STUDENTS CAUGHT IN BETWEEN: ORIGINALITY AND THE TEMPTATION OF “CYBERPLAGIARISM”
STUDENTS CAUGHT IN BETWEEN: ORIGINALITY AND THE TEMPTATION OF “CYBERPLAGIARISM”

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays information technology represents a significant tool for assisting students in improving their achievements in many legitimate ways. In the same time, frequently enough, the same devices can become dishonest friends for some students who exploit them for evading their academic assignments. Such cases of academically dishonest uses of information technologies are influenced by a wide range of reasons. Ignorance or confusion over the nature of originality, unclear rules regarding academic dishonesty, underdeveloped moral reasoning, unsatisfactory teaching environments can be some of these reasons. In some other cases, students cheating practices seem to be “the easy way out”, while creativity and originality represent a more demanding option. The present paper attempts to explore such practices of technology-enabled cut and paste plagiarism. The fact that more and more tech savvy students can “copy, paste and send” academic papers represents a real concern taken into consideration by the two authors. The issue of cyber plagiarism is considered a serious threat to academic integrity; in the same time, starting from the assumption that internet-based plagiarism undermines the educational goals established in a certain context, consequences on students’ performances and development are also considered. In approaching this issue, the two authors combine their own teaching experiences in an action research type approach and they critically analyse “cyber cheating” existent in their students’ graduation papers. For an in depth understanding of the phenomenon, a collection of investigations are revised and compared. The aim of the study is not only to identify dishonest practices identified over the past years in “ready-to-go” papers received, but also to find efficient addressing solutions.

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