply by-pass the detec- tion mechanisms by performing a minor modification on each sentence. In this paper, we propose a copy detec- tion mechanism that will eliminate unnecessary compar- isons. This is based on the observation that comparisons between two documents addressing different subjects are not necessary. We describe the design and implementa- tion of our experimental prototype called CHECK. The results of some exploratory experiments will be illus- trated and the security level of our mechanism will be discussed.
summary is available.
Fintan Culwin, Thomas Lancaster, Plagiarism, Prevention, Deterrence & Detection
Summary
Many tutors believe that plagiarism, especially copying material from the Web, is a significant and increasing problem in UK higher education institutions. A number of academic and commercial groups are researching the nature and extent of the problem and are developing software tools and systems for plagiarism detection.
Recognising that prevention is better than cure, this paper commences by reviewing the advice that has been given by various institutions and agencies on how to specify assignments that are less prone to plagiarism. However, the evidence on the ground is that these precautions do not always prevent cheating and so effective detection systems are also needed. The major part of this paper will introduce a four-stage plagiarism detection model and describe some of the tools that can be used within it. Hopefully the deployment of an effective system will also have a significant deterrent effect.
A summary is available.
Gil Chester, Pilot of Free-Text Electronic Plagiarism Detection Software, August 2001, Joing Information Systems Committee
Executive Summary
The pilot of electronic plagiarism detection was part of a four-strand project undertaken by JISC at the beginning of 2001. The larger project was established to review the use of electronic solutions to the issue of plagiarism and included technical reports on source code and free text detection and a good practice guide to plagiarism prevention. The pilot detection software strand was commissioned to identify some of social and cultural issues associated with the use of electronic detection such as training for staff and students, the impact on institutions' current plagiarism policy and procedures and interactions with student groups.
Five sites from the Further and Higher education sectors were commissioned to take part in this pilot. Each site was commissioned to pilot the detection software in five subjects, these subjects ranged from Biology to Business Studies. For the purpose of the pilot, a copy of the software 'turnitin' (designed and managed by the US company iParadigms), was placed on the JANET backbone and access to the software from institutions was made using a standard web browser. The software checks students work against over 800 million web sites and its own growing database of resource material.
This report provides a summary of the sites involved in the project and the lessons learned. These include: details of problems experienced and the reactions from staff and students. In addition to this, details have been provided on the legal issues associated with the use of electronic plagiarism, such as ownership of copyright and data protection. Finally, a list of items to consider when purchasing this form of software is also available.
Fintan Culwin, Anna MacLeod, Thomas Lancaster, Source Code Plagiarism in UK HE Coimputing Schools, Issues, Attitudes and Tools, Technical Report SBU-CISM-01-01, South Bank University, School of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematicsc, September, 2001
Introduction
In December 2000 the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) commissioned CISE to produce a report on 'Plagiarism Detection Methods in Computer Programming'. This project was a constituent part of the JISC Committee for Integrated Environments for Learners (JCIEL) electronic plagiarism detection project (see www.jisc.ac.uk/jciel/plagiarism).
The purpose of the report was to inform JCIEL of the extent and nature of source code plagiarism and advise upon any resources that might need to be developed or deployed. It was also commissioned with the intention of making the technology more widely known within the UK HE academic computing community.
The report was completed in May 2001 and consists of four parts. It commences with a short literature survey intended to establish a context for the subsequent parts of the report. The second part summarises the results of a questionnaire based survey of UK computing departments, designed to establish perceptions of the extent of, and attitudes towards, source code plagiarism. The third part gives a quantitative and qualitative analysis of two widely known and freely available similarity detection engines, MOSS and JPlag. The final part comments on a number of miscellaneous issues and the report finishes with a number of conclusions and recommendations to JCIEL.
The report was presented to JCIEL at its September 2001 meeting and was published as SBU SCISM Technical Report 2001-01, copies of which were sent to all UK HE computing schools. An updated copy of the report (hopefully incorporating more replies to the questionnaire) will be maintained on the CISE web server whose address is given above.
Summary
- lots of good stuff on history and evaluations including of MOSS
- some stuff on staff perceptions - one place requiring students to attend small group tutorials andn describe they work they had done
- gives some figures on use of plagiarism detection systems
- good comparison of JPLag and MOSS
- JPlag supports Java, C/C++
- Bowyer and Hall 1999 - paper describing use of MOSS
- Some good evaluation
- JPlag will not check programs that do not parse
A Summary is available, mainly the questionaire
Taken from the above report
Kevin W. Bowyer and Lawrence O. Hall 1999 Experience Using MOSS to Detect Cheating on Programming Assignments Proc. 29th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 13b18-22
Janet Carter 1999 Collaboration or Plagiarism: What Happens when Students Work Together? Proc. ITiCSE 1999, Cracow, Poland, pp52-55.
Paul Clough 2000 Plagiarism in Natural and Programming Languages: an Overview of Current Tools and Technologies http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~cloughie/plagiarism/HTML_Version/index.html
Fintan Culwin. & Jeoff Naylor 1995 Pragmatic Anti-Plagiarism Proc. 3rd All Ireland Computer on the teaching of computing, DCU Dublin
Padraig Cunningham & Alexander N. Mikoyan 1993 Using CBR Techniques to Detect Plagiarism in Programming Assignments Available from Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Dublin
Donaldson, John L., Lancaster, Ann-Marie & Sposato, Paula H. 1981 A Plagiarism Detection System Proc. Twelfth SIGSCE Technical Symposium, St. Louis, Missouri, pp. 21-25.
Faidhi J. A. W. & Robinson S. K. 1987 An Empirical Approach for Detecting Program Similarity and Plagiarism Within a University Programming Environment Computer Education, v 11 No. 1
Andrew Gray, Philip Sallis & Stephen MacDonnel 1998 IDENTIFIED (Integrated Dictionary-based Extraction of Non-language-dependent Token Information for Forensic Identification, Examination and Discrimination): A Dictionary-based System for Extracting Source Code Metrics for Software Forensics Proc. 1998 International Conference in Software Engineering, Education and Practice, pp252- 259.
James O. Hamblen, Alan Parker & Stephen R. Wachtel 1998 A New Undergraduate Computer Arithmetic Software Library IEEE Transactions on Education, Volume 31, No. 3 James K. Harris 1994 Plagiarism in Computer Science Courses Proc. 1994 Ethics in Computer Age, pp133-135.
Jonathan Isaac Helfman 1994 Similarity Patterns in Language Proc. IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages, pp173-175
Rob Irving 2000 Plagiarism Detection: Experiences and Issues Presented at JISC Fifth Information Strategies Conference: Focus on Access and Security, London
Jankowitz H. T. 1988 Detecting Plagiarism in Student Pascal Programs The Computer Journal Vol. 38 No. 1
Mike Joy & Michael Luck 1999 Plagiarism in Programming Assignments IEEE Transactions in Education, Vol. 42, No.2, pp129-133
G. R. Lund 1995 Controlling Plagiarism in Student Programs Proc. 3rd All Ireland Computer on the teaching of computing, DCU Dublin
Newstead S.E., Franklin-Stokes A., Armstead P. 1996 Individual Differences in Student Cheating, Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 88 No 2. 229-241.
Ottenstein, Karl J. 1977 An Algorithmic Approach to the Detection and Prevention of Plagiarism SIGCSE Bulletin vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 30-41.
Alan Parker and James O. Hamblen 1999 Computer Algorithms for Plagiarism Detection IEEE Transactions on Education, Volume 32, Number 2, pp94-99.
Lutz Prechelt, Guido Malpohl & Michael Phillippsen 2000 Jplag: Finding Plagiarisms among a Set of Programs Universitat Karlsruhe, Germany, Technical Report 2000-1
Lutz Prechelt, Guido Malpohl & Michael Phillippsen 2001 Finding Plagiarisms Among a Set Of Programs with Jplag Submission to Journal of Universal Computer Science
Ribler R. L. & Abrams M. 2000 Using Visualisation to Detect Plagiarism in Computer Science Classes IEEE 0-7695-0804-9/2000, pp173-177.
Robinson, Sally S. & Soffa, M. L. 1980 An Instructional Aid for Student Programs SIGCSE Bulletin Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 118-129.
Philip Sallis, Asjborn Aakjeer and Stephen MacDonnal 1996 Software Forensics: Old Methods for a New Science Proc. International Conference in Software Engineering, Education and Practice, pp481-485
Robert Sanders 1998 Online Plagiarism Detector Helps CS Professors Bust Cheating Programmers Berkeley http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/EPA/EngNews/98S/EN1S/aiken.html
Steve Saxon 2000 Comparison of Plagiarism Detection Techniques Applied to Student Code Trinity College, Cambridge Part II Computer Science Project
John Traxler 1995 Cheating In Pascal Programming Assessments with Large Classes Proc. 3rd All Ireland Computer on the teaching of computing, DCU Dublin
Kristina L. Verco & Michael J. Wise 1996 Plagiarism a la Mode: A Comparison of Automated Systems for Detecting Suspected Plagiarism The Computer Journal, Vol. 39, No. 9, pp741-750.
Kristina L. Verco & Michael J. Wise 1996 Software for Detecting Suspected Plagiarism: Comparing Structure and Attribute-Counting Systems Proc. First Australian Conference on Computer Science Education, Sydney Australia
Whale G. 1990 Identification of Program Similarlity in Large Populations The Computer Journal, Vol. 33 No. 2 Laurie Williams 1999 But Isn t That Cheating? Proc. 29th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Michael J. Wise 1996 YAP3: Improved Detection of Similarities in Computer Programs and Other Texts Proc. SIGCSE 96, Philadelphia, USA, Feb 15-17 1996, pp130-134
Joanna Bull, Carol Collins, Elisabeth Coughlin, Dale Sharp, Technical Review of Plagiarism Detection Software Report, University of Luton
About
- detecting plagiarism in text-based assignments
- main aim to evaluate the effectiveness of the software and services for detecting various kinds of plagiarism in text based assignments and compare the performance
- compared Turnitin, Findsame, Eve2, CopyCatch, WordCHECK
- survey results show that plagiarism is considered to be a significant problem
- academics reported that the primary source of material was copied from textbooks and theses
Jude Carroll, Jon Appleton, Plagiarism: A Good Practice Guide, Oxford Brookes University.
Executive Summary
Information about the extent and growth of plagiarism and collusion in higher education, though in some ways incomplete, does document that electronic communication has had an impact on the way students create and submit work for assessment. Plagiarism and collusion are certainly easier and probably more prevalent as C and IT becomes ever more central to academic work. Because the problem has been exacerbated by the impact of communication and information technology, it could be tempting to believe that a solution is provided through the same means, i.e. through electronic detection tools. Others have sought to apply and evaluate the place of these very useful tools as well as to document the extent and development of plagiarism and inappropriate collusion. These reports can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub/index.html#projects
In this report, a case is made for combining academic and policy decisions in a systematic, fair and coherent way in the belief that this is the most effective way of dealing with plagiarism. A balanced approach combines rethinking the design of the course whilst at the same time considering how best to inform students about regulations and teach them skills of academic discourse and citation. Of course, not all students will find these measures sufficient deterrent so it considers the benefits of tightening security arrangements and introducing electronic detection tools. Above all, rethinking assessment can lessen plagiarism and collusion. By reconsidering exactly what they are seeking to assess, institutions can make the tasks more relevant to future employment needs and reduce the opportunities they offer for plagiarism. Integrating different elements of assessment can enhance student learning while providing an opportunity to crosscheck the authenticity of work.
While often academics are sure that they know what plagiarism is when they see it, any discussion that goes beyond a dictionary definition will soon reveal considerable variation in understanding. What is accepted as part of the general knowledge within the canon (and hence not need referencing) will vary depending on the subject and the academic experience of the student involved. Before staff can explain their university s definition (and, more importantly, make it live through worked examples for students who may be from a completely different culture) there must be a consensus understanding of the term. It is necessary for institutions to positively teach academic writing skills and correct attribution. Whether this is best done within each subject or centrally is arguable but the former is probably preferable. In any event special attention must be paid to the needs of international students. As well as ensuring that students are taught how to avoid plagiarism, staff behaviour and attitudes can significantly affect the prevalence of academic misconduct. If students perceive staff as not respecting the learning process, they will not do so either. Staff disrespect can be indicated in a number of ways, an obvious example being the ignoring of relatively obvious plagiarism. There are various types of electronic aids to detecting academic misconduct, none of which can substitute for the academic judgement of the lecturer. Instead they can, and do, provide evidence that the lecturer may not have otherwise been aware of, that can aid the process of making an academic judgement.
Once plagiarism has been detected, it is important that it is dealt with fairly, consistently and in accordance with the principles of natural justice. Normal examination board procedures cannot do this, and extreme care must be paid to the relative responsibilities and the interaction between the disciplinary process and that of the examination board. The principle elements of a fair disciplinary procedure are fairly well understood, but there are different options for who is best placed to operate that procedure. Informing students of the effect that plagiarism could have on their academic career by means of recent real (but anonymous) cases can also help deter potential misconduct. By combining attention to fairness and to deterrence, policies and procedures can contribute to educating students about appropriate ways to attribute work, as well as punishing them for inappropriate attribution.
Each of the many suggestions and proposals discussed in this paper can be introduced in isolation. However the impact of each will be multiplied many-fold if there is a co-ordinated and coherent institutional strategy that obtains the commitment and unites the efforts of all staff, from the top to the bottom. Notwithstanding the many pressures on higher education at the moment and the apparent recent growth of academic misconduct across the sector, there are clear reasons why it is possible to be optimistic that this problem can be successfully tackled in the near future by adopting such a balanced strategy.
A full list of the good practice recommendations given in this paper is available in Appendix A.
Patrick Love, Janice Simmons, The Meaning and Mediated Nature of Cheating and Plagiarism among Graduate Students in a College of Education, Presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, November 6-9, 1997
Abstract
Cheating and plagiarism were studied at a midwestern public university's College of Education, by interviewing three male and three femal students who were in Master's programs in health education, rehabilitation counseling, and community counseling. None of the six students had had a formal orientation program covering expectations about performance, rules, or policies. While there seemed to be an assumption that Master's students should know what constitutes cheating and plagiarism, most respondents were unable to identify how they learned about these concepts. Three students through there might be specific behaviours related to plagiarism about which students were unaware. Although cheating and plagiarism seemed to be occurring, the respondents were uncertain about the sanctions for these behaviours. Factors noted as contributing to cheating included: pressures related to grades, the number of assignments, and running out of time; leniency of prefoessors and their tendency to avoid addressing these issues; lack of awareness of the rules of plagiarism; and personal attitudes such as wanting to avoid hard work or lack of interest in the topic. Factors noted as inhibiting cheating and plagiarism included fear and guilt, personal confidence, postive professional ethics, and the desire to work or learn. Implicatiosn of the findings for practice and research are considered.
Rebecca More Howard, The Gendered Plagiarist, presented at the Annual Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, July 12-15, 1995
Abstract
In modern authoriship, the writer is believed to be capable of working alone, autonomously, without being influenced by others. If ther writer is a "rtue" author, he or she is also believed to be producing of an "original" text and is accorded ownership of the text. These apparently neutral, natural moves actually participate in a hierarchy of authorship. At one extreme is the true author, recognised by "his" autonomy and originality. At the other extreme is the plagiarist. This hierarchy, furthermore, is implicated in a set of gender-based assumptions that lead to disturbing conclusions about feminine authorship. Howard Bloom's "The Anxiety of Influence" and Thomas Mallon's "Sotlen Words: FOrays into the Origins and Ravages of Plagiarism", demonstrate the terms of these conclusions. Both Bloom and Mallong assert that all writing is influenced, none autonomous. Both, further, discuss writing with sexual metaphors that indicate a lack of appreciation for collaboration and other female inclinations. Robinson Shipherd was specific in linking originality to the masculine body, plagiarism to the female. Other 20th century writers, like Sigmund Freud, depict women as an obstruction to creativity. Meltzer finds that for Freud, men must ackownledge the feminine as the "passive and unproductive" elements in their work or they themselvels will become feminized. Consider, also, William perry's well-known explanation of exam-taking: rote obedient learning is associated with the female, while a subtle grasp of th eabstract is associated with male learning.
Trevor Moores, Gurpreet Dhillon, Software Piracy A View from Hong Kong, Communications of the ACM, December, 2000, 43(12), pp 88-93
Chaomei Chen, Les Carr, Trailblazing the literature of hypertext: Author Co-Citation Analysis (1989-1998), Proceedings of Hypertext'99, pp51-60
Talks about ways of tracking and visualising documents
Michael Dannelle, From Discipline to Development: Rethinking Student Conduct in Higher Education, ERIC Digest
Abstract
This digest organises the complex and interrelated issues concerned with student discipline into four questions, and suggests ways in which collegess an universities can deal withthe issues raised. In answering the first question about what might be a proper role for instittuins to play in student discipline, it suggests that an approrpiate model might be based on the moral/ethical principles of preventing harm, upholding freedom and fostering community. A second question asks where should institutions begin in reconsidering student discipline, and then it is suggested that the use of honor codes to address the issue of student cheating might be a good place to begin, while another might be the establishment of a "citzenship curriculum" to foster a more moral community. To answer the 3rd question concerning what we still need to learn, the report notes several ways in which institutions can measure the effectiveness fo their student dispcline efforst. And, finally, in addressing the question of how campuses should change, the report suggests that campus disciplinary/judicial systems address student discpline problems more by developmental methods than with the current adversarial system.
Luz Bay, Detection of Cheating in Multiple Choice Examinations, Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, 1995
Matthew Dirks, Developing an Appropriate Assessment Stategy: Research and Guidance for Practice, Presented at the NAU/web.97 Conference
Liora Pedhazur Schmelkin, Aviele Kaufman, Faculty Assessments of the Clarity and Prevalence of Academic dishonesty, Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association.
Program Plagiarism Revisited: Current Issues and Trends, panel from early SIGCSE
Krisztian Monostori, Arkady Zaslavsky, Heinz Schmidt, Document Overlap Detection System for Distributed Digital Libraries, Digital Libraries, 2000
Abstract
In this paper we introduce the MatchDetectReveal(MDR) system, which is capable of identifying overlapping and plagiarised documents. Each component of the system is briefly described. The matching-engine component uses a modified suffix tree representation, which is able to identify the exact overlapping chunks and its performance is also presented.
Edward Jones, Plagiarism Monitoring and Detection - Towards an Open Discussion, Journal of Computing in Small Colleges, 16(3), March 2001.
Abstract
Plagiarism in programming courses is a pervasive and frustrating problem that undermines the educational process. Often plagiarism falls in the gray area separating profitable peer-peer collaboration, excessive dependence on others, and outright cheating. Unless the evidence is compelling, pursuing suspected plagiarism is generally not worth the emotional and legal risks to student and teacher alike. This paper proposes a metrics-based approach to monitoring patterns of similarities among student programs that may signal the onset of excessive collaboration or plagiarism. Publishing anonymous results from monitoring creates a climate in which plagiarism is discussed openly.
Edward Jones, Metrics Based Plagiarism Monitoring, Journal of Computing in Small Colleges, 16(4), May 2001
Abstract
Plagiarism in programming courses is a pervasive and frustrating problem that undermines the educational process. Defining plagiarism is difficult because of the fuzzy boundary between allowable peer-peer collaboration and plagiarism. Pursuing suspected plagiarism has attendant emotional and legal risks to the student and teacher, with the teacher bearing the burden of proof. In this paper we present a metrics-based system for monitoring similarities between programs and for gathering the "preponderance" of evidence needed to pursue suspected plagiarism. Anonymous results from monitoring are posted to create a climate in which the issue of plagiarism is discussed openly.
Preventing the Plagiarism of Programming Assignments, panel discussion
Mark Johnson, Software Piracy: Stopping it before it stops you, Proceedings of SIGUCCS 26, 1988
Paul Oman, Curt Cook, Programming style Authorship Analysis, ACM?? 1989
Abstract
Abstract. Detecting instances of software theft and plagiarism is a difficult problem. The statistical analysis of peculiar words or phrases known to be used by an author is a common method of settling authorship disputes in English literature. This paper presents a similar method for identifying authorship of programs. The method is based on typographic or layout style program characteristics. Our experiments show that these characteristics can be useful in determining authorship. The major benefits of the method are that it is simple, easy to automate and can be used in conjunction with other program fingerprinting methodologies.
Ernest Ferguson, Conference Grading of Computer Programs, ACM ?? 1987
Abstract
Two methods of grading computer science programs in a CSl course were evaluated in terms of (I) benefit to the student, (2) advantages for the instructor and (3) plagiarism. The two methods compared were conference grading and grading using written comments. Results indicate that students thought the grading was more fair when graded by one-on-one conference than when graded with written comments. The time required by the instructor was nearly the same. More was communicated orally in this time than in writing. There was less plagiarism in programs graded by conference, and the students whose programs had been graded by conference performed better on a programming test than those who had their programs graded by written comments. There was no significant difference between the two groups on the written examinations.
Sergey Brin, James Davis, Hector Garcia-Molina, Copy Detection Mechanisms for Digitial Documents, Proceedings of SIGMOD'95
Abstract
In a digital library system, documents are available in digital form and therefore are more easily copied and their copyrights are more easily violated. This is a very serious problem, as it discourages owners of valuable in-formation from sharing it with authorized users. There are two main philosophies for addressing this problem: prevention and detection. The former actually makes unauthorized use of documents difficult or impossible while the latter makes it easier to discover such activ-ity. In this paper we propose a system for registering doc-uments and then detecting copies, either complete copies or partial copies. We describe algorithms for such detec-tion, and metrics required for evaluating detection mech-anisms (covering accuracy, efficiency, and security). We also describe a working prototype, called COPS, describe implementation issues, and present experimental results that suggest the proper settings for copy detection pa-rameters.
Collaboration vs Plagiarism in Computer Science Programming Courses, panel
Janet Cook, Defining Ehtical and Unethical Student Behaviours using departmental regulations and sanctions, ACM ?? 1987
C. Jinshong Hwang, Darryl Gibson, Using an Effective Grading Method for Preventing Plagiarism of Programming Assignments, ACM ?? 1982
Janet Carter, Collaboration of Plagiarism: What happens when students work together, Proceedings of ITiCSE'99,
Abstract
This paper describes the findings of a small- scale case study concerning the collaborative aspects of student working practices. It is a pilot investigation into the strategies that are employed by students when attempting Object Oriented programming exercises outside the formal classroom setting. Some of the collaborative practices are simple cases of copying, but others, despite falling within the definition of plagiarism, are a beneficial, and possibly useful, means of enhancing; the learning process. Although ,this study only focuses upon a small group of students in one UK University, the practices highlighted are unlikely to be confined to this one setting.
John Estell, Programming Portfolios on the Web: An interactive approach, Journal of Computing in Small Colleges, 2000
Abstract
A methodology for Web-based programming portfolios that focuses on utilizing the interactive nature of the medium is presented. The concept of a portfolio and its value for assessment is reviewed, leading into a discussion on the benefits of electronic portfolios and rubrics for enhancing student-learning outcomes. The development of the Interactive Programming Portfolio at our institution is used as a case study to examine how this methodology can be implemented.
Thomas Lancaster, Fintan Culwin, Towards an Error Free Plagiarism Detection Process, Proceedings of ITiCSE'2001
Abstract
For decades many computing departments have deployed systems for the detection of plagiarised student source code submissions. Automated systems to detect fre~-text student plagiarism are just becoming available and the experience of computing educators is valuable for their successful deployment. This paper describes a Four-Stage Plagiarism Detection Process that attempts to ensure no suspicious similarity is missed and that no student is unfairly accused of plagiarism. Required characteristics of an effective similarity detection engine are proposed and an investigation of a simple engine is described. An innovative prototype tool designed to decrease the workload of tutors investigating undue similarity is also presented.
Andrew Kahng, et al, Copy Detection for Intellectual Property Protection in VLSI
Abstract
We give the first study of copy detection techniques for VLSI CAD applications; these techniques are complementary to pre-vious watermarking-based IP protection methods in finding and proving improper use of design IP. After reviewing related litera-ture (notably in the text processing domain), we propose a generic methodology for copy detection based on determining basic ele-ments within structural representations of solutions (IPs), calculat-ing (context-independent) signatures for such elements, and per-forming fast comparisons to identify potential violators of IP rights. We give example implementations of this methodology in the do-mains of scheduling, graph coloring and gate-level layout; experi-mental results show the effectiveness of our copy detection schemes as well as the low overhead of implementation. We remark on open research areas, notably the potentially deep and complementary in-teraction between watermarking and copy detection.
Martin Dick, Judy Sheard, Selby Markham, Is it Okay to Cheat? - The Views of Postgraduate students,Procedings of ITiCSE'2001
Abstract
This paper examines the attitudes of students in the Masters of Information Technology, Honours Degree in the Bachelor of Computing and Graduate Diploma of Computing at Monash University. Students were surveyed on the acceptability of a variety of scenarios involving cheating and on their knowledge of the occurrence of these scenarios. The survey found a strong consensus amongst the students as to what was acceptable or unacceptable practice. The paper then examines the significance of these results for educators aiming to prevent cheating amongst their students. The study reported is part of a larger study currently being undertaken in the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE) at Monash University.
Antonio Si, Hong Va Leong, Rynson Lau, CHECK: A Document Plagiarism Detection System, ACM ?? 1997
Abstract
Digital documents are vulnerable to being copied. Most existing copy detection prototypes employ an exhaus- tive sentence-based comparison method in comparing a potential plagiarized document against a repository of legal or original documents to identify plagiarism activ- ities. This approach is not scalable due to the poten- tially large number of original documents and the large number of sentences in each document. Furthermore, the security level of existing mechanisms is quite weak; a plagiarized document could simply by-pass the detec- tion mechanisms by performing a minor modification on each sentence. In this paper, we propose a copy detec- tion mechanism that will eliminate unnecessary compar- isons. This is based on the observation that comparisons between two documents addressing different subjects are not necessary. We describe the design and implementa- tion of our experimental prototype called CHECK. The results of some exploratory experiments will be illus- trated and the security level of our mechanism will be discussed.
Brenda Baker, A Theory of Parameterized Pattern Matching: Algorithms and Applications,
Andreas Zeller, Making Students Read and Review Code, Proceedings of ITiCSE'2000
Abstract
The Praktomat system allows students to read, review, and assess each other's programs in order to improve quality and style. After a successful submission, the student can retrieve and review a program of some fel- low student selected by Praktomat. After the review is complete, the student may obtain reviews and re-submit improved versions of his program. The reviewing pro- cess is independent of grading; the risk of plagiarism is narrowed by personalized assignments and automatic testing of submitted programs. In a survey, more than two thirds of the students affirmed that reading each other's programs improved their program quality; this is also confirmed by statistical data.
Jane Johnston, A Critical Perspective on Current Structures Governing Internet Plagiarism: Challenges to Public Relations and Journalism Education, Proceedings of ANZCA'2002
Abstract
The Internet has raised student plagiarism to a new level. Never before has access to information been as easy, and never before have students had such a capacity to search, order, borrow, copy, cut and paste. This paper offers a critical perspective on current practices that deal with student plagiarism, while placing the issue into the context of current Internet culture. As cyber-plagiarism emerges as a major challenge to universities worldwide, with one US survey indicating up to 70 per cent of students commit academic offences such as plagiarism (University of Alberta, 2001), how is it being tackled? How might it effect the way we teach communications studies and what particular challenges are faced by educators in journalism and public relations? This paper addresses these issues and, finally, considers the need for a new framework to deal with these changing trends in academic culture.
Robert Briggs, Shameless! Reconceiving the problem of Plagiarism, Australian Universities Review, 46(1), 2003
Alberta Sautter, David Brooks, Kent Crippen, Assessing students in online courses, International Journal on E-Learning, April-June 2004, pp 28-31
Reports on a survey of staff and what they do in terms of assessment
Abstract
The apparent challenge of online instruction is teaching students outside of the instructor's line of vision. Much has been written about modified traditional techniques for an online environment. Little research has been reported concerning the develoment of unique assessmen tstrategies for online students, however. Especially with regards to the role of honesty and academic integrity.
Here we report the outcomes of an institution-wide study of dishonesty in online courses. The results of our survey have broad implications for instructors of online courses and indicate a need for better assessment techniques for online instruction.
Ruth Barrett, Anna Cox, James Malcolm, Caroline Lyon, Plagiarism prevention is discipline specific: a view from computer science, Plagiarism: Prevention, Practice and Policies 2004
Abstract
Many of the good practice guidelines on tackling plagiarism and collusion are appropriate primarily for essays and research projects. Within Computer Science, particularly in undergraduate first year modules, much assessment is on understanding principles and techniques and applying these to example systems. This is true also of Engineering and Mathematical disciplines where there is a foundation of laws and theories that must be mastered and in general only one right answer to a problem. When assessing such knowledge and its application collusion is as much a problem as plagiarism. We suggest guidelines for the design of in-course assessments and the procedures that accompany them, all within the constraints of staff time and large student numbers. The use of discipline-specific examples will help in the adoption of good-practice.
Mikko Siponen, Tero Vartiainen, Unauthorized copying of software and levels of moral development: a literature analysis and its implication for research and practice, Information Systems Journal, 2004, 14, pp 387-407
Abstract
Several approaches for and against the unauthorized copying of software have been proposed. These approaches can be divided into two categories: moral reasoning and solution. These categories of approaches to unauthorized copying of software are scrutinized in the light of Kohlberg’s theory of Cognitive Moral Development. The results suggest that most approaches presenting solutions to unauthorized copying of software have focused attention on the lower levels of moral development, while approaches at the highest stage are few and far between. No single approach covers all the stages of moral development. The implications of this analysis for practice and research are discussed
Jeremy Williams, The plagiarism problem: Are students entirely to blame?, ASCILITE'2002
Abstract
Plagiarism is not a new phenomenon, but given the proliferation of easily accessible electronic resources in recent times, it has become so much easier for students to ‘cut and paste’ slabs of text. This can sometimes lead to assignments being submitted that are inadequately referenced or, worse still, assignments being submitted that are largely (or entirely) the work of someone else.
This paper critiques the various strategies currently being employed to stamp out plagiarism. These include the use of the various proprietary and freeware packages available for the electronic detection of plagiarism, and honour codes that incorporate punitive systems to discredit plagiarists. The paper concludes by arguing for an integrated approach founded upon a commitment, at an institutional level, to assessment regimes that reward critical analysis rather than content regurgitation. Importantly, ‘authentic assessment’ that engages students is deemed far more likely to achieve the desired results. Electronic media, used effectively, can assist in this endeavour.
Mike Hart, Tim Friesner, Plagiarism or poor academic practice - A threat to the extension of e-learning in higher education, Electronic Journal on e-Learning, 2(1), February 2004, pp 89-96
Abstract
Concern has recently increased in the British higher education system that the incidences of plagiarism (the passing of someone else’s work as though it were one’s own) may be rapidly increasing. After an examination of the prevalence of plagiarism and some of the reasons advanced for its increase, the paper examines some solutions which are typically advocated. The implications for e-Learning and on-line learning cultures will be assessed.
Marcia Devlin, (2002), Minimising plagiarism, Australian Universities Teaching Committee, Excerpt fromo R James, C McInnis, M Delvin (2002), Assessing learning in Australian Universities
Mike Hart, Roz Graham, The 'new plagiarism', academic dishonesty and the development of critical thinking skills, ??AACE Conference
Abstract
In recent years, not only has there been an explosion in the numbers of webpages posted but institutions of higher education have encouraged students to exploit such resources in order to research assignments. The true nature of the extent and severity of plagiarism or poor academic practice is hard to discern with accuracy but some studies find that almost two thirds of students admit plagiarism. The reasons for this phenomenon could be said to lie in the increasing massification of higher education in which one third of the relevant age-cohort now enter higher education, a proportion which the government intends to raise to 50% within the foreseeable future. It is imperative that professional educators recognise that poor academic practice is an issue to which explicit attention needs to be paid and that policies should devote as much time to the inculcation of good academic practice as well as penalties for those students who knowingly and deliberately transgress academic standards
Leone Hinton, Plagiarism: Learning from our challenges, Studies in Learning Evaluation, Innovation and Development, 1(1), pp 37-46, Oct 2004
Abstract
Plagiarism or academic dishonesty is not a simple issue. According to Piety (2002), plagiarism appears subjective and context sensitive. Plagiarism is almost always a symptom of other educational problems (Turnitin, 2003). There have been growing concerns in Australia that there is an increase in deliberate plagiarism among international students (Elliot, 2003). Staff at Central Queensland University (CQU) are greatly concerned about the academic integrity of the students and programs. The focus of this paper is on how tackling the issue of plagiarism or academic dishonesty involves a consideration of staff and student differences and pedagogy when establishing standards within the academic community. This is the challenge.
Ingrid Kennedy, An assessment strategy to help forestall plagiarism problems, SLEID, 1(2), pp 1-8, November 2004
Abstract
Plagiarism is one of the focal points in all areas of education. The struggle to establish reasons why it is widespread and the causes of its existence has led to many academics, teachers and students searching for ways to overcome the problem. From an educator’s perspective, many factors like poorly structured assessment criteria form the basis of the lacklustre attitude of some students. Most students have an aspiration to perform to the highest standards that they are capable of; however, factors like family pressures, poor time management practices, unexpected events and heavy workloads occurring in conjunction with over-assessed courses and coinciding assignment due dates are catalysts for plagiarism. It is apparent that those involved in education and research, no matter how young, need to be educated in how plagiarism can be avoided. This paper identifies the problems that underpin plagiarism, and suggests strategies by which we can assist students both to understand academic integrity more readily and to manage their research ethically. Teaching and reinforcing good practice at an early stage in the student’s learning career are imperative to knowing what plagiarism is all about.
Alan Dordoy, Cheating and plagiarism: Student and staff perceptions at Northumbria, Proceedings of the Northumbria Conference - Educating the Future
Abstract
This paper starts from the advice given by Carroll and Appleton (2001) on how to deal with plagiarism. Drawing on the findings of a survey of Northumbria students and staff it questions whether this advice goes far enough. A comparison of student and staff perceptions shows that staff may have got the message about plagiarism, but other forms of cheating may be far more common than staff realise. The survey indicates that students do not generally perceive cheating to be less wrong than staff and that they see the main reasons for it as being to gain advantage. Staff take plagiarism seriously, take efforts to detect it and impose penalties, and have taken it into account when designing assignments. The paper discusses whether cheating may not be a rational response by students to a Higher Education system out of alignment (Biggs 1999), both internally and with its social purposes.
Wendy Sutherland, Hiding in the shadows: risks and dilemmas of plagiarism in student academic writing, AARE Conference 2003, Auckland, New Zealand
Abstract
Effectively dealing with plagiarism in student academic writing poses considerable
dilemmas for teachers in all educational spheres. Ineffective management of student
plagiarism issues also poses risks to academics and may contribute to the often untenable
situations we, as teachers, face when dealing with student plagiarism issues. In this paper
I describe the issues eleven tertiary academic members of staff face at South-Coast
University1, Victoria, Australia, when dealing with student plagiarism in the classroom.
My research indicates that not only is it difficult to reach an agreed definition of
plagiarism, but plagiarism is a multi-layered phenomenon encompassing a spectrum of
human intention. The aim of this paper is to encourage policy-makers and academic
teaching staff to acknowledge the concerns about uniform and equitable implementation
of plagiarism policy. Collaborative re-thinking of plagiarism is needed to reach a
workable solution. Until we, as teachers, openly discuss plagiarism in academic writing
with our students and amongst ourselves, we risk compounding the problem. Plagiarism
then, indeed, will remain a dilemma for us all.
A summary is available.
Dave Roberts, Raj Gururajan, A preliminary study to determine attitudes towards plagiarism in information systems, ACIS'2004
A summary is available.
Abstract
Plagiarism, a component of academic misconduct has captured the headlines of many Australian media reports in recent months. While many articles have been written in the education domain about plagiarism, limited empirical evidence was found on the factors leading to the attitudes of plagiarism and students opinion on these attitudes. This is because many prior studies have focused their findings arising from the institutional data available on plagiarism and compiling these into a form of findings, without actually consulting either students or lecturers involved in teaching. This study, to alleviate such criticism, followed a qualitative method to develop a theme to identify factors that can contribute to plagiarism in the opinion of lecturers and tutors. This theme was then followed up by a quantitative method to extract perceptions towards these attitudes from students based on an adapted instrument. The outcomes of the theme development and perception measurement are reported in this study with a hope that academics in educational setting can produce fair and more reliable assessment methods.