Assignments and examinations have been part of the educational process from the very start. That means, so are cheating and plagiarizing.
Every institute defines plagiarism differently. It has serious consequences in educational institutes and is strictly prohibited.
Plagiarism means copying or stealing the work of others or not giving them credit for it. It can be intentional or accidental.
There are many reasons why students tend to plagiarize but the top 6 reasons are listed below. Teachers can take measurements to reduce the percentage of plagiarized assignments and exams.
Article Contents
1. Overconfidence
When a student gets away with plagiarism one time or more, he or she would think they are clever enough to trick the teacher. They become overconfident and plagiarize every time they can.
This happens when the invigilator or teacher is not paying attention. They skim read assignments. As a result, students are not caught if they plagiarize.
The reasons why the teacher cannot detect plagiarism can be laziness, no familiarity with the plagiarism or sometimes it can be by accident.
How to prevent it?
Firstly, teachers need to tell the consequences of plagiarism to students strictly. That there will be no leniency.
Warn them about plagiarism over and over again. If possible, give students references to such incidents in your institute so they will get lessons. Every teacher should perform their duty diligently. Check all the assignments deeply.
Use a plagiarism checker. This way students will get away with copying
2. Poor time management and un-organization
The next reason on this list is also very common to witness. Students procrastinate their assignments and think they will complete them tomorrow and this goes on.
They spend their time on useless hobbies and when the deadline arrives near, they panic. This causes them to plagiarize. Since they do not have enough time, they copy from others.
Sometimes they do add citations but the amount of quotes is so large that it becomes clear students put no effort into it.
Another reason is unorganized notes. Students make poor or no notes and when they finally start to work on the assignment, they make blunders. Most commonly, students add improper citations.
How to prevent it?
Students should be taught time management skills and make the most out of them. Making timetables can be helpful. To-do lists are also very common among students when it comes to time management.
While searching, students should make organized notes with proper citations. For the speedy process, the student can use an online wordpad for simultaneous research and note-taking.
3. Laziness
One of the most common reasons due to which students plagiarize is laziness. This happens due to the lack of productivity. Students know they can copy and do not work hard.
Because of laziness, they sometimes plagiarize their peers’ assignments and sometimes their own. It is unfair to those students who work hard.
How to prevent it?
Teachers should teach their students about the importance of hard work. Along with that, students should know how false the act of plagiarism is.
Students can follow productivity tips and use online tools to tackle laziness.
4. Lack of knowledge about plagiarism
Another reason why students plagiarize is that they do not know the importance of unique assignments and they are not exquisitely knowledgeable about plagiarism.
Because of this, students don’t consider plagiarism unethical. Or in the case of lack of knowledge, they don’t give much importance to citation.
How to prevent it?
As said earlier, educators should guide students about the institute’s policy about plagiarism. Some institutes consider every type of plagiarism a crime whether it’s intentional or unintentional.
In that case, students should proofread their assignments and exam papers before final submission. A plagiarism checker can be used to remove any chance of accidental plagiarism.
5. Online Learning Trends
After December 2019, when the covid pandemic started to spread on earth, the trend of online learning reached its heights. Almost all the institutes around the globe have shifted to remote institutes.
Where there are many advantages of online learning, its disadvantages cannot be ignored. The most highlighted one is plagiarism in online exams and assignments.
It is seen that students of the same course sit together and take online exams. They help each other or in other words cheat. Similarly, when students spend so much time on the net, they also use it to write assignments.
Which is not necessarily a bad thing if done rightly. But many students take it lightly and don’t pay attention to plagiarism and citation.
How to prevent it?
Since online learning is inevitable now, institutes will have to adopt measures to make online learning efficient.
To avoid the cheating process, modern technology should be used. Students should be monitored through webcams. Mics must be demanded to be turned on. To guard this process further, secure browser technology can be implemented.
6. Lack of Motivation
When new types of projects are assigned to students without any guidelines, they look for shortcuts. Students think as it is a new topic, it would be alright to copy.
They think it is obligatory to submit an assignment with lots of facts and experts’ words. They keep their ideas to themselves and fear to open up. Such students have no thinking of their own.
This happens mostly when a divergent topic is assigned to them. learners have no knowledge about it and search online. In doing so, they cite the expert words only and submit an over-cited assignment.
This way the assignment consists of material that has already been presented. It contains nothing new. Students do not think about the topic.
How to prevent it?
Like most cases, students need to be taught some lessons in this case also. Teachers should motivate students to present their own ideas. Discussion and brainstorming sessions are good techniques to boost confidence.
Conclusion
The toughest job in this process is of the educators. They need to monitor and track the progress and habits of each and every student.
Students should be taught about the importance of thinking by themselves. If they plagiarize now and get away with it, it should be kept in mind it will not happen every time.
They may get good grades by doing this, but they will not have any knowledge. This will get them in trouble in the future. Because it is not numbers that matter in the end, it is experience and knowledge.
