Student's Perception that Plagiarism is Exaggerated by Educators

Abstract

There is a large literature on academic dishonesty and plagiarism [8]. It has been identified that academic dishonesty is especially problematic in computer programming and information technology courses [5, 1]. Some attribute that the reasons why computer science and information technology seems to be more prone to academic misconduct are that assessment items often offer ideal solutions, and materials can be distributed and duplicated with ease [4, 9, 3]. In the literature, some of the justifications or conditions that push students to academic misconduct are (1) the pace of the course and finding themselves without the assumed knowledge (even if all students in the course begin with equivalent skills) [7], (2) students may feel entitled to pass [3], such sense of entitlement may be derived because of the cost of the course or the amount of effort invested [3], (3) some students display counter-productive attitudes and poor practices (apathy, laziness, poor time management) [3], (4) students’ lack of motivation or students’ belief that the course or material is irrelevant [7]. However, there seems to be no study exploring whether the students believe that the issue of plagiarism is something exaggerated by the educators. In this research, we propose to explore to what extent students believe that one in their professional roles, the emphasis on plagiarism would dissipate. Cheating and plagiarism is recognised as a global problem [10] and a major concern within Universities [10]; however, can this be attributed to the students belief that the issue is only relevant while studying? In other fields of study, such as business, the issue of plagiarism is consider relevant to professional practice [6]. However, some other suggest that plagiarism the concern is an unavoidable component of a professor occupation [2] more than anywhere else.