Light-hearted look at Plagiarism

This is a short, funny video about the consequences of plagiarism put out by the University of Bergen in Norway. (It is subtitled, and a little bit 'suggestive' sexually, but has a good message for college students who consider cheating)

A Plagiarism Carol

Guest Speakers in DL Classes

The world truly is a smaller place. Our students know it. Students can speak with experts in any industry or cultural group through the use of social media. They feel comfortable emailing, SKYPE-ing or following a Twitter thread to find expert opinions, and often find those 'experts' willing to return answers to their questions.

Faculty need to realize how easy it is to bring someone from the business world into their virtual classrooms. Instructors need to take advantage of that instant communication, and help students be able to evaluate those 'expert' opinions. What kind of experts can you bring int? Really anyone is an option from authors of books, CEOs or staff from large corporations, Faculty from other institutions. Here's some ideas:

To bring in a guest speaker to a virtual classroom:

• 
  Use recorded videos from You Tube or Big Think (don't just post it, force students to discuss it)


• Add a guest to a weekly discussion board to add to conversations


• Invite students to join an Adobe Connect classroom with a speaker once or twice during a term


• Ask outside 'experts' to review a short student submitted paper on a topic and give feedback to a group of students. (maybe have them choose the best)

Get students involved by:

• Having them locate an expert, and interview them in a 'webinar' type of project


• Post a video of an 'expert' on an issue, then assign groups to write/research other perspectives that dispute that expert, and present that material.


• Get librarians involved to help students formulate a process for critically evaluating information, and understanding what is valid, and what isn't.

Opening up your virtual classroom to outside experts gets students motivated to learn a topic, and gives them feedback from a variety of sources.

Grading 'Sloppy' Papers

I often hear faculty complain that students don't even do a simple spell check before turning in a project or paper. Dr. Douglas Eder from Southern Illinois University shared with me a solution that he posts in his syllabus. He says that it only takes a student one returned paper to convince them to be more careful with the next. It is called the Fatal Error List.

A Fatal Error List
1. Each different word misspelled
2. Each sentence fragment
3. Each run-on sentence or comma splice
4. Each mistake in capitalization
5. Each serious mistake in punctuation that obscures the meaning
6. Each error in verb tense or subject/verb agreement
7. Lack of conformity with assigned format
8. Each improper citation, or lack of citation, where one is needed

Papers with more than 3 Fatal Errors marked by a professor on any 1 page, will be returned to the student. Students are allowed 1 resubmit within 24 hours, and grade will be lowered by 1 grade.

Your list might be different and could include other things. You might have different consequences. But, start from the beginning with clear and specific expectations, so students know how to succeed in your class.

The New Age of Cheating

Gone are those old excuses of hungry dogs, dead relatives, and being deathly ill....
Now The Chronicle comes out with a new excuse, "My paper was stolen by an essay mill!"

I was working with a professor earlier this week, and she asked me if I felt plagiarism was a problem. I said 'most definitely'. Every professor should be, at least, running a sample of student papers through 'Turnitin' on every assignment. I personally prefer to have students do it themselves, as I see it as a 'teachable moment'. This professor was shocked when I said I had found the complete assignment for another professor and course on the web, for free. (I didn't mention that there were half a dozen other assignments for about $20 through the various cheat houses like Echeat, Fratfiles, and CheatHouse)

Professors need to be aware of these easy options to students and combat it by taking time to build more unique and personalized assignments. Curt Bonk's books have a number of great resources on this idea. MBA students should have personal experiences to draw on for papers, and be required to include those specialized bits of information not covered in a general, off-the-shelf essay.

Tegrity Recording

Thunderbird's distance learning programs use Tegrity recordings extensively in all our courses. We generally recommend short (less than 20 minute clips) for each week of classes. Classes generally have 1-4 Tegrity session per week. Most are pre-recorded, and include an overview of the week's assignments, topics, and lecture content. We also have 'technical' sessions for some classes to show the steps for working through a problem, or developing a spreadsheet.

Finally, many professors do a 'spontaneous' Tegrity session to wrap up the week's events, and provide feedback to the students on their case discussions. These recordings are done from wherever the professor is located, and sometimes include airport terminals, or vacation spots with family. I think they add a lot to the personal connection between faculty and students.

Recently, we've also added the feature to allow students to record online presentations for their classes.

Tegrity is holding a number of webinars on incorporating the technology into distance courses. You can sign up here.

Educause Conference

Whenever I am starting to feel burned out, I find that attending a conference (virtual or live) inspires me to keep working toward our goals of having a great distance learning program. Last week, I attended a virtual conference with Educause. One of the great things about virtual conferences, is you can see most of the presentations again, or if you have a conflict, you can watch them later.

I watched this presentation live on Getting our Values Around Copyright Right, and I thought it was fantastic for a number of reasons. One, it really did help me understand how educators could use materials and question some of the ridiculous rules around 'fair use'. Secondly, it was one of the best lectures with PowerPoint that I have ever seen. Too often we dismiss PowerPoint as the death of a classroom, with little interaction or interest. Here you can see how it should be used, as an emphasis to what the presenter is showing, not a distraction or a bore. Enjoy!

InSync Training

InSync offers free online trainings through WebEx sessions. Take a look at the link and see if there is something that you find interesting. They have several sessions on adult learning, effective assessments, and e-learning. Also, if you cannot attend the live session, there are links to recordings of some of them.